Sri Lanka
08 - 12 - 2024 // 20 - 12 - 2024
A Journey through ocean breeze, tea hills and jungle peaks
An adventure not on my own this time but with a friend, from the south to central Sri Lanka, from the ocean to the jungle and battles against leeches. Lot of hikes and fun through tea plantations and beautiful green scenery.
Even if technically my journey started in Colombo, just to spend the night after a late flight, the next morning I grabed a train to Weligama, in the south. Couple of hour late, the train finally showed up and it packed up very quickly. Spent most of the ride sitting on my backpack between to train cars and then at the door.
Weligama
A few hours later I was finally in Weligama to meet my friend for the beginning of the adventure.
It started the next day with the sunrise over the ocean for my friend's last surf session. Morning fog, early surfers and fishing boats.
Yala National Park
Midday we were on our way to Yala National Park through Matara where we saw the Parewi Duwa Temple on this small island next to the bus station.
End of afternoon we arrived at a beautiful and peaceful guesthouse in Tissamaharama ready for the next day's safari, goal : see leopards .
Unfortunately the safari was really disappointing, we knew it's not easy to see the leopards, but we were okay with that knowing there would be other animals, thing is, we saw the monkeys better on different (free) hikes, and we saw enough peacocks for a lifetime. The other animals we saw was dears, water buffaloes and Elephants. But, even if we didn't, they can be seen freely elsewhere in the country.
Ella
And then here we were, in another bus, direction Ella, ready for beautiful hikes but not for the fog. Found my paradise in this nature, so green, so luxurious and wild. Even if the fog kept us from probably great point of view with its white wall, it gave a mysterious and eerie vibe and therefore, really great shots.
However the first nigh was under the rain in a poorly built hostel, we could see the ground floor between the floor planks and the roof was metal, very roots, that we probably would have like on nice sunny days. We ended up staying in a guest house with kind and helpful host with a beautiful view for the rest of our time in Ella. This is also where we had our first encounter with leeches.
Ella to Kandy
We then took the famous train from Ella to Kandy, we got a third class ticket on the app just to secure a sit and not spend several hours standing or sitting on the floor. Third class, mostly filled with locals and a few tourists. 7h of train through fantastic landscapes. At some point there was a long stop and locals came along the train to sell fruits and vegetables through the doors and windows. We stopped somewhere in between, a town named Nanu Oya.
It was a peaceful place, not a lot of tourist and beautiful hikes. we walked a lot through tea plantations around there and ended up at a waterfall, where I almost lost/broke the new camera. we stayed for one night only and then back in the train to Kandy. we stayed one night there, met really nice people at the hostel with whom we celebrated my birthday.
The next day we back tracked a little and went to Nawalapitiya with a local met in the south and his friend as guides. They took us to 3 different waterfalls and one was magnificent, 30m high and empty, not a soul was around, we had it for ourselves.
Sigiriya and Adam's Peak
We made it to Sigiriya, in central Sri Lanka, we walked around a little before going through the temple and climbing up the point of view facing Sigiriya. We saw so many wild monkeys on the way up, from so close. And the view from the top was wide, full 360°.
Again we didn't stay long and back tracked south between Ella and Kandy, Got down from the train in Hatton, spend the night there and next morning we were on our way for Adam's Peak and it's 5500 steps on 5km and 1000m up hill. And locals climb those stairs every day with huge crates and bags to bring the goods to the different shop on the way up and probably to the temple sitting on the top of the mountain at 2200 high.
We did the way back running, couldn't go slow with our shaking legs. Back to Hatton for an evening bus to Colombo, for my flight home the next day.
