Ella

In the Sinhalese language, Ella means waterfall and there is no shortage of them in this area.  Later today, we will hike to one. 

On day one of our brief stay here, we hiked to Little Adam’s Peak which offers incredible views of the valley, surrounding mountains and tea plantations below.  There is no shortage of tea plantations in this area either with big name companies having thousands of acres.  Tea is big business and it is everywhere – in some plantations the plants are hanging off the sides of mountains at what seems like impossible angles.   Beautiful!



Little Adam's Peak from the Top

A Tea Picker

 

Tea Plantation and Ella Rock in Background



A Sculpture by Hikers at the Top with Our Stones Added

View of Ella Rock from Little Adam's Peak

Our guest house was, of course, impossible to find but our driver was determined to get us to the door despite the warnings that you could not drive there.  The ‘road’ was a very small one-lane affair, paved in some areas and dirt and rocks in others.  We went forward, asked directions, backed up, asked directions, turned down even smaller paths and asked directions while backing up.  It was insane and, at this point, Paulette and I were holding on and sure we would back over the edge and end up at the bottom of the valley.  But our driver prevailed and delivered us almost to the door.  Way to go Jehanta!

This place is really more of a home stay, run by the delightful Raveena family.  Meals are served outside overlooking the valley and Ella Rock.  Mornings are cold and evenings are nice with great sunsets and bats coming out as it gets dark.  We have eaten breakfast and dinner here and the food is outstanding Sri Lankan fare – curries, rice, dahl, papadan.  Good thing we like it because the shortcut into town is on a lovely little forest walk across a couple bridges over small waterfalls, over rocks, up some irregular stairs and, while easy during the day, could be pretty scary in the dark.

Today for breakfast we tried a Sri Lankan breakfast of hoppers (sort of a very thin bowl-shaped tortilla that’s fried and yummy), egg and sautéed vegetables along with fruit and tea before heading off on a hike.  We started out for Ella Rock but didn’t make it that far.  It’s a long and steep hike, so we made it to a beautiful waterfall after walking about two miles on train tracks.  This is, believe it or not, the directions for how to get to Ella Rock and the waterfall!  After having lunch in town Paulette and I had Ayurvedic massages which were wonderful, relaxing, rejuvenating and oily. 

The Train, the Tracks, The People, The Sign



The Waterfall!

Off to Udawalawe tomorrow in search of wild elephants.  Yay!