India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Days 58 to 62 - Kandy to Ruwan Eliya, Sri Lanka

 

On our Explore tour bus

Day 59 cont

The dance performance was quite good, though it is always hard to look enthusiastic when you do the same performance every day in the village hall. We did all feel drummer number 3 could try harder not to look so miserable though.

Drummer number 3 is the one on the left (or did I need to write that?)

George had organised us a meal afterwards which had an amazing view and a really uninspiring menu. Grilled fish, grilled chicken and pasta with meat or without. The grilled chicken and grilled fish were actually both very good, simple but tasty. I don't think Sri Lankan cuisine is inspiring any of us!

A meal with a view! LtoR: Lucie, Robena, Grant, Brian, Jackie, Richelle, Catherine and Peter

Day 60

An easy day. A visit to the tea factory, though how only our group got sent out to actually pick tea I'm not sure. Don't think I'm boasting, but I picked the most, not that I'm planning a new career. It is jolly hard work as they do still do it the traditional way with the baskets hung from their foreheads. Brian enjoyed the visit, mostly because he could bore (sorry chat) with Peter about the motors that he used to sell.

At the tea plantation being instructed on how to pick tea

It was an easy day, though we are all glad that we didn't have to do the drive on the wiggly windy road to the base of Adam's Peak. We knew this was the hike of the trip, but we didn't know about the hike up to the rooms. Four flights to the restaurant and then a good 5 minutes of steps to the rooms! Treat it as training!

Peter showing us how not to do it (has he got my hat on?)

Day 61

Adam's Peak 2240m, 1000m of ascent 11.6km and many many steps. There is meant to be a footprint of Buddha at the top so it is a huge pilgrimage site seemingly at all times of the day and night. Our aim was to be there for sunrise so we set off at 01.30. We were Brian and I, Richelle and Grant and Robena, with George and a second guide. 

Jackie showing us how to do it

Very impressed that Lucie walked down all the many steps, in her dressing gown to wave us off at that hour, Definitely above and beyond. It was a slog, there is no getting away from it and all up stairs which was hard enough on the way up, but a killer on the knees on the way down. We are aware it is a pilgrimage site but were not expecting so many people to be coming down as we were going up, or so many people in flip flops or so many children! Robena was fairly certain she wouldn't make it to the top so we quickly split into two groups with her and George bringing up the rear. We weren't sure about Prasad, the second guide but once it was the four of us and him he became a lot more chatty. 

OK, so you picked more than me

He says he's been up more than 2000 times, and occasionally 3 times a day. As we approached the top the crowds got thicker and slower which is what we had been afraid of. Apparently if we'd been doing it on Friday the queue for the top was 4km, more than half of the official walk. Prasad knew a long (not short) cut which Brian had spotted on the map so we went that way, it was much more uneven, but we saw no-one and it brought us up the less popular side. It was still very busy when we got to the top as we picked our way through people sitting and sleeping all over the steps and suddenly Prasad was on a mission. Shoes off, up here, see the footprint, over here, ring the bell, back through here, shoes back on and follow me. Brian managed to sneak in one illegal photograph and off we went. It was only 05.15 with sunrise not for another hour so we weren't sure why we'd dashed through, till he told us it shuts at 05.30 for 2 hours. That makes sense then.

But at least I did better than Peter!

He seemed to be going down quite a lot but did stop at a prime sunrise viewing spot. We were very pleased to see George come past, and then Robena, looking like we all felt but so close, she was going to get to the top! Sunrise was good and we were thinking to set off, but we had Prasads bag and he had taken a call and dashed off. I managed to contact George who had lost Robena but came to take Prasads bag, while he searches and we went down.

Inside the tea factory. See that blue gearmotor on the left? I used to sell those!

Down was almost as hard as up, our knees are going to know about it for a while, so as much as we missed Catherine it was the right decision for her not to come as she is recovering from an injury and suffered after our other two stepped ascents. We didn't stop, though none of us could keep up with Richelle who had sharpened her elbows and was vaulting the central barrier to avoid the grannies and babies, except to regroup. Once we had 'finished' the walk the walk out to the hotel seemed interminable it went all swear it had stretched. We made it to the hotel and up to the restaurant for a really uninspiring breakfast before crawling up to our rooms for a shower. We came down to find that Robena was back but had been brought breakfast in reception before being given a shower on the first floor.

