Ella: Like an English Village - or Maybe Not. Part 10 of Sri Lanka, The Isle of Serendip

Eight years ago today (21-Jan-2015) we were in Sri Lanka. We spent the day in the pleasant village of Ella. The Rough Guide describes Ella as 'like an English village.' I wonder which England the author had in mind.

Scaling Little Adam's Peak, Surveying a Viaduct, and Checking Out the Village

Sri Lanka

When I was young I thought that sleeping under a mosquito net would be very exotic and exciting. The reality has proved rather different, though on this particular night it was Lynne who had the problems, with the net flapping in her face she found the flimsy material becoming strangely claustrophobic.

Breakfast in a small guesthouse was not going to be like a hotel buffet, but the fruit - mango, pineapple, watermelon and banana - that preceded the fried egg was ripe, fresh, local and in every way lovely.

Ravi arrived shortly afterwards. We inquired how his accommodation had been. 'There was no water to wash in this morning,' he replied, then shrugged and added. 'They are poor people in this region, but they do their best.' His words echoed those of the German proprietor of the guesthouse the previous evening.

The Ella Gap

Looking down the Ella Gap at the road we drove up and down to our guesthouse

The main item on the morning’s agenda was the scaling of Little Adam's Peak, so Ravi drove us back up the road clinging to the side of the Ella Gap and parked at the southern end of the village.

Ella Rock from the top of the Ella gap

The gap is a deep valley, a cleft in the highlands that leads down to the coastal plain. On the western side of the valley, above and behind our guest house was Ella Rock while atop the eastern wall there is a protuberance known as Little Adam's Peak. It is a popular and fairly undemanding climb.

Climbing Little Adam's Peak

Little Adam's Peak, Ella

Adam's Peak itself, some 50km to the west may be only the 4th highest mountain in Sri Lanka but it is certainly the most photogenic. The conical shape of Little Adam’s Peak sitting on the valley wall was, maybe, reminiscent of its much larger namesake.

Southern Sri Lanka
Ella is between Bandarawella and Badulla

Ravi indicated a path leading past a small shop and into the tea plantations. 'The route is obvious,' he said, and indeed with the bulk of the peak rising in front of us way-finding did not look much of a challenge.

Tea Picking

We set off on the level path between the tea bushes. It was a lovely morning; Ella was much warmer than the cool and drizzly Nuwara Eliya but lacked the aggressive heat of the plain.

Through the manicured tea bushes towards Little Adam's Peak

A tea picker with her sack on her back stopped us, suggesting we might like a photograph. We took the photo op, handed over an appropriate tip and continued on our way wondering if she was a tea picker at all, or a professional model of sorts. Rounding a bend we found a gang of pickers working their way through the bushes; our ‘model’ appeared behind us and scuttled down to join them.

Tea picker and part time model, Ella

A little further along, at the base of the protuberance, a set of concrete steps led up the nose of the hill. We thought we should climb them, but some more tea pickers – the next gang along the hillside - shook their heads, indicating that we should continue along the level path.

We followed their advice and after a few hundred meters the path started to zigzag gently up the flank of the hill.

Up to the Summit

The path started to zigzag gently up the flank of the hill
Little Adam's Peak, Ella

It was a steady climb but in no way difficult and in due course we reached a shoulder between two peaks and took a breather before heading for the top.

The shoulder between the two peaks

The views from the summit were impressive.

Looking over the Ella Gap from Little Adam's Peak

Looking towards Ella, Little Adam's Peak

We encountered a group of Spanish girls who asked us to take their photo for them and then took one for us. In the exposed and breezy location the brim of my hat blowing upwards gave the impression that a village in Staffordshire was temporarily lacking its idiot - and now I've put the picture on the internet for all the world to see. Oversharing, or what?

On Little Adam's Peak

We made our way back down to the sheltered saddle, sat down and ate the rambutans we bought yesterday. They were excellent, sweet and juicy.

A good spot for a rambutan break, Little Adam's Peak, Ella

Then we climbed the second, lower peak just for the sake of completeness and started our descent.

The descent, looking down on the hotel which so nearly was swept into the valley in the rainy season

EGB (Elephant Ginger Beer)

Back on the level path through the tea bushes we noticed a sign to a hotel pointing along another path. The climb had been thirsty work, so we took what promised to be a short deviation. Lynne was not impressed when it turned out to be a longer walk than expected and mostly uphill, but she was mollified when we finally arrived and found some clean toilets and a nice deck to sit on with a good view of the hill we had just climbed.

A glass of ginger beer.....

It seemed the moment to try out Sri Lanka's favourite soft drink, EGB - Elephant Ginger Beer. I have always liked ginger beer and as we sat in the warm sunshine, facing the hill we had just climbed, drinking this fine example of a ginger beer we began speculating on whether the it was the British who had given ginger beer to Sri Lanka or the Sri Lankans, who grow ginger in great quantity, who had given it to the British. [It would appear to be a British invention, first brewed in the 17th century in Yorkshire - where ginger grows not at all.]

...and a view back to Little Adam's Peak, Ella

By the time we had finished, made our descent and found Ravi it was time for an early lunch, and had we been in the Far East that is probably what we would have done, but this was Sri Lanka, our routine was by now well established and we would, of course, make another visit and then have a late lunch.

