Sri Lanka: One day in Ella

Ella is a quaint hill station in Sri Lanka and in the tea growing region around Nuwara Eliya. We reached Ella at night on March 6. We set out to trek Little Adam's Peak early the next morning at 4:30 a.m. to catch sunrise on the peak.

Little Adam's Peak at Sunrise

 A view of the Milky way just before Sunrise.

 The sleepy town of Ella with the pre-dawn light filtering through.

 Litte Adam's Peak as the sun rises.

Let sleeping dogs lie. I don't know why dogs tend to accompany humans along any trek to the hills. To me, they seem to give a sense of comfort and guide people along the trail for no known reason other than the companionship.

 A view from Little Adam's Peak.

The colors of dawn from Little Adam's Peak.

 Nine arch bridge constructed in the British colonial era in 1921 between two mountains in Ella. The 300 feet long bridge is still operational, and the train to Baidulla passes along this route.

 I just had to take a photo of this weird restaurant called the UFO!

Ravana Waterfalls

 Another view of Ravana Waterfalls gushing down.

 Around 28 tourists have died while enthusiastically climbing the rocks to ascend the waterfalls. I briefly considered whether I wanted to be the 29th. The tuk-tuk was waiting and I decided this was no time to die since we had a lot more places to visit.

 The Uva Halpewatte Tea Factory tour is indeed impressive!

Vijay gave us an introductory lecture to the terms used: Aroma, Astringency, Strength and Color, and how polyphenol oxidase enzyme is released by crushing, and acts on the tea leaves.

The best tea is made from just the sprouting leaves (3-leaf tea). Sri Lanka specializes in the best CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl process) tea, that is actually better than Green Tea in oxidising agents. Darjeeling in India is a second location which competes against the Nuwara Eliya region.

 The electrostatic rollers at the back are some of the machines used to filter out the stalk material.

This was a laser-based color grader. The best grade of CTC tea is dense and black, since the stalks have all been filtered out. The black color comes from the oxidation of chrolophyll in the leaves.


 At the end of the tour, we had a session of tea tasting.

 The darkest tea, coppery in color, with a full-bodied pungent taste, was the one on the left (FFSP) and had a distinctive character of the Halpe factory. I bought some for gifting my friends back in Hyderabad.

 La Mens was one of the best restaurants in Ella, and we enjoyed our lunch there.

 I read the stickies on the wall left by grateful gourmet tourists for advice rather than the menu. Most people recommended coming to Ella just to have a taste of  La Mensa's Chicken or Seafood Kottu.

 Seafood Kottu, a local Sri Lankan dish made to perfection in La Mensa restaurant.

Walking along the railway tracks trekking to Ella Rock

 The trek up to Ella Rock is around two hours up and an hour down. It is a relatively easy trek, with a gentle but continuous incline up. I didn't seem to need a walking stick even on the way down and it was a reasonable incline. At some places you have to be careful of your footing on the way down.

 It was a sunny day, and the weather was excellent.

The incline is continous but gradual since you will be zig-zagging along the path up to the top.

 At the top of Ella Rock, the view is magnificent.

 At the top, you can get coconut water from a hawker. She will obviously crack open the coconut so you can eat the cream. I often wonder how little they charge for carrying coconuts, watermelons and mangos so high up the trail every day just to cater to tourists.

This pretty girl with the beaming smile was selling water, bananas, coconuts, and pineapples too. She even had a hand juicing machine.


This is I, before signing off from Ella Rock.