7/6/26 ulawalawa to Ella
We’ve been using googles public transport function to plan our bus routes through Sri Lanka. It’s come in handy many times and hasn’t been wrong. The trip from udawalawa to Ella however, seemed difficult. Google put us on a strange bus routes through that apparently would take 5 hours or so….time to use the fallback option of asking a local.
Low and behold, our hotel host came through and told us that it is simple to get from udawalawa to Ella, all we had to do was simply grab the bus outside our hotel, change after a 30-40 minute trip to wellawaya, then jump on the Ella bus for another 30-40 minutes, easy!
Unfortunately the morning didn’t go as smoothly as organising our bus travel. Oliver has been struggling with his frustration lately and for the second morning in a row, had a meltdown over his diary and the fact that his brothers had finished and were playing cards without him. Raelene and I are finding it tricky to place boundaries and remove privileges to control these tempers due to the fact that wherever we go we go together and what ever we do….its always together. The boys also don’t have things like screens or music players etc so it’s not like we can confiscate anything for a period of time. We certainly aren’t going to stop them reading a book or leave them behind in the hotel when we go out on safari! Anyway, it’s just tricky sometimes is all…one of the challenges of travelling with 3 boys.
Anyway back to the fun. The bus arrived just as we were half in and half out of leaving the hotel. I had to rush and didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to our host who had been so wonderful. I sent him a message instead. The bus rides were as easy as we had hoped, however our first bus was a bit full and was standing room only for most of the trip. Arthur and Patrick were taken by respective Sri Lankan people and given room on the seat, or in Patrick’s case, on a lovely woman’s lap!
We switched busses at Wellawaya and grabbed seats in the next bus before it filled up. Luckily we did as the drive to Ella was incredible! Slowly we wound up the mountain, climbing some 800m of elevation. We both remarked that this would have been a tough old climb on the bikes….
Arriving in Ella we walked the 900m to our accomodation. The hotel had just changed hands in the last 3 days so the new owner was sure to meet our needs and was very friendly and helpful. Sri Lanka has seen a sharp downturn in tourism following the terrorist bombings in 2019 and then Covid in 2020. We have spoken to a number of people who say that it has never picked up to the same level that it was at prior to these two incidents. As a result a lot of places are desperate to receive good reviews and therefore, desperate to please. It must be hard work as I can imagine differing expectations of tourists can provide different reviews. So far though we have not had cause to ever give something less than 5/5….sri lanka is amazing.
After a quick rest in the room Arthur Patrick and I headed out for a late lunch while Raelene stayed back with Oliver while he finished his diary (which he hadn’t managed to achieve over the last two mornings). They joined us relatively soon after and then we all hiked up to little Adam’s peak to try and get a view and hopefully watch the sunset.
The walk was very straightforward, the first section being up a narrow road, frequented by tuk tuks. As we turned a corner however we were treated to beautiful views of terraced, vibrant green, tea plantations. It looked so lush, the tea bushes were obviously so old as the trunks were quite thick, however I imaging that the constant picking and pruning keeps them at a certain height to allow ease of working….im sure we will learn more about this when we check out a tea plantation In the coming days.
We carried on up the hill, giving Raelene’s knee a bit of a workout to see how it’s progressing. So far so good. We passed through an adventure park, complete with zip line, swings, rock climbing wall and netted sky walk. The swing was pretty funny, it’s the classic ‘put on a long dress for a photo’ type of swing…people were keen for it, so good on them!
We got up to the top after the track became a number of concrete stairs. Arthur Patrick and I headed over to the furthest most peak, enjoying some technical rock scrambling on the way which the boys handled easily. It was a bit too steep for Raelene’s knee, so she stayed back with Oliver who was still in the ‘dog house’…
We joined back up together and sat hoping for a glimpse of sunset with a number of other tourists who must have read the same guidebook as us 😂. Unfortunately the clouds had come over and we decided to get out of there while there was still light, rather than wait for a sunset that was likely never to come.
Raelene’s knee held up quite well on the way down. The real test will be to see how it is tomorrow….fingers crossed it’s all ok!
