14 To the Hills!

Helen writes,
Very early in the morning we left Kandy and headed into the hill country on our way south.
The roads are very winding and the scenery breathtaking.

Unfortunately, the road-building programme in this part of Sri Lanka has only just begun, so much of our route was unmade and bumpy.
There is an enormous project underway with sections of highway being hewn from rock.
As usual our careful driver, Neil, negotiated the dogs, cows, monkeys and other road users very skilfully. He isn’t phased by anything.
People here are not aggressive drivers so despite potentially lethal bends we felt safe overtaking on hairpins!!
On the way Neil spotted a very young puppy dog being harassed by a small group of very aggressive brown monkeys. He stopped the car close by but this didn’t deter the little gang of bullies one bit. The puppy was eventually saved when a local passerby shooed them off and carried the puppy to safety. It wasn’t at all grateful and squealed and squawked all through its timely rescue.

We arrived in the ‘Tea Factory’ hotel mid afternoon.

This is an old tea factory building that has been transformed by an architect into a beautiful hotel. The original features of the factory are still there so it was a unique place to stay.
The weather was really cool, like an English summer (a good one, that is) and many local buildings are styled like cottages you can see every day on the Isle of Wight.
A footprint of the Empire from over a 100 years ago.

Everywhere on the hills were closely packed clumps of tea bushes and women busy picking the succulent top leaves – the tips, each with a huge sack on their backs.

We visited a working factory which was very labour intensive.
As usual at the end of the visit there is the gift shop.
We did buy a few things but there really are only so many things you can stuff tea into!

Later we visited the town Nuwara Eliya which is the main town in this area. May wanted to buy a sari and Neil took her to a friend’s shop.
There she chose some beautiful fabric and had a sari made on the spot in the Kandian style.
The tailor delivered it, impeccably finished and fitted, to the hotel within just a few hours.
She wore it to dinner at the hotel that very night. She looked stunning!

The next morning we headed off early to the south and the game reserve. We knew it would be a change of climate again as we were heading for a really dry and hot area and, with a bit of luck, to find all the animals that Roshan was looking forward to seeing so much.