Advertisement
Published: December 11th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Tea Country
Good roads, not much traffic, beautiful countryside, wonderful views - even in the overcast Note: if you double click on any of the pictures you will be transferred to the picture gallery where they will be enlarged to half page size.
Thursday 5
th December: an early start for us, setting off from the Hotel Suisse at 8.15am as the drive to our next hotel on the south coast of the island was expected to take around 10 hours. Getting out of Kandy was relatively quick and painless. We followed the same road we had taken to the Elephant Orphanage then turned off to head south into the higher areas of the central mountain range. Happily the volume of traffic, and in particular the bullying buses and crazy tuk tuks, lessened and we were left to enjoy the good quality roads and ever improving views as we climbed higher and higher into the mountains. Our first stop was a spotlessly clean rest room operated by on of the major insurance companies as a perk for their policyholders – of which Diya was one. A genuine convenience: though not a public one. Around 10am we stopped off at a hotel called the Tea Bush which provided stunning views of the two nearby cataracts known as the
Waterfalls
The Ramboda Waterfalls, a 100m/300 ft cataract Ramboda Falls. After viewing the falls and valley below, and enjoying a fresh fruit juice, we continued on up to the town of Nuwara Eliya (pronounced Noor Elia), which at 1893 meters / 6210 feet is the highest town in Sri Lanka. This town was created by the British in the 1820s and 1830s, and in large part for the British as it’s temperate climate provided welcome relief from the heat of the coastal regions. As a proper Victorian Town it had a golf course (still in use and in good condition): a horse racing track (run down but still used occasionally), a boating lake and, naturally, a Victoria Park. The Brits also introduced European vegetables and the town is now a flourishing market gardening centre producing turnips: swedes, radishes, cabbages and (in vast quantities) leekes. It’s a popular tourist destination for Sri Lankans and, according to Diya, especially those who want a flavour of British life including our weather without the expense of flying to the UK. It’s a something of a Llandrindod Wells in the middle of the island (Llandrindod Wells being a small Victorian spa town in deepest mid Wales). After Nuwara Eliya we continued heading south
Waterfalls 2
Same waterfall (on the left), hills. padi fields, misty mountains and lakes. In clear weather the view must be spectacular. east through the mountains to Bandarawela and had lunch at the Bandarawela Hotel, which in colonial times was Planter’s Club dating back to 1893: and seemingly not changed much since. Then on to Ella and down a steep and winding road past a very large and spectacular cataract called the Rawana Ella Falls. Soon afterwards the road came out on to the plain leading all the way to the coast and we picked up some of the time that we had lost in the mountains. The countryside was flat and mostly padi fields but it became quite scrubby as we neared the coast. We made one final stop in Tissamaharama to buy a couple of umbrellas as Diya had inadvertently left his behind at one of our stops, and the damp weather showed no sign of letting up. For the entire first week of our stay a tropical cyclone had been more or less stationary in the Bay of Bengal east of Sri Lanka and had produced the overcast and damp weather conditions that we experienced. Then it was a relatively fast journey to the coast and along an increasing narrow road which turned into a graded track that led
Cantilivered hotel
The Tea Bush Hotel apparently glued to the side of the hill but positioned so that it has great views of two magnificent waterfalls: the valley, lake and mountains. They also serve very nice fruit juice to go with the views from their balconies and dining room. finally to our hotel, the Laya Safari Hotel, on the beach; arriving there at just after 6pm as dusk was falling. A long day, wet in parts and mostly overcast, but nevertheless providing us with interesting places to look at and some very spectacular scenery
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0403s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb