Chilly in the mountains

Our trip up into the mountains in Sri Lanka did not start out good as our pre-booked taxi was more than an hour late for the pick-up. The driver was forgiven when he found a cute elephant on the roadside and stopped, woke us up (yes, we were sleeping in the backseat of a taxi.) so we could photograph and feed him with a banana. The elephant lived in Deniyaya National Park and looked to have it just fine on his side of the fence.

The taxi journey to Nuwara Eliya was long and winding. The town lies at almost 2000 meters altitude over sea level and to get there, many mountains must be climbed. Five hours later, however, we arrived at our hotel Spring Garden, very high up on the mountainside and with a mountain view.
The highlight of our stay in Nuwara Eliya was an three-hour excursion in the mountains with a rickshaw. We saw many tea plantations and visited a tea factory (unfortunately it was public holiday and no one was working but we got a tour anyway) where we had tea and bought some to bring home to Sweden.

Wasantha and his wife really was a fantastic host and hostess. They cooked dinner for us in the evenings. And as a great treat, especially as it was cold in the hotel, Wasantha came and lit a fire for us in our room. So cozy!