8/6/26 – Ella
Through the night I was woken by Arthur saying he had lost his tooth and not just lost his tooth from his mouth but meaning he couldn’t find his tooth in the bed. As it was 3am I told him I would help him look for it in the morning and tried to go back to sleep.
In the morning we searched high and low for his tooth but could not find it, Arthur must have swallowed his tooth – oops. Arthur found this quite funny and wasn’t too disappointed the tooth fairy wouldn’t come.
After our lovely breakfast provided by the hotel we dropped off our washing at a local laundry service then made our way to the 9 arches bridge. I was very relieved my knee had handled the walk yesterday well, the walk through the bush to the bridges was lovely. We passed some small rice fields then more tea plantations. The bridge appeared out of nowhere and looked fantastic in the backdrop of mountains and tea plantations. We had planned to wait till a train crossed so after a look around we found a shady spot, got a coconut and ice-cream and waited for the train. While we waited I remembered Grandad always telling me how he use to put coins on the train tracks to be squished so we found 3 coins and went to find a spot on the track to place them. The boys thought it was great and couldn’t wait to see what they looked like.
20minutes after the scheduled time we finally heard the train coming and enjoyed watching it cross the bridge, not sure why watching a train cross a bridge is so cool but it was. Immediately after the train crossed the bridge the boys ran to find their coins, sure enough they had been squished but all a different amount. Oliver’s was completely squished, Patrick’s was half squished and Arthur’s had a tiny amount squished. All the coins looked very cool.
On our way back across the bridge we put the drone up to get another photo and as it was coming back in a police officer yelled and Rhys and started to walk in our direction. As Rhys approached him the Police officer asked is Rhys had permission from the safety office, Rhys said no and apologised for having his drone up. Thank goodness we got away with it and came away with so pretty cool footage.
The walk back was quite hot and everyone wanted a rest so we relaxed at the hotel the boys had a great afternoon colouring in having a short break when we went to the local bakery for some snacks.
4:30 arrived quite quickly and it was time for us to head to our cooking class just down the road. The property had a cute outside kitchen set up for the classes and we got straight into preparing our meal. On the menu was pumpkin curry, eggplant curry, chicken curry, dahl, bean curry, coconut sambol and coconut roti. The class was fantastic and the kids absolutely loved getting in and helping. Sometimes all wanting to help a bit too much and it became a bit of a battle for space. The ingredients were all so fresh and it was great using fresh coconut for everything. It was a lot of fun cutting open the coconut, scraping out the flesh and then squishing the flesh to make the milk and cream. Dilhani (our teacher) was incredible with the kids and let them do nearly everything which meant everything took slightly longer. It was also great how Dilhani explained the health benefits of every spice, her knowledge was wonderful. When it came time to make the roti’s Oliver and Arthur enjoyed using the dough like play doe until it was time to put them on the pan. They both put them in the shape of a heart saying that’s how much they love curry. Then more fun was to be had when they cooked the papadum’s, they loved watching them blow up in the oil. Arthur had one papadum blow up to make the biggest bubble we have ever seen.
3 hours later all our curries were ready and we were welcomed into Dilhani’s home to enjoy the food and my goodness did we enjoy the food. Everything on the table was absolutely delicious. Oliver said it was the best curry of his life, Arthur said it was the best thing he had ever put in his mouth and Patrick just continued to say how much he liked the chicken curry. Rhys and I both enjoyed the eggplant curry and pumpkin curry, the flavours were incredible. We all rolled out of Dilhani’s house very grateful for our brilliant class. I now hope Rhys and the kids can recreate the meals when we return to Australia 🙂
9/6/26 – Ella
Our budget accomodation didn’t stretch to air-conditioning…last night we paid for it a bit, waking up at 3, feeling claustrophobic and stuffy in our huge room. Combined with the cacophony of dogs that serenaded us at around the same time meant that a number of us didn’t have the greatest rest.
