View from the home stay this morning before we left to hike.
So, off we went to Ella Rock with something akin to a pirates treasure map drawn on a piece of scrap paper from our gracious hosts. He suggested that we take one turn onto a lesser travelled path, and this really did make all the difference in our hike. We soon found ourselves on a path that quite frankly took us through private fields of tea and quite close to homes. Early on, when we thought we had taken a wrong turn somewhere, we asked two women working in a field "Ella Rock?" and the more elderly of the women (maybe near 80) spritely walked down a path with us trailing behind her. It turned out the path went to her home and (as we walked past her husband sitting in their front yard) she pointed us up another faint walking trail next to her house and we took off once again, questioning if we'd ever find Ella Rock today.
Needless to say, it took us a bit to find the way, always trying to head uphill, on many different footpaths winding through old and new tea plantations and more than once, literally walking into people's yards and very close to their homes. All of these footpaths are how the locals get around, and many times you walk so closely to their house that you can say hi to them as they're making tea over a pot of boiling water in the kitchen. This is a weird concept to us, and probably most Americans, who value their privacy and their piece of land; but here, it seems they aren't surprised to see you there and will happily will come out to help you.
Eventually, we found our way back to the main path, after our little detour, and wound our way through the brightly green colored tea plants and up into the forest.
We came out on top of a ridge and followed the very steep hill up, up and up through the trees...
Eventually, we topped out on Ella Rock. A piece (or rather a bunch of pieces) of rock perched out on a drop off. It's quite a breathtaking view over the Ella Gap. The town of Ella is in the background here.
We chilled out on top for a bit and then made our way back down...the more direct way. But I have to say, the meandering way we took up was much more interesting than following the main path.
Some random photos from our day...
A local man perched on top of a VERY high waterfall. His dog is to his right on a rock. We think he was chewing beetlenut as he spit some very red saliva into the water as we passed by.
Locals, carrying a load of sticks on the mans shoulder and something that looked a little heavy but at the same time was balanced nicely on the woman's head.
The actual pirate treasure map that we were drawn today. The part where it went all wrong, or maybe all right, is in the upper left where he steers us up the right branch of the V intersection. :)
The only other thing we really had to do today was check on train tickets for our next stop, Dalhousie. There we plan to climb/hike Sri Pada, or Adams Peak as it's also known. We successfully secured 3rd class tickets for the trip to Dalhousie and 2nd class tickets for the onward portion.
While we were in town, we grabbed a typical rice and curry lunch special, did some shopping and then headed back to the home stay to relax until dinner time. Voila, time to write the blog you're reading now!
BTW, I'm already dreaming of dinner. Rice and curry are a staple of the Sri Lankan diet, and they are spicy, aromatic and wonderful here.
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