Ella - a cool mountain retreat

Us at the top of Ella Rock (photo courtesy of guide)
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After  travelling along the south coast for a couple of weeks it was time to head inland to the "hill country".  The little town of Ella sits just over 1000 metres up in the hill country and is reputed to be one of the prettiest towns in Sri Lanka with a cool mountain climate and after the heat of the south coast, this proved too tempting.

At 8am the next morning we were at the bus stop, bags packed and ready to go. The bus wasn't scheduled to leave until 8.30 but as this is Sri Lanka we were advised to get there early. Which was a good thing, as the bus arrived at 8.15 and headed off at 8.20. An important lesson was learned (again).

Simon's friendly bloodsucking leech
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The journey took us along the flat plains and then started climbing up into the hills. The landscape became lush and green and the road got steeper until we were negotiating full hair-pin bends.

The only concern we had was that the journey took us close to the border of the eastern state of Sri Lanka which was renowned for it's ongoing fighting  with the Tamil Tigers. It felt a little close for comfort, especially when at one point someone persuaded the driver to take a package on board without the owner joining it. In such an area with so many attack and bombs being planted (and buses seemed to be the place of choice to plant the bombs) it seemed stupid to accept it, but once the guy had squeezed a hundred rupee  note into the drivers hand the deal was done and we carried on.  It clearly wasn't just me and Tracey that were concerned as everyone kept staring at the package and there was definitely a tension in the air.

Tracey and our guide
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Eventually however we arrived in Ella and with a sigh of relief got off the bus, jumped into a tuk tuk and headed to our hotel. Unfortunately our fears were confirmed when we were told that while we were travelling a bus had indeed been blown up only twenty miles from where we were and twenty five people killed. This was getting too close for comfort and at this point we decided that we would take no more public buses, a great shame but a decision forced  on us.

Ella, was indeed beautiful. Perched up in the hills our hotel had stunning views across the hills and down to the lowlands. And the temperature was lovely. After settling in to our room we headed off to climb the highest peak in the area called Ella Rock.

Looking out for trains
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The 'hike' started on the train tracks for about 20 nervous minutes - we didn't know when the next train was coming but the locals we met on the tracks seemed pretty relaxed.  The next part climbed up through a tea plantation and we only had very sketchy directions from the hotel.  Luckily for us, a local appeared, took us back down the hill to where we first went wrong and then proceeded to 'guide' us all the way to the top of the mountain.  The last 100 feet involved climbing and scrabbling, but when we emerged hot and sweaty  (although our 'guide' still had his jumper on and hadn't even broken a sweat) at the top the views were incredible!  We could see all the way down the valley we'd just travelled up by bus to the plains beyond.  The journey back down was considerably quicker.

Sunset view from our hotel
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Most exciting of all, when we got back to the hotel and I pulled off my shoes and socks, my right foot was covered in blood.  Just as I was beginning to think that I needed to cut my toenails, the passing waiter pointed out the leech squirming on the floor next to my feet.  The little fella had attached itself  to one of my  toes, through my sock and had happily been gorging itelf on my blood.  We immediately texted Tracey's Dad, as being a kiwi bloke we knew he'd be impressed.  Our first ever leech experience - very exciting and one of our highlights of Sri Lanka (Tracey is still talking about it now).

Our last public bus
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Dinner at the hotel was entertaining as we chatted to two dotty English ladies, and tried to follow a conversation with a mad Dutch couple whose outrageous stories sometimes seemed like make-believe.

We were going to spend the next day tackling another local mountain, but instead found a restaurant that supposedly made good rice and curry and had a long lazy lunch instead.

Given our decision to avoid public buses, the next day we decided to take the train to our next stop - Kandy.