Following breakfast we were all pretty keen to get out and check out the Halapewette Tea factory. We managed to score a ride who offered to wait for the time we were inside then drop us back into town for 5000LKR…That’ll do. Driving up to the tea factory was scenic and as we climbed higher and higher we had views back over the valley and surrounding hills. The tea factory materialised out of the hillside and it was quite a marvel in time – seemingly unchanged in its exterior since its construction. The old pastel blue wooden shutters still hung open and the whitewash paint, while greying slightly, still gave off a stoic colonial feel. Once inside we paid our money for the tour and within 5 minutes our guide was escorting us down the stairs to the first level of the tea factory.
Immediately you could smell the tea! We were in the trough room where we learnt that every night 39 Tonnes of tea leaves are laid out on the 26 troughs whereby air is pushed underneath via high speed fans to remove 50% of the fresh tea leaves moisture content over a period of 10-16 hours. Interestingly the pickers pick every day and off around 160 acres of tea plants the pickers are able to achieve this 39tonnes of leaves every day! The average picker will pick between 20-30kg of leaves each day, earning $10 for the first 20kg and then $1/kg thereafter. Apparently the record for picking in an 8hr period was 58kg by one female picker…quite incredible.
From the initial drying phase the tea leaves then were transferred to the rollers where they were rolled through three lines on 86 year old rolling machines, leaving the semi dried leaves looking more like the finished product. The rolling room was the most aromatic of them all. It smelt like a very fragrant cup of green tea with a hint of bitterness which we were to learn was due to the fermentation process the black tea undergoes after rolling. This fermentation – literally the tea leaves are heaped in 3 inch high piles on tables – is what sets a black tea apart from a green tea! This 2 hour process darkens the leaves considerably, allowing them to then be transferred into the drying room.
The drying process was crazy, wood fired kilns produce the heat for the drying machines to pump hot air through concertinaed layers of tea leaves. The room was nicknamed the sauna room for good reason, it was bloody hot in here! The leaves move through the dryers over a period of 21 minutes and the finished product contains only 3% moisture. Interesting in this room the stalks that the leaves are on when they are picked , are still in the process. It is here though that they become separated with the help of static electricity. Amazingly the stalks are attracted to the static charge built up by plastic rollers rotating against felt, yet the tea leaves are not! And are allowed to travel through to the second last step – grading.
It was pretty cool to see the grading machines sieving the various thicknesses of tea leaves into different containers. I honestly had no idea that the singular process that we had seen throughout the factory today ultimately leads to the various grades of tea that are sorted out at the end! A total of 18 products from 6 different grades of tea are produced, each increasing in caffeine levels and decreasing in antioxidant levels the finer the tea leaf (and lower the grade or tea) becomes.
Finally we were taken to the packing room where each grade of tea is packaged into paper bags and sent to Colombo where they are packed in commercial packaging and exported around the world. Interestingly, over a 22 hour process, the 39 tonne we saw in the trough room is whittled down to a final total of 7.8 tonnes – around 125 bags of tea. From here we were taken back up through the factory to the top floor and ‘sky bar’ where over amazing views of the surrounding country we were able to try each grade of tea plus a few more. From first grade OPA – orange pekoe grade ’A’ (orange due to the colour of the brewed tea and pekoe from the Chinese word tea) to Pekoe, FBOP (fine broken orange pekoe), BOP (broken orange pekoe – think a strong breakfast tea) we enjoyed tasting the different characteristics of each. We also got to try Earl grey, green tea, ginger tea and vanilla tea. The boys really liked the green and the ginger while Raelene and I were surprised with the delicate flavour of the pekoe. As a result we bought a few packets of tea with the plan to head back to the hotel and brew them up. – delicious.
In the afternoon we jumped on a local bus which took us back down the hill around 6km to the Ravana Waterfall. We saw this on our way up so it was nice to be able to take the time to get back down and check them out, and for a while 250 rupees ($1) for all of us on the bus, it was an easy decision to make.
