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Published: September 12th 2017
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Finally got a photo of the waiter/butler
Unfortunately he is in his morning attire which is not a patch on the more formal dinner uniform. Today is the second half of the Great Train Journey, this time from Nurawa Eliya to Ela, But before get ahead of ourselves, the morning.
Up early and decided to go for a run to the lake that is just out of town here but seems to be quite a local attraction. Uneventful until I got to the lake where I picked up a stray dog who proceeded to follow me all the way back to the guesthouse, probably 3.5km, running alongside me as if he was trained. Locals, including the police, who were out of force for some reason, all found this pretty amusing. I found myself plotting how I could smuggle a sausage out of breakfast to feed her Then as the effects of heat and running took hold started plotting on paying the staff at guesthouse to adopt her. Anyway the end was far less exciting, she snuck in with me when I opened gate and was promptly spotted by staff who proceeded to " shoo shoo" her out despite my suggesting we give her some water!
Breakfast again with the same eclectic mix of staff, seems they all take turns to hover, chef,
butler, manger, bell boy repeat would be an appropriate mantra!
I can happily report that after her lay day Donna is much better.
We decided since we had to head to train station late morning to stay in and have a relaxing morning.
The guest house does have lovely gardens, both vegetable and ornamental so spent some time looking at these. We also had a look through the extension they are building to add two rooms a couple of interesting observations, the first being the guy doing the window joinery made the entire units on site with a saw, chisel and plane from random pieces of timber. No router or other tools and yet the finished product was good The second interesting thing was the beds in one of the rooms had a hole in the floor to accommodated the long legs. The reson being they were antique beds that would normally be about four foot off the ground and while the owner wanted them to be normal height he equally didn't want to cut the legs down. Unusual!
Marie and Donna spoke to the chef and organised scones and tea in the garden before we
left. Rather decadent but lovely sitting in this big garden with scones and tea and imagining a hundred years ago the colonials doing exactly the same but perhaps with a game of croquet thrown in?
Van to train station and unsurprisingly the train is late. Seems the only train on time is the first one of the day.
Had a look in the stationmasters office (see pictures) while waiting and the very manual, but equally efficient system to ensure only one train is on each piece of line at any time. All looked probably 100 years old but frankly it works so why change.
Finally on the train and the trusty pocket knife came out and we opened a door on each side much to the interest of other passengers who thought they were locked. Again a really spectacular trip and was great sitting in the doorway with legs dangling out. This really is a feature Kiwi Rail needs to look at more closely for its trains!
Arrive in Ela at about 3.30pm just as the mist rises up the valley. Our guest house is high on the hillside and quite spectacular watching the surounding hills
being slowly enveloped in the mist until the view was totally gone.
Rain set in so we tuk tuked in to the town for dinner. Good meal at a very hip place, there was a minor misunderstanding with the waiter the resulted in a bit too much beer but there are worse problems.
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