Highway to (H)Ella

The barren Red landscape at Usangoda. Sooner or later you'll get a group of cheeky kids come show you round...for a fee.

So, we get a tuk tuk into the town to barter a taxi to Ella, and of course the driver says he’s got a friend who would drive us. So we agree a price and waited with some trepidation to see what would turn up. What did, in fact turn up was this pimped up minivan with a video screen on the front dashboard! Very comfortable indeed, but even more so when he switched that damn screen off! Whoever came up with that idea in a country where the driving is so erratic needs their head seeing too!

The Martello Tower and checkerboard lighthouse outside Tangalle

Again, we agreed to stop off at various places on the way. We stopped off first at a place called Usangoda, a large flat plateau, supposedly formed when a meteor struck in ancient times, leaving the whole area a strange scorched red colour. After this, we checked out the new harbour and drove past the site of the new airport in Hanbantota. People are hoping that when this opens next year that this will open up the whole country to tourism, a mixed blessing maybe… We also went to see an old British Martello tower and strange checkerboard painted light house near the town, plus a quick visit to an old dam, where the guy on duty showed us round, then a nice waterfall before we hit Ella around 5pm.

The dam on a lake on the way to Ella. 

We checked into the Ravana Heights guest house, very nice, although the owner was a tad annoying from the start, explaining how wonderful their $6.50 breakfast was and kinda insisting that we have (and of course pay for). Still, it was a very nice place with stunning views over the surrounding hills, and our most expensive breakfast so far (it’s been 5 weeks now!) was admittedly very good. Ella itself, was surprisingly small, seeing as it’s so visited. The main attraction here was Little Adams Peak (a much smaller and easy to ascend version of the real thing) and the surrounding countryside itself, all luscious green hills and tea plantations.

The stunning countryside full of tea plantations around the hill town of Ella. The tree at the end of the Universe?

The Uber-quaint train station at Ella. Won't be long before there's a Burger King. Only 2 trains a day and one set of tracks!

After, we checked out the train times for Nuwara Eliya the next day at the very quaint Ella train station  and headed back to base. We met a German couple who we’d met a few days earlier, and an Aussie/Swiss couple who’s recently married and had been living in Jersey, We’ve met some really nice people along the way on this trip, you always do when you’re travelling, but I’m glad to say that it’s still the case even if you’re with a small babe. We met another really nice couple the next morning at breakfast, Both British, he was an Essex copper who’d managed to wangled 4 years travelling and they still kept his job open for him. He also worked out of Stoke Newington station in the bad old days, and said he’s only recently been back, for work during the riots in Dalston! Susan did politely mention that it was well known that ‘people who went into SN police station didn’t come out again’! And I thought I was the one who usually puts my foot in it. He took it good humouredly tho, although admittedly when I came back from the room a few mins later, Susan had accidentally ‘fallen down the stairs’. Strange, as there were only 2 steps….

Curtis had discovered the joys of sticking his tongue out, were hoping it will go back in at some point...
The view over the Ella Gap from our guesthouse. "God, where did it all go wrong, I had dreams once..."

Anyway, we changed our mind about going to Nuwara Eliya, and decided to go straight to the old Surfer spot at Arugam Bay and visit there on the way back. We splashed out on another taxi opting to stop at several places on the way again. It costs us around £40 each time for a taxi, but it makes things so much easier, and you do get to see a lot more of the country this way. There are no ‘tourist’ A/C buses or coaches that you get in most Asian countries, so it’s either the trains (which are very slow), local buses (which are hot, sweaty and teeth-clenchingly nerve wracking), or minivan taxis. Buses are ok with Curtis on short hops with just our day bag, but with a rucksack, back pack, buggy AND him, it gets a little daunting.

The are paddy fields all over Sri Lanka, mind you they eat a LOT of rice.Temple

 A wild Elephant (I think it saw us first). "Oi, pay attention at the back, there's a test on this later". Susan in ruins....

The drive to Arugam Bay was a little uninspiring, although we did see some wild elephants, a mongoose and some nice temple ruins, and we did it in pretty good time. We got our driver to take us round 5 or 6 lots of rooms before deciding on the cheap and cheerful Arugam Bay Surf Resort (formally the Arugam Bay Hilton, but renamed after receiving a cease & desist from the real thing last year). On the plus side, I had my 2^nd veggie burger of the trip at Gecko next door, and although only passable, it was still a blessed relief from more Vegetable Noodles. We spent the next day exploring Arugam Bay, which admittedly, didn’t take long. It’s off season here, and supposedly monsoon time, but we were lucky, but the place was deserted. It had a kind of dying Wild West frontier town vibe to it. Half the hotels were closed, most of the restaurants the same, and not a surfboard in sight. The beach was taken over each day by hundreds of fishermen & their boats bringing in the catch of the day and chatting animatedly. I’m guessing they’re not there when the surfers are out trying to catch a wave in high season. So the afternoons tended to bring an aroma of discarded fish and a few extra flys, or was that Curtis.....

Off season on the beach at Arugam Bay. Fishing it is then......

I think we only met about six other foreigners in the two days we were here, two of whom were staying in the hotel. We got chatting to Fiona & Nilanka over dinner on the second night, they were from Leeds, but she had done voluntary work in Sri Lanka 8 years before, met Nilanka, and they eventually moved to the UK, but they still come back regularly to his home. He told us lots of stories about life during the war, that there were many places, as a Singhalese, that he couldn’t visit as it would be too dangerous, places that he is only now getting to see. Stories about the local fishermen in the small villages, they were the hard working, hard drinking, tough guys that you didn’t mess with, they can be dangerous people if you get on the wrong side of them, and have been known to kill each other over fishing spots and vendettas. They very kindly offered us a lift to Batticoloa with them the next morning, and as we were unsure of our next destination, we gratefully accepted.. It seemed like an excellent way to see the rest of the East coast before heading back inland.

Small fishing boat on the beaxh at Arugam Bay. The worlds oldest tuk tuk....