Well I finally arrived at the stop for tonight, Amaya Hills Hotel, Kandy, but not without some drama.
A much cooler day today as we head further into the highlands. The forrest has opened up to reveal Sri Lankas stunning landscape of larger farms and tea plantations. It's obvious as I drive along that road maintenance is not high on their agenda, unless the buses can't get through. Many rockfall & landslides litter the road, and in many cases part of the road has slipped away as well.
Lots of narrow winding roads going up, down through the mountainous country, and some of them are little better than rock tracks. Finally arrived at our accommodation for tonight, Tea & Experience Factory, Mandaram Nuwara.
Got here just in time as a huge thunderstorm rolled through after I got here and it's still raining, I've also just learnt that a tuktuk not far behind me was delayed for quite a while as a large tree fell across the road.
Today we continue on westwards through the heart of Sri Lanka’s up into the mountains, to the Hill Country. If it wasn’t for the traffic the winding twisting mountain roads would be great to ride a motorbike through, but the little tuktuk travelling at 40kph has no difficulty in navigating these winding roads with its picturesque countryside, it rains heavily for about 20 mins but I stayed relatively dry in the covered tuktuk.
The countryside we pass is lush green jungle and farms growing corn, vegetables, tea plantations, and rice fields. We evntually get to Ella a busy little town which has become popular for hiking, with many walks available including Little Adam's Peak or Ella Rock both of which I can see from the hotel.
At about 1000mtrs it is much cooler here, and as I write this the clouds are gradually rolling in obscuring the view from the roof of Hotel Onrock.