Tea Plantations and Little Adam’s Peak

Travel Day 1131 – Batticaloa to Ella, SRI LANKA

Batticaloa had been quite a relaxed local place where one just naturally would like to stay longer, but unfortunately it was time to move on…

View from Little Adam’s Peak in Ella

Actually I had to move on really early as all the local buses seemed to be leaving at 6am sharp and the bus station in town was at least a good half hour walk from where I stayed in Kallady. So I had a 5 am rise and left my cute room in the palm tree garden resort in complete darkness while trying to find my way into town to the shine of my weak flashlight. I couldn’t help but think that this were not quite the relaxing last days at the beach that I had hoped to have, but at this point I was simply running out of time in Sri Lanka…

Initially I wanted to continue my travels south along the coast and towards Arugam Bay, but since I had spent so much time up north, now I needed to add some reality to my schedule and cut out a few destinations. The only real must-see thing for me remained the Dutch fortress-city of Galle and so instead of travelling along the coast, or visiting some colonial hill stations, or doing trekking in one of the many national parks, I rather boarded the bus going inland towards Ella and the tea plantations…

Tea Plantations and Ella Rock

As it appeared, the bus was winding its way up into the mountains past many different tea plantations to its final destination, Badulla. From there it was possible to catch another bus to Ella, but only after a little rest and some lunch. I finally arrived in Ella, which my guide-book deemed “everyone’s favorite hill station” by the early afternoon. While it was simply amazing to see the change in landscape and feel the difference in temperature within only a few hours of driving, I really couldn’t understand why Ella would be anyone’s favorite place…

Ella appeared to me as nothing but a really expensive tourist trap that was set up at a connecting point between actual destinations. Everyone seemed to be passing though here, but staying in this faceless junction town was a really expensive experience. I ended up in the guest room of a private home, away from the road and while Ella was lacking any character, history or culture, the only thing that could be found here were a lot of tourists and I really didn’t understand for what reason…

Tea Leaves at the Plantations in Ella

For me personally Ella was just exactly in the middle between Batticaloa and Galle and while this placed seemed to have no attractions for me, at least I wanted to do what everyone talked about, visiting “Little Adam’s Peak”, the poor man’s version of the actual peak further inland. This so-called peak in Ella was just a little view-point up the hill and the one hour walk seemed to be the best thing one could do with the leftover afternoon. So I left my home-stay with a little hand drawn map, but the path was actually really easy to find and follow…

As it turned out, the walk brought me through some tea plantations and up to a point with really some nice views of the surrounding area. The landscape was maybe not as spectacular as in Nepal, but considering that a few fours ago I was still at the coast and by the sea, it was quite impressive to get a little glimpse of the diversity of this small island. Still, stopping in Ella wasn’t necessarily something I would recommend to anyone, but at least it seemed good enough for a change in scenery and to see some tea leaves from up close…