The falls are quite high and marvellous. We planned to have a bit of a swim in the bottom pool however when we got there the boys (especially Oliver) were put off by the number of monkeys that were also at the falls. At one point I had a monkey bare its teeth at me as I simply zipped up my bag…little bastard. This was enough for Oliver who is petrified of monkeys….its because they are so erratic he reckons…fair enough too. So while mum and Oliver headed back down I stayed with Patrick and Arthur who enjoyed a little dip in a small pool away from the monkeys! It was then time to grab the $1 bus back up the hill, find some dinner and then get the kiddos to bed.
Finally we have been making a concerted effort to get the kids involved in the budget in Sri Lanka. Because we are paying with cash it is easier to visualise the money for them. Tonight it was good to see our left over money tallied up and items ordered off the menu that would fall within our budget with some money left over. Raelene and I even found a local Sri Lankan cigar which we plan to have a little go of over a beer once the kids go to bed tonight….
10/6/26 – Ella to Nuwara Eliya
The pedastal fan we asked for last night made a huge difference and we all slept very well. After a quick breakfast we got a tuk tuk to the train station and waited for long anticipated train trip through the mountains and tea plantations to Ambewela. Rhys had purchased the tickets online as everything we read said tickets were extremely difficult to get due to the popularity of the route, they were very expensive which surprised us but we didn’t think too much more about it until….I saw the price of the tickets at the station which were easily 1/15th the price we paid! Feeling rather annoyed we spoke to some other tourists who were speaking about prices. We all realised we had booked our tickets through an independent travel company by accident, the name was Srilankan Railways and they charged a ridiculous price for the tickets. Feeling quite peeved Rhys emailed the company but as usual they responded with too bad so sad…..It is so disappointing websites like this still exist which literally rip innocent travellers off. Oh well nothing we can do about it now and honestly the train trip was incredible.
The train was quite empty, which further annoyed us that we pre-booked – maybe our do not plan ahead by more than a week idea does have its benefits. However the quietness was quite lovely as we could stand at the open doors quite often which gave us amazing views.
Soon after leaving Ella one of the conductors and his off sider approached us asking if the kids wanted to see the engine room, of course they wanted too so after providing a tip we were shown through the engine room. It was pretty cool, Patrick did not like the noise as it was super loud but after a bit of encouragement he walked through to the conductors cabin. All the buttons were explained and we had a great view of the track, it was fantastic.
For the next 2 hours we enjoyed brilliant views of the mountains, tea plantations, villages and even a eucalyptus plantation. Oliver, Arthur and Patrick enjoyed the views periodically as they were all having a great time colouring in. The higher we climbed the cooler the weather got and then we hit the misty mountain tops.
Walking out at Ambewela was quite cold, as we were walking off the platform a lovely local driver approached us asking if we needed a lift. Ambewela is quite a small town with very few buses so it was great not to have to look for transport. The drive took us higher into the mountains and we passed one of the only dairy farms in Sri Lanka, it had a sign saying New Zealand farm. As we approached Nuwara Eliya we suddenly were surrounded by tea plantations, it was stunning. We found our great little homestay then made a plan to go into town for a look around.
We were all finding it a bit cold and it was raining a little so we pulled out our raincoats, grabbed a tuk tuk and went to the centre of town. There was a great atmosphere with lots of small shops and vendors. We found some cheap polor fleece jumpers for the boys which made them very warm, cosy and happy. We had a lovely walk around Victoria Park, we paid our small entrance fee and let the boys run free which was quite nice. The area has a very British feel to it, there is even an area in town called mini England due to the colonial houses from when the British occupied Sri Lanka.
We visited the golf club, which is the oldest golf club in Asia and possibly the world. It was quite fancy but we asked the boys could have a hit of golf anyway. Unfortunately due to the rain the course was closed but we could hire some clubs and go to the driving range, it was going to cost $25 per child for a few hits so we had a family discussion and as Oliver was in charge of the budget today he decided it was a bit pricey just for the driving range, everyone else agreed which was good.
As we were walking around even Rhys and I were beginning to struggle with the cold so we walked back to the same shop and bought a jumper each. The markets reminded us a lot of Nepal, lots of designer brands for very cheap prices and every vendor has the same items and all are desperate for your money. One local man was quite persistent in showing us places to go and shops to visit, it took a while to shake him.