Tasting the tea afterwards

It has to be said, I don't think anyone actually enjoyed it, it wasn't that sort of a walk, but there was a certain amount of pride in finishing. There's a Relive video of the route with a few more photos: click here

The different types of tea for sampling. The Golden and Silver tips were the most expensive, BOPF is English breakfast tea and the dust goes into tea bags. We tried the silver tips, which was nothing special and not worth the money, BOPF was just normal tea for us. We did notice that no-one asked to sample the dust

That was really it for the day, we stopped at a mock castle for lunch which was good for the look, but not for the food. There is a suggestion that Karma was out for the illegal photograph, the fish and chips that Brian and 4 others wanted was off. Then the chocolate eclairs were off, and then the chocolate ice-cream for the milkshake was off. It was a fairly disappointing lunch!!

We drove along a mountain road through superb scenery and had a brief stop to look at this waterfall

The hotel when we arrived, called the Blackpool hotel however was lovely, up in the hills, no AC, just a fan, and a blanket, not just a sheet, so a lovely temperature. I think we all slept like logs after a couple of well deserved beers.

But when I zoomed in it reveals people with ropes strung across the top. They look like they are either climbing or setting up a zip line or abseil ropes. Looks quite exciting

Day 62

A really late start, luggage out at 10.15! We'd woken before 6 but the light had been off by 21.30 so that's fine. Breakfast and then a little amble. We walked up to the little view point over the tea plantation that reception had recommended, though we nearly didn't make it as a young black and white cat came miaowing down the path wanting fuss and more fuss. Purring as soon as I touched him. Not wanting to be left he followed me up the path, over the road and even up onto the viewing platform though he was a little unsure about the guys painting it so didn't stay for long. I was very happy. There's a little Relive of this too: click here

In to Rowan Eliya or Little England for an old person's coach ride past buildings they think look British. A little fruit tasting in the market and lunch in an expensive food court before the main activity for the day. 

And then another stop when our target for tomorrow (or rather later tonight) came into view. That's Adams Peak. Looks quite hard doesn't it

This main activity is a scenic train ride which has been really touch and go as someone forgot to buy the tickets. There was going to be real trouble if this didn't happen, Richelle was on the case. We finally had confirmation it is happening but with some of us in second class and some in third. It's also late, 14.30 became 15.00 became 15.30 so nine arch bridge, the 'main attraction ' is going to be in the dark!

George had warned us that the majority of people would get off at Ella, the stop before 9 Arch Bridge, and so they did, this allowed us to have a seat to ourselves, hanging out of the window, and Brian hanging out of the door. Amazingly it was still daylight as we seemed to do the trip in an hour less than expected which was obviously is great for us, and for all the people who were waiting to watch us pass by. We felt like royalty.

We had a nice room at the foot of Adam's Peak, but it was up a huge flight of concrete steps to get here

Another hotel we are barely going to see, but this one is special, we have swallows nesting right outside our door. I just hope they keep all the mosquitos away 

So this is 1:30am and we're gathered outside ready to start the climb. Lucie is there on the step, she'd decided not to do it but got up to see us off. Why she walked the big walk down I don't know. That's the hotel with our tour bus parked up alongside. The light up high on the right is the restaurant, our room was about three or four times higher than that. It really was a long way

Here's the walking team, Robena, Jackie, Richelle, Grant and Brian. George also did it along with a local mountain guide 

It is a pilgrimage route, so we passed a few Buddhist things, here's some monk and Buddha statues  

This is pretty much what it was like the whole way. Lots of people going up and coming down, occasional lights which threw odd shadows on the steps, so you had to be alert the whole time. The steps were not even, some were shallow others were nearly knee height and some were half a shoe width wide. There you can see Jackie on the right in purple, Richelle in white next to her, Grant in front in white with a black ruck sack and Prasad, our guide, with the red ruck sack by Grant

We'd already done a long distance and a lot of steps as we passed over this bridge, but the main ascent is now ahead of us. Prasad is on the left, Grant, Richelle and Jackie. Robena had dropped behind with George by this point

A brief stop on the way

Another brief stop. See the red barrier in the centre? Right side is supposed to be for going up, left for coming down. But it became optional as stepping over to avoid crowds became usual

The lights down there is the town we came from. It's a long climb!

My illegally taken photograph. We were in bare feet at the time inside the temple and this is the highest point. Inside that room is Buddhas footprint (or so we're told, except it was covered up). I know there were big signs saying no photographs but there was no way I wasn't taking a summit photograph, so I sneaked my camera out, concealed it while I turned it and pointed it. At this point Jackie said in a loud voice 'no photographs' and Prasad looked round and repeated it, so I took a quick photo and said 'sorry, I didn't realise'. Fancy being grassed up by your wife!

Now we've got a long wait until  sunrise. It's only just past 5:30am at this point and sunrise is 6:15. We stood and got colder, so we put our duvet jackets on. 

