The busride from Dalhousie to Hatton went smooth, standing in
the beginning again as the bus was more than full. Soon
though we could sit down and enjoy the twisting busride in a
bit more peace. Once in hatton, it didn’t take long before we
were directed to a bus to nuwara eliya, the bus left on time.
However, the road was very bad, plus unexpected roadworks
caused some delay. On top of that there is the very familiair
but always unexpected on the middle of the road buschange. We
were sitting nice and relaxed waiting for the bus, standing
on line with few busses before us, to finish the journey. All
the sudden a man from the bus behind us, comes in and speaks
some for us totally understandable words Sinhalese. As if it
were the start of the 100 meter running Olympic men’s final,
people pick their stuff and leave the bus to make their way
to the other bus. Of course we are too late with getting into
action due to some kind of language barrier, and go into the
other bus as the last one, without a seat place, although
soon these were recovered and we finish the journey to nuwara
eliya.
Nuwara Eliya offers nice hiking in the town witnessing
British legacy in the shape of the polo course, golf course,
many British colonial houses inhabited by pensionated
colonists until the mid 40’s. The majority of streetnames is
still English, e.g. Park road, queen Elizabeth road, Grand
hotel road and Gregory lake. There is a wknderful bakery,
Upland, where the guys are cutting cake if their lives depend
on the speed shown. The almond cookies are the best. But the
best about this place is the nice cool temperature.
Once done with the city, we started walking to Lovers
Leap, along the main road often passed by loudly horning
cars, trucks, buddy, tuctucs, motors. However after four
kilometers of breathing gasses, we found ourselves walking
for few hot neck burning kilometers along tea plantations,
almost getting lost trying to find the promised waterfall,
plunging the waterload down the rocks.
On our little hike we encounter lots of tealeaf pickers who
friendly smile at us, while they do their hardlabour in the
burning sun. One oerson told us thar its a community, where
housing and healthcare costs are covered, everybody lives
close to the teafields, and Works 5,5 days a week (Saturday
half a day, Sunday off) for just 500 rupees a day.
Pedro tea factory, next door from the walk, and
obviously founded a long time ago by a Portuguese colonist,
offers nice tea, but a very bad tour. Happy we already did
a tour in Ella, otherwise I wouldnt have understood it for
a bit.
12/3/2013