ROAD TRIP PART 6: AROUND HAPUTALE

The family at Lipton's Seat, where you can get a great view of the surrounding hills and tea plantations.

The clouds roll in, fulfilling one of Brenton's ambitions for the trip; to touch a cloud. Jaymon caught his own cloud, named it Jimmy and kept it in his pocket.

These rollercoasters have the most amazing views.

























Bambarakanda Falls - the highest in Sri Lanka (240m)

ROAD TRIP PART 5: KELBURNE TEA ESTATE

The Kelburne Tea Estate, otherwise known as Mountain View, is where we stayed when we got to Haputale. This place, as you will see, is so gorgeous it deserves a post all of it's own. I think you would be hard pressed to find a more delightful place to stay - and we really just stumbled our way in. This place is mentioned in that vital piece of travelling equipment, The Lonely Planet Guide, which warns that you should book ahead. Still, Darren thought we'd just give it a shot anyway and, what do you know, they actually had a vacancy available for the two days we wanted to stay. Their next reservation was due a couple of hours after we were to leave.

There are 3 cottages at the Kelburne Tea Estate, which used to be the managers' residences, and their delightful charm has been maintained. Each cottage is assigned someone to take special care of the guests. They will bring your chosen meals to your table at the time you allocate and make sure everything is in place for you. The grounds are beautiful and the view is spectacular. You couldn't help but go crazy with the camera here.

Much better than a hotel, this place makes you feel like you have the whole world to yourselves. The cottages are well-stocked with reading material and there are also board games on offer. For the more active, there is badminton and a basketball hoop. And, of course, there is the surrounding countryside to explore. A particular interest-catcher are the sign-trees, which are adorned with boards painted by previous guests. We were thrilled to be able to leave our names at this piece of heaven.

ROAD TRIP PART 4: MOVING ON

On day 5 it was time to say farewell to Nuwara Eliya and move on. Firstly, however, we needed to make good on a promise to take the children to a park. The park was set up like a sculpted English garden, complete with a multitude of signs telling you what you were and were not to do. A section of the park was set apart as a designated children's playground.

From the park we were to head from Nuwara Eliya to Badulla. However, I had read in a few different places about a tea factory that had been converted into a hotel and I thought that it might be a nice place to go for lunch. So it was off to the Tea Factory Hotel for us. This place is very beautiful. The managers let us have a look around. The rooms have an awesome view of the hills. There is a mini tea factory on site to explain the process of tea making to the guests. There is a playground for children and a hedge maze. The hotel has various reminders of its history on display and it has an old railway carriage on the grounds as a venue for fine dining.

After lunch we thought that we wouldn't go back through Nuwara Eliya to get to Badulla but to go the long way to see what we could see. In hindsight, what were we thinking?! As the bear teaches all small children, all that you will see is the other side of the mountain. Considering even the short way is the long way in Sri Lanka, the long way becomes the really long way. The views were absolutely amazing and I now know that there are innumerable tea plants in Sri Lanka - every hill seemed covered in them - but even the delights of amazing scenery start to wear off after several hours. The moral of the story: never, ever go the long way in Sri Lanka!

ROAD TRIP PART 3: CHASING THE FALLS

One of the things we wanted to do on this trip was to go exploring at some of the many waterfalls in the region. Today's post shows some of the photos from our adventures.

ROAD TRIP PART 2: WORLD'S END

Day 3 of the trip saw us hiking across Horton's Plains to World's End. The increasingly dog-eared Lonely Planet guide suggested getting to World's End before 10am so that the view isn't obscured by clouds. Taking into consideration the obligatory hour-and-half drive on pot-holed roads and the fact that we would be hiking with children, we decided to leave the hotel at 5am. So off we set, all rugged up with our lunch packed in cardboard boxes, stopping once for cigarettes for the driver and again to take photos of the sunrise.

We arrived at Horton's Plains at 6:30am. The wind blowing through the thick morning mist was icy cold and we began to wonder what we had got ourselves in for. Fortunately the mist was soon to dissipate and it wasn't much longer until we were able to remove our jumpers and enjoy some glorious sunshine.

Driving through the park entrance to the carpark we were able to spot elk through the mist. It seemed a little strange that this was a snapshot of Sri Lanka. We left the car and began the 9.5 km walk that would lead us across Horton's plains, up to World's End, round to Baker's Falls and then back to where we started. It wasn't a difficult walk - the children had no trouble with it - and the scenery was beautiful. Across plains, along rocky paths through the forest and, at times, there's no path at all, just a forest trail. It would have been exciting to say we saw a leopard, but I'm actually more thankful that we didn't (they have been known to venture down and eat stray dogs on the outskirts of towns).

World's End (and mini World's End) were amazing views (although, because there's no guard rails - it's a little scary to do with two excitable boys). It turned out that we had a perfect day and the clouds did not come along to obscure our view. Apparently, the preceding days had been very cloudy so we were very pleased with the outcome. The land stretched out forever and it made me think that if this is how big a small island like Sri Lanka can look, imagine how large the world really is!!