I, along with everyone else, nearly filled up a memory card with various stages of this sunrise just to fill in time, but this was the point the earth turned to allow the sun to peek out over the horizon. Everywhere was filled with light, the birds started their dawn chorus and appeared from the night time sleeping trees by suddenly flying out around us, we could see the path down and, in short time, the temperature began climbing. Duvet jackets off and we started the descent along with thousands of others 

Walking down we could now see things and it looked fabulous

Looking back we could see what we'd just climbed and see a lot more people on their way up

And, back down, we're able to see what we've done. We'd walked up from the bottom right and you may be able to see a faint diagonal line rising up to a shoulder on the left. The path then goes round the back and finished up at the temple on the top. We actually left the main path and traversed around from left to right somewhere near the top and got to the top from the right hand side

This is a zoomed in shot and you can see the path snaking up. What a day it was!

Tea pickers working away in a field

This was inside the mock castle lunch stop. I didn't take a photo outside but this was a really interesting spiral staircase inside one of the 'turrets' 

Our very nice hotel room complete with stone fireplace and an interesting window into the bathroom! Fortunately there was a blind to pull down

We went out for a bit of an amble the next day and saw some more tea pickers. Very different from how they do it in India. Here they hand pick, in India they use shears and are also experimenting with battery driven cutters. Not here, all hand picked

It was here that Jackie found her little friend who then wouldn't leave her alone

While I walked up onto this viewing platform that was being painted

Jackie followed me up the stairs closely followed by the cat for more fuss

There she was still fussing the cat and down there is our lovely hotel with the green roofs

Now she's picked it up - are we ever going to get away?

This was this morning and we're walking round the town called Little England. It has a horse racing track and 18 hole golf course and a park called Victoria Park. And here is little and large. George is on the right, Grant is on the left

Many buildings are in an old English style, this one is the Post Office

Complete with old style English post box

And this is where we had lunch (and did some shopping). This has been carved from one lump of wood

Arriving at Nanu-Oya railway station for our scenic train journey over nine arch bridge on the old British built railway 

There's a few people there and its only 1:30pm

I called people for a photograph, but no-one took a blind bit of notice except Peter

The old dog looks comfy there, but he's going to have to watch his paw when the train arrives

George gathers us also together for instructions. 

He's managed to get us special entry into the station masters office and here he is in front of his big desk

Why hadn't he got his hat on? Because Jackie had it on. But look what's in front of her. That red box is the old British mechanical system for preventing crashed on railways by ensuring only one train can be on a section of track at any time

Train drivers must be in possession of one of these. It is given to the station master when he has
completed that section. Without one of these he can't go

The signal that there's a train on the line

With time to kill we wandered around. Isn't that a VW campervan on rails?

No concrete sleepers and pre-stressed rails here, its the old short sections bolted together on wooden sleepers

And the good old fashioned mechanical points system. Yes, I'm walking on the railway tracks here and I didn't get shouted at!

I wanted to have a look at the old turntable drive

Here comes the train, an old diesel engine

Quite nice in second class, a pity the others had to be in third class

Off we go then. Is that a pair of legs sticking out of the train?

We rush by some splendid scenery on the way

See the mobile phone mast heavily disguised as a tree?

There are definitely people hanging outside the speeding train. Zoom in on this one and have a look

Better get in before we go into that tunnel though

Surely it can only be a matter of time before someone falls out or gets hit by something

Now its her turn

Look at these dogs patiently sitting on the platform hoping someone might feed them

It rained at one point, very heavily and then the sun started to shine through the clouds

But then soon people were  at it again

Turning round the other way I realised it was going on behind as well

This was the best one I got. This train is moving at quite a speed, it isn't stationary!

The train stopped at Ella where most people got off and we had the carriage to ourselves, so here's Peter, Grant and Jackie looking out while I hung out of an open door a guard had opened for me to see nine arch bridge

And here is nine arch bridge. The British originally intended to build it in metal, but as war was about to break out in Europe, steel was needed for the war effort so it was built in stone instead. Look at the crowds

Just going over it, there's Jackie waving

This is a video Grant took as we went over the bridge. The very amusing thing about this was that he didn't realise he was filming the bridge. He was trying to take video of us leaning out the window and apologised he missed us. I think he felt a bit silly when we pointed out that he got a great video without realising

Finally off the train we had to wait by the platform for the train to travel round in a giant spiral and back underneath us in order to make a steep descent without exceeding the safe slope of a railway

This is a little model that shows how it does that

We had to be very quiet as we entered our room tonight as these little birds are nesting right outside our bedroom door