I know how much you've all been enjoying Millie's writing in previous posts, so I'm sorry to deprive you of that on this occasion. However, it's only fair that I chip in every now and then (that's the official party line, truth is that Millie doesn't trust me with it!)
Leaving Kandy, we were treated to a stunning train ride up into the hill country.
The train barely got above 20kmph at any time, giving us plenty of time to enjoy the views. Obviously, being slow tourists, we missed the chance of getting seats, so we spent most of the 5 hour ride stood by the door, getting very wet!
Following the journey, we stopped in Nuwara Eliya - a town dubbed "Little England" for its colonial architecture, tea plantations and terrible weather (constant rain!) What you do get there though, is incredible views accross to the tea plantation workers' colourful villages, and great views down the valleys to the lakes.
One of many villages created by tea workers.
Tea! Everywhere!
It also seems the tea plantations like to encourage sustainable attitudes to looking after the hillsides around them...
Views for miles - on a clear day you can see right to the coast.
Not remotely nervous about falling off...honest...
Once we had eaten our breakfast at the viewpoint, and resisted the urge to push each other off the side, we moved on further into the park via beautiful waterfalls, winding rivers and yet more great views across the plains.
A "Millie-pede"...
Some of the houses look like they're straight out of Herefordshire..
After the debacle surrounding our cycling endeavours in Anuradhapura, I took myself off on a mountain bike finding some more stunning scenery (sensing a pattern here yet?!) and inadvertently discovering that tea plantations create some brilliant downhill tracks.
Sweaty man.
My "solid" mountain bike for the day.
...and some of the hillside restaurants aren't quite so welcoming!
The next day we had a 5am start to catch views at World's End in the Horton Plains National Park before the clouds roll in. The walk through the plains was dotted with pockets of forest which were covered in thousands of beautiful purple "nelu" flowers - we were very fortunate in our timing as these only flower every 8 years!
The path then emerges to a stunning viewpoint (World's End) which is on top of a cliff face with a drop below of over 800m.
We then had a wait of over 3 hours for our train to Ella (yes we sang the Rihanna song too) however that's hard to complain about when the station was such a lovely spot to pass time in.
Next time you'll be back in Millie's capable hands!
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