Next stop after Udawalawe was the lovely Ella in the hill country. We’d heard loads about Ella, it was supposed to be a really relaxed spot high up in the tea plantations with lots of hikes and beautiful views. We caught the bus to Ella right outside our guesthouse in Udawalawe which was great. The road to Ella is one of most winding beautiful roads. It’s not for the faint hearted. Having said that it was really lovely.
We had pre-booked accommodation in Ella in a place called Eeshani guest house. Our guest house owner in Udawalawe had recommended it.
Eeshani is more like a home stay than a guest house, it’s run by a lovely older couple in their 70’s and their son. If you like your privacy, ask for one of the outside new rooms when booking. Our room was right off their main living room. We actually quite liked that though, you got a real feel of Sri Lankan life and really got to know the family. The Granny likes her soap operas, they seemed very dramatic although we couldn’t understand a word. We had a standard room with 2 double beds and an en suite bathroom for 4,500 rupee (€30).
The girls loved it in Eeshani, they have teddy bears all around the living room which were constantly being moved by our crew and played with. The granny never seemed to mind though. And they had lovely manicured gardens which the girlies loved running through. We loved staying there. It was in lovely peaceful quiet area but just a 2 minute walk to the centre of things.
When we arrived in Eeshani the granny offered us a pot of tea on the balcony. I don’t think we’ve mentioned the tea in Sri Lanka yet, it’s delicious. They serve it with hot milk or black with sugar, both equally delicious. And it’s served in old fashioned cups and saucers. All very civilised :-). We had it out on the balcony which was one of our favourite spots to sit.
We had a delicious breakfast there on our 2nd morning which consisted of omelettes, toast, homemade jam (wood apple or mixed fruit – both delicious!), hoppers and of course a big pot of tea. Think it worked out about 400 rupee each (about €2.50). We didn’t order it other mornings, we thought we could get cheaper elsewhere. You can, but in hindsight I think it’s much nicer to just wake up and have breakfast where you are. Definitely when you’re travelling with little people who need to get food into them quickly before meltdown sets in. Little people and Moms :-).
Ella is a really lovely little town, there’s something very chilled and calming about it. It was one of our favourite spots in Sri Lanka, definitely a welcome calm after the madness of some Sri Lankan cities. We could easily have stayed longer. There are plenty of good food options in Ella, one of our favourites was a backpacker haunt called Cafe Chill. Chill was one of those places that just got it right, delicious food, great service and a really nice vibe to it. It was the kindof place that just worked, the kind of place you didn’t want to leave.
We went for a walk that afternoon up a peak called “Little Adams Peak”. It’s a smashing, very doable walk through the middle of the tea plantations. It’s about 4.5km in total and takes about 45mins each way. There’s a clear path the whole way up so it’s easy with kids and it ends with a series of steps to the peak and the views.
Along the way, you’ll meet many of the Tamil tea pickers and their families. They’re actually Indian Tamils. These ladies carry the bags of tea leaves (literally leaves, not the little tea bags you make your favourite cuppa out of) on their heads. It’s a strap over their heads with the bag hanging down their backs. Pretty clever really, it means both hands are free for picking the leaves and then they just throw them over their shoulders where they get caught in the bags. They can carry bags of 15-20 kg this way. To put that in perspective, our 3 year old weighs 15 kg so it’s be like having her swinging off your head down your back. Ro can probably appreciate that as she’s usually positioned on his shoulders!
The tea pickers are all petite tiny ladies not much taller than Freya, our 7 years old. Petite but strong!
One thing which we found a bit depressing was where the tea pickers live. They live up in the plantations in these kindof ramshackle villages with homes made from various bits and pieces with tin rooves. It all looked a bit sad to us but all the families we met seemed to be very happy so I guess they were content with their lot. It just looked like they worked very hard for little reward so we could sit and relax over our favourite cuppa.
The views from the top of little Adam peak were smashing. Views of rolling hills of tea plantations, rivers, waterfalls and winding roads. You could easily sit at the top soaking it all in for ages if you didn’t have 3 little people going “can we go get cake now”. They were bribed with cake to get them up ;-).
From the peak we saw the much higher challenge that is Ella rock and decided that was definitely one for the next day….