Just as it started to rain heavy we found a great small family run restaurant down a little alley and enjoyed delicious rice and curry before make our way back to our cold little hotel room to snuggle up under the blankets. We plan to visit Horton Plains National park in the morning so have organised our driver to pick us up at 6am, as the kids fell asleep and we read our books the weather outside sounded terrible….lets see what tomorrow brings.
11/6/26 – Nuwara Eliya
It blew a gale all night…we woke to misty rain at 0545. Got sorted then headed out the door to our waiting van at 0600. Our accomodation had provided us with little breakfast packages and dropped them over as wee were heading to the car. So lovely of them.
En route to the national park – 1.5 hours away – with the weather still looking pretty glum (fog as thick as pea soup) raelene and I made the call to pull the pin on the national park, turn around and check out some of the local waterfalls instead. Our driver was more than happy to oblige and set a course for a different tour without hesitation.
We drove back through Nuwara Eliya and down the Kandy road. We had dropped out of the mist by this stage and were treated to incredible views across the tea plantations and vegetable terraces. We passed a number of tea factories, even a brand new one that was only opened last year. Patrick started feeling a bit crook so he and I sat together up front.
Finally we stopped at the base of a waterfall and made the 15 minute trek up to the base of them. It was a nice little outing and a good way to give the kids a bit of a run. The falls were beautiful, with quite a flow. Returning to the car we continued on to gain an expansive view over the valley, looking back onto a number of waterfalls as they plunged over the side of the huge valley.
By this stage it was still only around 0930. Our driver took us up to the Blue field tea factory for us to have a look around. Initially Raelene and the kids got all dressed up and headed to the tea fields to have a go at picking leaves. We got some cute photos then headed into the factory that was set up much the same as the one we had been to in Ella.
The tour however was completely different. We did not get to see the machinery being used, nor were we able to get as close to any of the process or the workers. It was very much a tourist driven exercise that while free to attend, came with the expectation of buying something (or many things) at the end.
That was fine though because we still had a good time checking out the 100year old factory. We were then able to sit down in a lovely cafe and enjoy a quality cuppa before being humbugged to buy something in the tea shop. There was no chance to browse anything because as soon as you showed the faintest interest in anything, a lady was next to you with a basket offering to take it up to the counter for you….
Raelene and the boys even indulged in a henna tattoo each by a lady who had set up in the tea shop. The boys went first opting for some classic ‘boy’ designs, dragons, snakes and swords etc. Raelene then got a bit of henna envy/fomo and went and got an awesome elephant design on her hand that the lady drew freehand, pretty incredible.
With the tea tour done we headed back to Nuwara Eliya for some lunch. Our driver was happy to wait for us while we ate then drop us back to the hotel. Before this however the boys went back and grabbed some more rambutans from the street seller, which they were pretty chuffed about.
The rest of the afternoon was enjoyed in our hotel room snuggled under blankets watching movies! We haven’t done that in a while and the boys were super excited to have a movie afternoon. As we watched we could hear the weather outside descend from bad to worse. The rain was hammering down and the wind was very strong. Luckily we are getting dinner made for us tonight and bought over to our house!
12/6/26 – Nuwara Eliya – Ella
Happy 42nd Birthday to me 🙂 I had a wonderful morning with the boys waking me up with cuddles and birthday wishes, Oliver came in with a freshly brewed cup of tea then the gifts started to appear. Patrick gave me a beautiful sarong, Arthur gave me some awesome new shorts/PJ bottoms, Oliver found a cool bum bag made out of recycled rice sacks and Rhys found me a cute new wallet. I then felt the warmth from home as I read cards and opened gifts from family. While we waited for breakfast to arrive we watched the first game in the Soccer World Cup, South Africa v Mexico.
We ate breakfast quickly then got into the van to head to the train station, it was still misty and rainy but again we enjoyed the views. Patrick enjoyed sitting in the front seat on Rhys’ lap for the drive as he was getting car sick on the windy roads. We got stuck behind a truck for a little while which provided entertainment for Patrick as the people in the back were enjoying waving to him.
