the highlands

jetlag can sometimes be a blessing - we were awake at 5am the next morning and i suggested to hubby that we get a tuk-tuk to the train station and inquire about reserved seats to ella (they hadn't had any when we arrived) as it's a 7 hour train journey and i wasn't keen for a repeat of our trip to kandy. we hesitantly approached the ticket booth and were advised they had first class reserved seats with A/C - we were ecstatic! 

the train journey is spectacular as it meanders through tea plantations and small hamlets, slowing climbing higher into the highlands. we'd envisioned taking pictures from the train windows however it wasn't possible as the windows were filthy! 

we arrived in ella and had a wander around.  it's a cute little town filled with tons of tourists surrounded by tea plantations and gorgeous hillside views. while in ella, we walked to rawana falls - an 80m waterfall, saw heaps of monkeys and visited horton's plain national park. the park is 2hrs from ella and we went to see world's end and little world's end which provide some dramatic views of the canyon. finally, we walked to nine arches bridge, which unsurprisingly is a bridge with nine arches, tons of tourists and
some pretty photo opportunities. 

     

sigiriya & elephants galore!!

we booked a driver for the next morning to drive us to sigiriya which is an ancient rock fortress, known as lion rock about 3 hours drive north. it's an example of ancient urban planning and i was particularly impressed with the engineering - it's no small feat building a palace on the top of a 200m high rock. we toured the gardens and then headed up past the mirror wall to the top of the rock where the palace was constructed. there were some gorgeous views of the water & terraced gardens. it was also superbly hot and humid in the sun - we were both pretty happy to come down and get into some shade.

we had a quick lunch and then we were off on an unplanned safari adventure to minneriya national park to see elephants. our taxi showed us some pictures on his phone and i was hooked being a lover of elephants. we saw tons of elephants in the park - they come from the surrounding area for the lake in the center of the national park in the dry season.

one of the viewing spots had more than 40 elephants hanging out together and having a snack until the bull elephant decided it was time to head to the lake. unfortunately for him, many of the safari jeeps were blocking his way. he asked politely a couple of times by trumpeting and running close to the jeeps however when they didn't move, he charged seriously, knocking the jeep behind us onto 2 wheels temporarily (our jeep drove away quickly before he had a chance to attack us). once they were able to pass, everyone meandered towards the watering hole and the jeeps headed out of the park.

it was a full-on day as we didn't reach kandy until 8:30pm that evening. we had a quick bite and then rolled ourselves into bed utterly exhausted due to the jet lag! 

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