Ceylon Tea

After an uneventful flight and journey we arrived in Kandy, our first port of call in Sri Lanka. Nestled in the mountains, we used this city as a base to explore the surrounding area with the help of a couple of drivers. This allowed us to cover lots of miles over just a few days as we were quite time restricted.

On our first day we headed up high into the mountains south of Kandy. As we drove our way up the windy roads we enjoyed the stunning mountainous and lush landscape of the area, intermittently met but roadside stalls selling all sorts of fruits particularly King Coconut.

As we reached the highest point we were greeted by Macwood Labookellies, an enormous tea plantation covering most of the surrounding hills. We took a brief tour of the factory and then enjoyed a cup of tea and tasty slice of cake.

[caption id="attachment_321" align="alignnone" width="600"] Quaint tea and cake.[/caption]

Next was Nuara Eliya (2000m), a town was set up by the British during the 1800s as a a pleasure retreat for European planters.  We didn't explore a great deal of the town but did go on a little cycle ride near a lake instead.

Last stop was a temple over 700 years old with over 500 carvings.  Although on first impression the temple wasn't particular impressive on further investigation, and with some help from a local man we were able to discover and appreciate the well preserved iron wood carvings and paintings.

[caption id="attachment_320" align="alignnone" width="600"] Ancient carvings from Embekke Devalaya[/caption]