We arrived at the train station in perfect timing and after grabbing a few snacks we boarded the train back to Ella. The trip went very fast and again we enjoyed the stunning views of mountains and tea plantations.
Back in Ella our tuk tuk driver from a few days ago was waiting for us and took us straight back to our hotel. The boys had then organised a surprise birthday cake for me so while I was lead blindfolded to the dining area loud happy birthday music was played on the large speaker, it was hilarious. I was told to sit down then a gorgeous little cake was bought out for me, it was beautiful.
After cake we piled into the tuk tuk and climbed up the hills to a lovely little family owned tea planation for an afternoon of tea plucking, tea making then tea tasting. It was wonderful and seeing the tea process on a small scale was great.
It has been fascinating learning the different methods and today we discovered white tea is made from the buds of a different tea plant to those used for black tea, however yesterday at the large tea factory they informed us it was all made from the one plant. The lady today told us if they claim white tea from the same plant as black tea it is false white tea.
While we were learning how to roll the tea, I suddenly felt something on my leg. Sure enough, when I looked down, I had several leeches crawling up my shoes and one had successfully latched onto my leg. Yuck!
That discovery quickly turned into everyone checking themselves for leeches. Arthur and Oliver thought it was fantastic and were both slightly disappointed that none had attached themselves to them. Patrick, however, was definitely not a fan. As he pulled up his shorts, he found one on his inner thigh. In a panic, he brushed it off and immediately lost sight of it. No one could find where it had landed, which somehow made the situation worse.
I then became convinced I had one up my shorts. A quick inspection didn’t reveal anything, but before I could relax, I looked over at Patrick and spotted a large leech casually crawling across his shoulder. Poor Patrick completely panicked. I had to hold him still while Oliver removed the leech. It was all rather chaotic and, looking back, quite funny. Leeches are actually pretty harmless—I just really don’t like them.
Once everyone had calmed down, we returned to the tea-making process. That lasted all of five minutes before another distraction arrived: a beautiful Sri Lankan Junglefowl wandered into view. We learnt that they’re protected in Sri Lanka and are commonly found among the tea plants. Naturally, tea-making was temporarily forgotten while everyone admired the bird.
As soon as the Junglefowl disappeared, we got back to the workshop… until the next interruption.
“Dad, I need the toilet.”
At this point, the poor lady running the workshop deserved a medal. Her patience was genuinely impressive. Between leech emergencies, bird sightings and toilet breaks, I don’t think we managed 5minutes without an interruption.
While she was explaining the fermentation process of black tea, the boys’ attention shifted once again, this time to an incredible spider wandering across the table. To be fair, even I was distracted. It was bright blue and pink and absolutely stunning.
We eventually moved on to some hands-on activities, which was great, although the focus didn’t last long. As we were crushing tea leaves with large mortar and pestles, a huge blood-filled leech was discovered on the ground. Patrick was horrified and immediately yelled, “It came from you, Mum!”
I couldn’t find any blood, and neither could anyone else, but the comment brought back my earlier fear about something crawling up my shorts. I snuck off to the toilet to investigate and discovered I had blood on my groin. The bloody leech had nearly made it into my underwear. Yuck!
When I returned and shared my discovery, the kids thought it was absolutely hilarious that the leech had nearly reached my vagina. This, of course, reminded them of the family story about the time when Rhys had a leech on his penis, which only made us all laugh harder.
Thankfully, after that final bit of excitement, we were able to focus on the tea-making for the rest of the workshop and move onto the next state of our afternoon, tea tasting.
Tasting tea we had just made was awesome and I have to admit the black tea was delicious. Seeing this small scale and achievable way of making tea is quite inspiring and has planted a seed that maybe we could plant some tea plants when we get back to Tassie and make our own tea one day. To accompany the tea tasting we tried some delicious local treats, most of them were quite sweet which the kids enjoyed. My favourite tea was definitely the white silver leaf tea which Rhys also enjoyed so we left with a few packets. Apparently white tea has huge health benefits also, so a double winner.
It was a wonderful afternoon and we were very glad we experienced both a large tea factory and a small family run plantation.
