SL day 2 - Nuwara Eliya

October 22, 2014 - Ceylon Tea Plantations

Jenny and I looking glamorous!

After a good breakfast Jenny and I met with the guy who picked us up from the airport, Radithika to give him a list of things we would like to do for the day. 

First activity to the train station to get a first class observation train tickets to Ella. With a few stops to take pictures of the breathtaking view.  Got our first class tix for $10 and then continued along the train tracks to view a waterfall or river with rapids going under the bridge, many people walk along the train tracks. 

Next we went to the tallest mountain in Sri Lanka where the army is based on top. We were not allowed to get out our cars as there were leopards and other dangerous animals in the forest, though we didn't see any.  The views of the Nuwara Eliya area were fantastic despite the clouds rolling in.  I love all the pastel painted homes in the area. 

Next we went to Pedro Estate tea plantation and after donning our green aprons and hair nets we went for a tour. We first learned how only women pick the tea leaves. For two reasons, one it has always been  the women's job as well as their fingers are softer to pick the leaves more gently. They pick for 8 hours a day, every 2 hours the bags of leaves are brought into the factory and weighed. They still this huge book ledger to record the weight of the bags. They are then brought up to troughs to dry for 12 hours, air is blown from underneath and someone comes to toss the leaves, this part dries the leaves 45%. Then they are taken to the rolling room where they are pressed to extract more moisture, next they are put in another heater where they are mostly dry now but the leaves and stem have not been cleaned. Then they go through this rolling machine, the rollers are made from plastic and have a magnetic force which pulls all the dirt and stem particulars from the ground up tea. One last process is to sift or grind the tea leaves to make the 6 different types of tea they really fine tea which is often in tea bags  and then the looser tea that can be used in diffusers  

We of course ended the tour with a cup a tea out looking over the tea estate followed by purchasing some tea. 

We had to change vehicles as the hybrid car wasn't able to make it up the mountain we were going to to view a waterfall called Lover's Leap. The only saving grace of this brown velour dusty van was the huge sunroof in the back.  One which Jenny and I popped out of to take amazing photos of women in the tea fields picking tea leaves. 

Lover's Leap Waterfall

Lover's Leap waterfalls was beautiful. Legend had it that two lovers were on top of it and fell off, thus I said it should have been called Lover's Falls!

Next we went to the tourist restaurant called Governor's Chalet which was right on Gregory Lake, food was fair but we did have Sri  Lankan famous EHB ginger beer which was great.  

As it was nearing 4pm we thought we would skip the Botanical gardens and go to the Mini World's End (the real one is at Horton's Place. )

We again had to switch vehicles to a 4 wheel drive "safari" truck, it was getting colder, so I asked our guide do u think it will rain should I being my jacket, no was everyone's response!  As we drive out to the worlds end we are told of the many different animals that they are spotting. Our driver and tour guide are ever excited to have the opportunity to see these wild animals. Something similar to our mouse deer some animals called Zambac which I think are similar to elk and we saw some wild peacocks. By the time we reached our destination and walked up to the lookout platform the clouds had rolled in and it began to downpour rain, figures I didn't have my raincoat iPod umbrella which I had been carrying all day long! And of course unfortunately we had paid $18 each to see this incredible panoramic view which we could hardly see 2 feet in front of us. Oh well. 

Jenny at the end of the world!

We had heard of this old English building /club called Hill Club had a nice dinner in the ambience of an old British club made of stone with taxidermic animals in the walls, so we went to inquire. It looked good but we after we got home and had a hot shower and the rain increased we were really too tired to go out and again and so ordered room service, ate and crashed!