Day 3 started with a lovely trip to an elephant orphanage to see baby elephants being bottle fed. The most impressive observation was the sheer number of school children visiting the orphanage, many of whom were delighted to see us and talk with us.
After making a donation to fund some milk for the elephants, we were off on the bikes. It was a day of gradual climbing but nothing too strenuous and a welcome relief from the difficult terrain of the day before.
We made more stops for refreshments and ended our journey with coconut rotis before boarding our bus to climb more steeply towards our lunch stop at Ella, taking in a waterfall with a resident monkey population on the way.
Then it was time for an ayurvedic spa treatment, “prescribed” for us by an ayurvedic “doctor”. Not only were we placed communally into a giant pizza oven to steam, pummelled and massaged with oils (literally all over) then placed in a coffin-like steam bath for yet more heat, but this whole process appeared to turn me orange.
We climbed yet further to Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka’s highest town and checked in to the local equivalent of Fawlty Towers only with several Basils and Manuels. What more can you do when faced with a hotel lacking the basics (including a bar!) than bring your own supplies and interact with the other guests? We made friends with the Indian tour group checking in at the same time only to discover the following day that some of them were actually Sri Lankan government officials! As is often the case, triumph arises out of adversity and this was probably one of the most fun nights on the entire trip!
Do enjoy the video which explains the day! xx
Anecdotally, 