Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We left Mirissa in brilliant sunshine - looked like we were leaving the best weather behind. We hopped a tuk-tuk into the next big town Matra and started to look for a bus going to the hills. The only bus we could get was going a slightly indirect route but we got on. It turned out to be the journey from hell. It was overcrowded - we had seats but as I was in the aisle, I had people falling all over me. Between me and Fran, a little Sri Lankan had sat down - he must have had the sharpest elbows going - I think he practiced his technique on the 7:15 to Charing Cross. It was also very hot and smelly. 5 hours latter we arrived at Bandarawela to then transfer to another little bus to get us to our final destination - Haputale. Haputale is a really scruffy little town but it does have some of the best views in the hill country. When we got to our guest house we found we had some of these views from our bedroom - they were spectacular looking over a ridge to the south coast.
The next day we were up early as we planned to go to Liptons seat. This is a hill at the end of a ridge with 360 degree views all around. It got it's name from Sir Thomas Lipton (of the tea and grocery fame), he sat up there every day according to legend admiring his empire as he owned all the tea estates for miles around.. To see it at it's best we got up early and set off at 6:30 in a tuk-tuk. The journey took us into the hills past tea factories and the pickers houses (shanties really). The road climbed and climbed and dropped us about a mile from the top. From there it was a walk up to see a really spectacular view, you could see almost to the coast some 50km away. We arrived just as the sun was burning off the cloud below us. We stopped there to have our packed breakfast (cheese and tomato sandwich - the Sri Lankans aren't big on breakfast). We the walked back down through the tea estates for about 7 km - we were that early the pickers had only just started work. We ended up at the tea factory that Lipton had built - the machinery (what there was of it) looked as it was the same era. Although I think some of it was replaced in the 1960's.
We came out of the factory at about 10:30 to find the whole area shrouded in low cloud. The bus back to Haputale fought its way through the mist where we found the whole area was in cloud, The cloud turned to rain and we found out there is nothing to do here when it rains as you can't see anything.
The rain abated so we went for another walk. This took us along an escarpment to another hotel. We then had to abandon this walk as the rain and mist came down again. On the way back, we were walking parallel with the railway when we saw the funniest sight of the holiday. The slow train to Kandy came along it and behind it, being pulled by a rope was a hand car complete with 2 Sri Lankans sitting on it holding umbrellas. I was not quick enough with my camera as it would have made a wonderful photo.
- comments