Rhys had found a nice looking restaurant to try for dinner, it had started to rain rather heavily so we grabbed a tuk tuk and then had to walk down narrow alley ways, through building sites between houses to finally find this place. It was a lovely restaurant however very much aimed at tourists so we found the food to be quite bland compared to the curries we have been eating in the smaller, local restaurants.
We had a lovely walk home, the night life of towns is quite fun and it made Rhys and realise how travelling with kids does change the experiences of towns a little as we are never out late. Oh well there has to be some small sacrifices I guess but to be honest I do not mind that at all.
13/6/26 – Ella
Oliver was up early again after our late movie night. Unfortunately this spelled disaster for him as he couldn’t shake off a grumpy mood all morning, resulting in he and I staying at the hotel for some down time while raelene, Arthur and Patrick went to check out a waterfall.
They headed down by tuk tuk to the secret waterfalls south of town. It cost them around 3000 rupees to get down there where they had a great time swimming in the pool at the bottom of the falls. Raelene ended up getting a bus back up the hill for a stark contrast of 300 rupees total! What a difference! Busses in Sri Lanka really are the way to go for economical travel.
Meanwhile Oliver and I chilled in the hotel room, having a bit of a cool off. He managed to get himself feeling better and when raelene and the boys came back he was excited to head out and find some lunch.
The rest of the day was spent catching up on the FIFA World Cup. It’s great to watch the highlights of each game. Canada managed a draw with Bosnia while USA thumped Paraguay! With a bit of restlessness still in the body after a pretty quiet day, Oliver and I decided to go for a quick run to 9 arches bridge. It was good to get out and Oliver benefited moving his body a bit.
Late afternoon and it was time to head to another cooking class, this one being out where we went for the tea making tour yesterday. The cooking school was called pottery house and was simply run out of a families home which they had only moved into 2 days ago. We immediately hit it off, and the kids got along really well with their 7yo and 13yo boys. There were games aplenty, cricket, chasey and some strange bingo game where they had to try and jump on each others feet…it was beautiful to watch the kids play together.
The cooking lesson was also great. Getting a good understanding of the techniques and flavours that a commonly used in Sri Lankan cooking. We cooked an incredible mango curry, eggplant curry and a beetroot curry, along with Kottu, yellow rice and another amazing chicken curry! At the end we all ate together, The kids all sitting together and talking about sport, racing cars, what they wanted to do when they grow up and Sri Lanka. All in all a perfect end to the evening of cooking and playing.
14/6/26 – Ella to Arugam Bay
After another wonderful breakfast and a few cups of tea we packed up and said goodbye to our lovely hotel hosts. There are two ways to get into town so we decided to split up and see which way was quicker, Arthur and I went the steep lumpy way, while Oliver, Rhys and Patrick went the smoother main road direction. Arthur and I won by 30seconds then we all walked to the bus stop. As we were approaching the bus stop, a few drivers called out to us, I kept on walking but Rhys had a chat to them and initially they were offering us 20,000 rupees to get to Arugam Bay, as Rhys walked away they came down to 10,000 rupees. Good price for us all but we still decided to go the public buses as we planned to stop in Wellawaya to visit Diyaluma falls. We only had to wait 2mins for the bus to arrive and we all got a seat and enjoyed our drive down the mountains to Wellawaya.
In Wellawaya we grabbed a quick snack then boarded our bus to go up to the waterfalls, this time the bus felt like it was going to fall apart. There was a horrible vibrating, crunching noise at the back which made us think the back axle was going to fall out. Thankfully we made it to the waterfall without any dramas and we were rewarded with pretty impressive views of Diyaluma falls.
We were pretty keen to walk to the top to have a swim in the pools so after storing our bags in a shop we grabbed a tuk tuk to take us 3km straight up the hill to the start of the walk. We then had to walk the last 1km which was great. We walked along the side of the mountain, a rather steep drop off to our right. As we approached the waterfalls we instructed the boys to be very careful as it was a huge drop off. I was quite nervous, especially after Arthur’s little tumble down the waterfall on the Whanganui River. Rhys then told us that a tourist died at these waterfalls a little while ago from falling over the edge – now my nerves were 100 times greater!
