Sri Lanka - Nuwara Eliya

At 6000ft, conditions are perfect for growing tea - plantations are everywhere

From the beaches of Arugambay, it was a steep and winding climb on narrow mountain roads to Nuwara Eliya.  

The roads are really, really winding...

Within an hour and a half we'd climbed about 3500ft to Bandawarela, where we stopped for lunch before doing the remaining 2500ft to Nuwara Eliya. This is tea plantation country, where the air is cool (especially compared to the stifling humidity of Colombo) and it rains a lot of the year.  

The dam at Nuwara Eliya

We were actually lucky to have a couple of days where it didn't rain too much, considering it had rained non-stop for 3 months and had only stopped the day before we arrived!

The Nuwara Eliya golf club in sunshine

We stayed at the Nuwara Eliya golf course, a real old Colonial style clubhouse, which sadly does not have the same patronage that it had in years gone by but a lovely old building with beautifully maintained greens.

The scenery around Nuwara Eliya

We stayed for 2 days "up country" as the Sri Lankans call it, visiting a couple of tea plantations and just enjoying the coolness after the heat.  

Different types of tea we found at the Tea Factory Hotel

There's not much to write about the town itself, but just outside is very pretty, with plenty of tea plantations and vegetable plots. 

You can send a postcard of this post office from this post office...

Two days of relaxing and viewing the countryside done, and we were heading down to Matale, about half way down the mountain...