We
left at 7am and made a quick stop at the local temple for our guide, Batu and
our driver Sampath, then headed to the Ayurvedic herbal garden and training
center. A doctor in trainimg showed us all the medicinal plants, including a
cream to remove hair naturally, which he demonstrated on a small patch of
Roger's arm hair. We
had a lovely cup of herbal tea and then a short head and body massage from two
trainees. We then headed along the southern coast and saw the stilt fisherman.
Unfortunately, they only fish for tourists these days, so we decided to skip
paying for a photo of them and instead just snapped a distant shot as we drove
by.
We
passed Marissa, the launching point for whale watching expeditions, but we
won't likely see any when we sail out, and since we sailied in at night, we'll
likely miss the blue whales and sperm whales in this part of the world. We
turned north and headed up into the hill country. We drove up to Uda Welawa
national park and the Elephant Transit Home, and orphanage for baby elephants.
We arrived there at feeding time and it was sweet watching the baby elephants
fed milk. There are loads of wild elephants in the park, best seen at dawn and
dusk.
We didn't have enough time to spend a day at the park, but one elie was standing along the road and we were happy to feed her mangos purchased from a vendor conveniently standing right there by the elephant... they must be in cahoots! We drove on and our driver was excellent at finding and pointing out birds and other interesting sights along the way.
Ella
was our final destination for the first night. We had an herbal Ayurvedic
massage and then drove to our hotel in the mountain out of town for a
surprisingly good meal, gorgeous view, and good nights rest.
The next morning we set out with brekky-to-go for the amazingly beautiful train ride to Nurawele Eliya along the mountain ridges. There was damage due to heavy rains this season and we were lucky as the train only started running again this day, though only the 6:39AM and no observation car. Still, we barely sat, choosing to stand by the open doors and take photos most of the way!
The next day we were planning to climb Adam's Peak, leaving at 2AM to arrive at the summit before sunrise. Needless to say we made an early evening of it.
With Equanimity and Joy