At the top we enjoyed some watermelon, then all carefully walked around to get into the pools for a swim. It is an odd feeling being nervous for other people, before I had kids I would not have given it any thought however now I am a Mum things with great risk makes me very nervous. My imagination is also crazy as the thought of one of the kids loosing their balance and tripping then rolling off the edge was quite horrifying. Nerves aside we had a wonderful swim in the pool and under the waterfall, the water was lovely and fresh. Arthur and Oliver had a great time, Patrick wasn’t the biggest fan and was much happier sitting on the rocks watching us. Rhys was quite brave and poked his head over the edge where the falls cascade 220m onto rocks near the bridge we got off the bus.
Very relived we all survived the swim on top of Sri Lanka’s second highest waterfall we got dressed and started our walk back, we then enjoyed a delicious buffet of curries for lunch before finding a bus to take us to Arugam Bay.
Our tuk tuk driver was great and told us which bus we could catch, once we were all settled in and Patrick was having a little nap on Oliver we realised that Olivers kite has been left behind in the shop. Bugger, Rhys was sure he had checked the area before leaving but must have missed the kite. As we realised this we both said we mustn’t forget our tog bag which was stored in the overhead shelf away from our other bags. It was a bumpy ride and quite hot, which meant Patrick had a great sleep. Arthur on the other hand did not have a comfortable ride as he was busting for a wee and refused to go in the spare drink bottle we had….
We stopped at a bus station which was not planned and the bus then had its bonnet up, Rhys thought we would be a while so went in search for another bus and found one that was going directly to Arugam Bay. It also meant that Arthur could run to the toilet and finally do his wee. We decided to switch buses which upset our original bus staff a bit but we explained we didn’t mind getting off early, they were trying to tell us to get back on as the bus as it was about to leave. Rhys and the kids had already walked off so again I thanked the bus ticket man and told him we are all good and will go on the other bus straight to Pottuvil.
We had 30mins to wait so we took turns to go for a walk as the bus was like a sauna, Oliver, Arthur and I found some more rambutans which made the perfect snack for trip, then Rhys and Patrick were successful in finding some cold water and popcorn.
Closer to our departure time the bus just kept on filling, thankfully we had 3 seats which the kids claimed and Rhys and I were stuck in the aisle. We were packed in like sardines and just as we were about to leave I realised we didn’t have our tog bag, bugger! We had completely forgotten to grab it when we changed buses. We tried to find the number for the bus but had no luck, it was quite annoying but a lesson to be learnt. We should have put it back in our backpack and kept our luggage together rather than seperate. The bus to Pottuvil went well, we counted at least 85 people on the and it didn’t start to empty for at least 1.5hrs. I am glad the kids had a seat as they enjoyed eating their snacks and looking out the window.
It was dark by the time we reached Pottuvil and watching the sunset over the rice fields was quite stunning, we saw large flocks of the painted stork which were beautiful. We all clambered off the bus and jumped into a tuk tuk for the final leg of our long day of travelling, excitement levels were high when we crossed the lagoon and entered the tourist zone of Arugam Bay, Oliver in particular has been waiting a long time to get here.
Once at our hotel the boys enjoyed the space of a 2 bedroom villa while I quickly unpacked. Our day of forgetting things continued unfortunately and we realised Oliver had left his NZ cap on the seat in the bus. He had completely forgotten he still had it, being dark when we got off didn’t help in reminding him to put it on his head. Tears welled in his eyes as he realised his mistake as he loved his cap and had been so good and looking after it. 3 things – surly that is it for us!
Over dinner we all agreed that we had to remember things a little better and need to put things back in bags to help keep things together. I can not keep track of things for 5 people so I need the boys to start to look back and check the space we are leaving and to remember what they were carrying. Hopefully this is the last of loosing things and thankfully we have lost replaceable items so all good and an added bonus is we are in the right place to get new togs and googles and Oliver is begging me to get him a new NZ hat. I will see what I can do…
