After breakfast at Yala we left the park to head north once again into the hill country, retracing our steps from two days ago. Traffic wasn't too bad, and we made good time and arrived back in Ella at lunchtime. We met up with David and Justine for lunch - and had our most disapointing meal of the trip. Mind you, it could just be that we have been spoiled so far and the backpacker fare at the restaurant we stopped at just wasn't up to scratch. Dave and Juss headed off to Little Adam's Peak while Carmel & I headed back to Nuwara Eliya, deep in the tea country and high at over 2000
feet above sea level. Our destination was the Heritance Tea Factory, a five star hotel inside the rebuilt tea factory that was originally constructed in the mid 1800s. We were met with a traditional blessing and then some cinnamon spice tea, and shown to our room that overloks the tea plantation. At this height clouds roll in level with the building, obscuring the valleys below and giving it a very remote feel . The hotel itself is very impressive and very secluded ; it is all very relaxing. David and Justine arrived just after 5.00pm, and soon we were all sitting in the bar enjoying the peace and quiet. Dinner was an impressive range of local fare that well and truly made up for lunch. We werevall in bed early ready for anotherbearly start next morning.
Things we learned about Sri Lanka today #10 : the tea plantations were mostly pioneered by Scots, who named their plantations often after their home town. It seems incongruous to see a plantation like GlenLoch high in the hills of Sri Lanka. They had trouble employing the local people, so they shipped across workers from India. So while the town itself has a distictly English feel in terms of its architecture and town structure, the Indian heritage is very evident with the Hindu temples and Indian food availability.
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