Day 110 Belihul Oya, Haputale, Ella (Sri Lanka)

Day 110 – Hers.

I couldn’t stand tossing and turning to the thunder of the river rapids anymore, so got up at 6 and sat on the balcony watching the wildlife and the locals going about their early morning chores.  I managed to see a yellow bulbit – one of the birds we were looking for yesterday – winging its way down stream and several of the brightly coloured dragonflies that we have become so used to.  We breakfasted at 8:00 and then went on a short nature walk – just an hour and a half through the village and paddy fields – to work out any remaining stiffness from yesterday’s marathon.  We saw trees of breadfruit and jackfruit, that little plant –mimosa?- that closes its leaves when you touch it and a huge ironwood tree, as well as villagers working in the terraced paddy fields, all greeting us as we walked by.  We had been warned that the walk could be muddy – but the only one who actually fell into the mud was, of course, our accident prone Aussie friend....

An hour to shower and pack and an hour on the bus to Haputale where we bought delicious samosas from a street vendor and boarded the goods train – yes, goods train (with two old passenger carriages at the end) – for Ella.  Deva told us that in the nine years he has been leading this tour, the train has never been on time – but today it was.......though in order to make up for this unprecedented occurrence, it waited 20 minutes in the station before it left.   We bumped along on wooden benches, surrounded by Sri Lankan families on outings and a few other tourists, through beautiful mountain scenery.  (Several of the crazier members of the group – Rob included – hung out of the open doors for part of the journey....but I’ll let him tell you about that.)  I sat next to a young Taiwanese woman who told me that the countryside was very similar to that of Taiwan.  We compared travel experiences of China, Cambodia and Sri Lanka – and then made faces at the little Sri Lankan baby sitting with his father opposite us, making him laugh – and chatted with another Sri Lankan family, telling them that they must be proud of their beautiful and friendly country.

Day 110 – His.

 

The train we got had no doors and no windows and we were allowed to hang off the carriage as it sped along. It was so cool and there was no way they would let you do such a thing in the UK. Health and safety gone mad! The passenger car was an after thought tagged onto the bi-daily gods train that chugs its way through the mountain country here and it rarely gets over 30kmph, So, lots of fun and very little danger though i did feel a bit like one of those dogs you see with its head out of a car window and its tongue lolling out. The journey took an hour and a half and I wouldn’t have missed for the world.

 

Ella is a tiny tourist stop famous for its views of the surrounding mountains and spectacular waterfalls – neither of which we saw as it was just too foggy. The chill night will certainly help us sleep – so, silver linings and clouds!

Pretty much all we did here was arrive at our hotel, play cricket and go out for dinner. The group we are with though is composed of excellent characters – so even such simple things turn out to be fun – How true it is that these kind of holidays are made of three things – the place, the local guide and the group one is with. We have only spent a few days with these guys but I think we are going to miss them – so unlike the drunks of the last part of the last trip.