From World's End we headed onwards to Baker's Falls, where the children had a little dip in the waters. Then we continued to hike onwards, back around to where the hike began. The hike is supposed to take about 3 hours. With children, we managed it in 4, so we were quite pleased with our efforts. Little Jay did start to complain towards the end that his legs were steaming but he did walk the whole way without needing to be carried (except for a short stint when he was piggy-backed after he fell off a ledge - only a little one!) so we were pretty proud of him.

ROAD TRIP PART 1: NUWARA ELIYA

We have recently come back from a week on the road so we would like to share some of the experience with you. We visited the hill country, which was so picturesque that we have returned with squillions of photos. Because it is so difficult to decide which photos to share with you, we have decided to have the next few blogs dedicated to our time away so that you too can enjoy the scenery of our road trip.

Our first day was the drive to Nuwara Eliya. We left around 9am and stopped for lunch at a restaurant halfway to our destination. The restaurant we chose was located near a waterfall - the hill country having many stunning waterfalls. After our meal we followed a path down to the waterfall for a look up close. It's amazing the amount of noise and wind that can falling water can generate (the same can also be said of some of our family members!).

Then it was on to Nuwara Eliya. This town, situated near Sri Lanka's highest mountain, is 1889m above sea level. We had been given plenty of warnings that it gets cold in Nuwara Eliya but, with the arrogance of foreigners, we didn't really pay any heed. What would a Sri Lankan know about being cold? We laughed at the sight of the locals we passed in our van, rugged up with winter jackets and beanies. Oh, foolish, foolish foreigners. We got out of the van and it was freezing! So cold that we needed to make a beeline for the markets the next day to buy some more jumpers. The funny thing about buying jumpers in Nuwara Eliya is that everybody, tourists and locals, must all come to these markets to get their jumpers so it is not unusual to look around and see several other people wearing your jumper.

We managed to get a good deal to stay at an upmarket hotel, which was a birthday treat for me. Prince bought me a birthday cake and got the staff to bring it out after dinner. Everybody in the restaurant joined in singing Happy Birthday. I would normally hate that much attention but I have to admit it was actually pretty cool. The hotel and it's grounds were very picturesque and it gave us an opportunity to enjoy 2 things which we never expected to enjoy in Sri Lanka - steaming hot showers and hot water bottles in our beds.

Nuwara Eliya is known for several reasons (apart from the cold); rolling green hills, vegetable gardens and horse racing list among them. A day of sight-seeing included a visit to a tea factory, scrumptious pancakes with strawberries and cream from a strawberry restaurant and pony rides for the boys. All in all, a lovely day for everybody!

FAMILY PHOTO TIME

As there is a war on here, it is common to see soldiers on the side of the road. These "army guys" got a particularly cushy number out the front of McDonalds and some kind soul bought them icecream. Speaking to them you could tell they wanted their photo taken but they were also nervous in case their commander caught them. I think Jaymon and Brenton will return home and wonder why there are no men with guns standing out the front of Big W.


















One of our adopted dogs, Puppy. We did have two but, as Prince is sometimes kind to his own detriment, he gave Puppy's sister away - even though he said he would not even sell her at one stage.




Jaymon always manages to find a way!!!

















It did take a few face plants but B has managed to master the rolling drum. Jay, however, has not but at least he has learned that jumping off something that rotates is not a good idea.


















No, he isn't upside down; he just has bad hair!!








Big grins here as the boys have started the motorbike and are revving it furiously.

6 ADULTS, 12 CHILDREN AND 3 DOGS

Tuesday was something a little out of the ordinary. We had a group of orphans come to spend the day. Not only that, Prince's two puppies, Puppy and Cookie, came along for the fun. Prince has also been dog-sitting Kiara, who is waiting to be shipped to Germany. So, including our happy family, our house became filled to bursting . . . with 6 adults, 12 children and 3 dogs.






English classes were the order of the day. These children are actually fortunate enough that somebody pays for them to have an English tutorial once a week. However, the English that is taught here is often very unnatural and the children lack confidence to use it. This day was about allowing the children to develop their proficiency and confidence with the English language. I think their favourite were the games, or more precisely, the toffees that they won. It would come as no surprise to any of my ex-LOTE students out there what game we played - Bingo!



Still, it's hard to resist a little fun outside the class room as well. There is a great park nearby, so we took the children for a play after lunch. (Sorry, we got so many lovely photos from the park it got too difficult to just pick one!)































































































After a play in the park, we all walked over to the beach. It wasn't really beach weather but that didn't matter. Many of these kids have never left the small town where they live, let alone seen the beach. We bought them ice creams and they splashed about on the shoreline in sheer delight.









Even the loveliest of days must come to an end and it was eventually time for them to pile back in the van for an hour's drive home. We have set a date to do this again, but for now that would have to be enough for 12 happy children, 6 weary adults . . . and even 3 dogs.