Radinja10

Ella is a town that makes the most of its assets. Posters around the town promote the main attractions and are sponsored by the Auto Drivers Association. Basically there are five of these. One is the Ravanna Falls which we visited on the way in, another is a tea garden an hour's walk away, a third is a railway viaduct called 'Nine Arch Bridge', fourth is a Spice Garden and finally comes Little Adam's Peak. There is a bigger Adam's Peak somewhere else in Sri Lanka but it is not on our itinerary. We rise at six thirty and get our walking gear on. It is light but the sun is hidden behind the mountains. Our route follows an undulating track through the tea gardens to the foot of the stairs leading up to the peak. These have been concreted but whoever did it didn't have a clue about evening out the height of individual steps. Part way up is the top station of an 800 metre zip wire. It is priced at 2.5 US cents per metre. They also offer abseiling and an air r...

No alarm this morning and we sleep in until seven when the racket in the trees around the hotel wakes us. We take one more trip down to the tank to see if the Paradise Flycatcher will grace us with his presence but no luck. There are several Kingfishers and at least seven Night Herons, more in one place than we have seen in eight trips to India combined. A couple of Japanese chaps appear toting cameras with lenses that could give a chap an inferiority complex. When they tell us that Paradise Flycatchers are tuppence a dozen in the garden of their hotel we decide to call time. This is our first chance to sample a Blue Turtle breakfast. Unsurprisingly R is very taken with a fruit that appears in the fruit platter called soursop. D's preference is for the homemade banana jam. We have been delighted with our stay here. The place is well maintained with cheerful, well trained staff and good facilities. The garden is a splendour of colourful flowers and insects, with interesting ...

Our 5 am pick up is waiting at the gate and driver Chaminda greets us warmly. We have the gypsy to ourselves this morning and have less distance to travel. The driving is much more sedate this time and before too long we turn into the Bundala National Park access road where we pull up. We are just over the road from a temple and less than a hundred yards from another. The two seem to be in a volume contest and the cacophony is immense. Regular readers may recall that we are very definitely against mixing religion and amplification, particular in the hours before dawn. The sky lightens and we move along the single track road away from habitation. A few other gypsies have joined us but there is nothing like the mêlée of yesterday morning. At the gate we are joined by a chap who introduces himself as a volunteer guide, and whose name escapes both of us. Our first stop gives us a view over an area of marshy looking ground towards a small lake. The sun is just creeping over the hor...

Tissamaharama is famous mainly for being a place to stay while visiting the region's National Parks. That is why we are here. The alarm wakes us at 4 am and we grab a cup of tea as we dress. The instruction is to be at the hotel gate at 04.30 ready to be picked up for our Yala NP Safari. Only a few minutes late a small truck with tiered seating on the back pulls up. In India these are known as gypsies. Two ladies are already on board and Srimat, the driver/guide says there are two more to collect. Once this is done we set off on a hair raising ride through the darkness. Our man is Fangio with four wheel drive and is determined to be the fastest thing on the road. His approach to speed bumps is to take a run at them, while the white lines are for the guidance of mere mortals. The reason for the haste is that only a certain number of trucks are allowed into each sector. We fly past dozens of other gypsies and are only challenged in the last couple of miles when an even crazier guy ...

R is determined to get the table under the fan for breakfast, so much so that we arrive before any of the tables have been set. Breakfast is the same again and still good, accompanied by copious quantities of tea. We pack at leisure and await our driver who manages to get lost, eventually arriving 15 minutes. Good practice for Indian Time. We are given the option of paying 200 rupees extra to use the Expressway and opt in. This gives us 30 minutes of hassle free motoring until we reach the cones that steer us off. The road ahead looks to be 99.9% finished but the latest forecast opening is April. That would have cut today's journey down to under 2 hours. They are also building a railway out towards and beyond our destination. We saw no evidence on our trip today. There is lots to look at including some very ropey driving practices. R gets to see lots of birds. We arrive at Tissamaharama just after lunch time and check in to the Blue Turtle Hotel. Our room is on the first floo...