Ella – Mind the gap
The train journey from Kandy to Ella, further East, is beautiful. It’s funny, you’d think after a while of being surrounded all the time be completely stunning scenery, the effect would wear off, but it just doesn’t happen. I took another million photos from the train, including some from when we went through a cloud as we got really high up. I loved it. Apart from that, the train ride was quite uneventful, which was just perfect – I had my nose in a new book most of the way (nothing changes!)
Although beautiful, the journey was long, over 7 hours, and I was glad to have my bag of fruit from my Sigiriya friend. This included the new (to me) and rather scrumptious guava, which is candyfloss pink, shaped like a pear, and has a perfumed taste similar, I suppose, to a cucumber. We arrived at Ella’s small, quaint station that looked like something out of ‘The Railway Children’ late in the afternoon. At Kandy station I got talking to a lovely Dutch girl, Anna, who I recognised from Pinnewala. We decided to find a room together as it’s much cheaper than getting two singles. This was fine until I woke up in the middle of the night, for some reason thought I was still in Bangalore (maybe because we’d been talking about it just before we fell asleep), and thought “Oh my god, there’s someone in my room”. Fortunately, before I threw my shoe at Anna, I remembered where I was. Lucky escape (for both of us, I reckon she’d have given as good as she got!).
The next morning, we were both up early, having slept like the proverbial logs in Ella’s peaceful night air. We had a stonkingly huge breakfast at the guesthouse, then set off early on one of the walks for which Ella is famous. It’s set in a valley with truly spectacular views, called the Ella Gap, down which they say, on a clear day, you can see the ocean. No such luck for us, as it was quite hazy, but gorgeous and relaxing nontheless. The peace and lack of hassle made it my favourite place in Sri Lanka so far.
The first walk was out to a place called Little Adam’s Peak. The big Adam’s Peak is a famous mountain here. I wish I was the kind of person who had the inclination to climb it, but the truth is, I’m really not. So in the future, if anyone asks me whether I climbed Adam’s Peak, I will nod, not mention that it was the little one (so it doesn’t count as a lie, right?), say that I found it a breeze, and move the conversation on to Chantelle and Preston’s engagement. It was a great walk for a novice like me, through tea plantations, and children shouting “Hello, pen” (lots of people give them pens as little gifts, but I haven’t managed to steal any pens so far except for the two that were given to me by my pals in Bangalore, so I’m not giving any away). We nattered all the way up, nattered all the time we stopped at the top, and all the way down again, so it’s no wonder we were starving at lunchtime, we’d used all our energy walking and talking.
We had yet another huge meal at the Beauty Mount Guesthouse, where we were staying, and set out in the afternoon for Dunhedin Falls. The guidebook said that the path to it was ‘rocky in places’. What it should have said is ‘Bring your walking boots, your crampons, and your Sherpa’. It was a real scramble – not made any better by the elegant Sri Lankan ladies doing it with seemingly no effort in dainty sandals. But the view at the end was worth it, it was a beautiful spot, and the waterfall was amazing. Anna is a serious photographer, so she was helping me take some excellent photos (I can say that, as the credit should go to her and not me), so I will warn you in advance – when I upload my Sri Lanka photos, there will be a third split between countryside/elephants/waterfall.
After (you’ve guessed it) another huge meal, we fell into bed, exhausted, happy, full. We both had early starts the next morning – Anna was heading back towards Kandy, whereas I was going south to make the most of the sunshine.
Tags: Sri Lanka, Travel
Suzanne