The Demodara Bridge

Unfortunately there is not much to see in Ella once the peak has been climbed. Ravi suggested a tea factory, but it was scarcely twenty four hours since we were at the Pedro Tea Factory in Nuwara Eliya. He mentioned the Nine Arches Bridge though without much enthusiasm, but it sounded good to us, so we set off in the direction of Demodara.

Driving down the small main road we passed gangs of tea pickers carrying their full sacks back to the factory after the morning shift. We were amazed that the company did not have a vehicle doing the rounds to collect them; it would have saved a great deal of time. Ravi observed (again) that these were poor people and their time was cheap. I am no expert, but it seemed to me that continuing with such inefficient and antiquated practices was going to keep these people poor (and is it cynical to wonder if, perhaps, that rather suits the plantation owners.)

We passed tea pickers taking their full sacks back to the factory

We soon turned off into a narrow lane descending into a jungle filled valley. Hitherto Ravi had driven us wherever we went with confidence, but we began to suspect that he had not been here before, and as the tarmac surface disappeared and the road became narrower and rougher he became less and less happy and more and more concerned for his car.

The road became narrower and rougher
The descent to the Demodara Bridge

After much tutting and ooh-ing we reached a small village at the bottom of the valley. Ravi parked in a clearing and co-opted a passing local teenager as guide.

A village house at the bottom of the valley, Demodara Bridge

The lad led us up a steep concrete ramp that Ravi would not have wanted to drive up and then along a narrow path through the bushes. It did not take us long to climb up to the single track railway, a continuation of the line that had brought us into the highlands a few days before.

We walked along the track, passed through a tunnel....

Railway tunnel, Demodara

... and emerged at the Nine Arches Bridge. Almost 200m long it is actually a brick built viaduct that crosses 25m above the valley floor. It looks like many British viaducts, which is hardly surprising as it was built by British engineers in 1921.

Lynne and the Nine Arches Bridge, Demodara

It would have been pleasing to watch a train go over it but our youthful guide told us there were only two trains a day, and neither was due. Nevertheless, we heard a distant whistle so we waited a while, and then a little while longer before realising our new friend was right.

I start to walk back with Ravi and our young guide

We made the descent, gave him an appropriate recompense for his time and drove back out of the valley, Ravi being much more relaxed on the return journey as he now knew the worst of what was ahead.

The road back looks so much better

Ella

We returned to Ella and the Café Chill where Lynne went for a cheese and tomato sandwich and a portion of chips. I was not much more local in my choice of chicken and noodles, but the noodles arrived with vegetable curry and an apology that they had run out of chicken - such are the hazards of late lunches.

Ella 'High Street'

After eating we took a more lengthy walk round Ella attempting to find some reason why the writer of the Rough Guide had described it as 'like an English village'. We spotted a small restaurant advertising 'fish and chips', but that apart we found little or nothing to justify the comment.

The Ella chippy?

We did, however, see a restaurant called, in English, 'Something Different'; underneath the sign, in large letters, it offered 'Traditional Rice and Curry'. Well, you would not want to be too different.

Ella

That evening, back at the guesthouse, I returned to more normal Sri Lankan fare with devilled chicken while Lynne had chop suey with chillies. After ten days in Sri Lanka we were resigned to the food being pleasant enough but very same-y. Rice and curry is the national dish, but there are only around half a dozen different vegetable curry dishes of which four will be served at any one meal along with a chicken or (always tough) beef curry. Beyond that there are the 'devilled' dishes; chicken, fish or (equally tough) beef in a sauce like a Chinese sweet and sour with added chillies. Lamprais is just a variation on rice and curry, and then there are the ‘Chinese’ dishes, usually with noodles, which make a pleasant change from rice, but would not be recognised in any part of China we have ever visited.

Ella

Our pleasant, if not exactly memorable meal over, we decided to order a glass of arrack. We had already drunk ginger beer today, the country's favourite soft drink and Lion lager, its favourite (only?) beer, so it seemed appropriate to end the day with a glass of the national spirit. Arrack is distilled from palm toddy, looks as brown as a blended whisky and is sold at 32% alcohol. The premium brand we tried seemed to have little flavour and was too weak to have any fire. Perhaps it says more about me (and, indeed Lynne) than it does about arrack but we found it rather tame.

Sri Lanka, The Isle of Serendip

Part 1: Colombo to Anuradhapura and Mihintale
Part 2: Anuradhapura Ancient and Modern
Part 3: Polonnaruwa and Kandalama, An Ancient City and a Modern Hotel
Part 4: Sigiriya Rock and an Ayurvedic Massage
Part 5: Dambulla and on to Kandy
Part 6: Kandy and Around
Part 7: By Train to Nuwara Eliya
Part 8: The Horton Plains, Nuwara Eliya and a Cup of Tea
Part 9: Through Bandarawela and on to Ella
Part 10: Ella, Little Adam's Peak and the Demodara Bridge Part 11: The Sinharaja Rainforest
Part 12: Kataragama and the Yala National Park
Part 13: Through Hambantota to Mirissa
Part 14: Galle, Fish and a Fort
Part 15: Colombo, National Day and a Full Moon