SL7 - Tea for Two - Day 30

Another early start, departing at 7.15am from our hotel. - the reason being we had to move south now to catch up with David and Justine prior to the cricket next week. They are tavelling south to north, and we are travelling in the opposite direction having arrived in SL earlier, so we had agreed to meet in. Yala  on the 21st July. So today we were heading to Ella, about 3/4 of the way there and deep into the hill country. Our trip took us from the dry dusty plains of Dambulla into the fertile soils of Matale, where spices are grown. We stopped at Ranweli spice gardens for a tour and information on the ayurvedic philosophy of medical treatment where herbs and spices are used to treat all sorts of ailments, often concentrated into an oil for application. I bit my tongue and did not ask about snake oil. Nevertheless it was an interesting tour through the spice garden seeing spice pods and plants that we rarely see in Australia. Carmel purchased an aloe vera balm and sandalwood oil that is meant to keep her looking the same for the next six years. You can be the one to tell her if this is not the case.

From there we headed up high into the mountains to tea country, where the tea plantations fill the slopes and the hills are dotted with the colourful sarongs of the ladies picking tea. We stopped at Glenloch plantation ( they all seem to have a name reflecting a Scottish history) for a tour of the factory with an explanation of the tea production process, and then a tea tasting afterwards. I must say that it is very high quality tea : the orange pekoe tea we tasted was excellent, and the green tea so good that I purchased a box to bring home. After a quick lunch there we were back on the road heading further through the mountains to our next stop.
By mid afternoon we finally reached our destination in Ella, the 98 acres resort - an eco resort set amongst a tea plantation and adjacent to some hiking tracks.

Our accommodation

We wasted no time, puting on ourbshoes and heqdingnup to the summit of. Little Adam's Peak, a climb that gave us spectacular views of the surrounding countryside and through Ella's Pass to hills below. Descending from there we found the local bar and sampled the 8.8% Lion Stout - a very fine brew - before presenting for an excellent meal of prawn curry and mutton curry with five side dishes. A great way to finish off a long day.
Things we learned about Sri Lanka today. #7 : there are forty  varieties of banana in Sri Lanka. We have encountered the small finger sized one at breakfast most mornings. - it is similar to a normal banana but has a dry texture that we have found is overcome by a squeeze of lime juice. But the best of all is the red banana, and today our driver spied some for sale on tne side of the road and screeching to a halt, bolted out the door to buy us some. They are a lot sweeter than a normal banana and have a typical red skin, and now join the growing list of local delicacies we have sampled.