Sri Lanka despite being a small island has several faces. The highlands in the central part are homelands for endless tea plantations where moderate climate serves the best. There are several places to be considered for a couple of days stays. The most popular are Nuwara Eliya and Elle. The last one is by far more relaxing place, however its popularity has significantly risen over last years.

Elle is a small village being loved by backpacking travelers. From a practical perspective the village offers everything is needed for a stress less stay. Plenty of cheap home stays, bars and restaurants as well as banking and transportation services. All reachable by foot.  Being in the heart of the Tea Country the place is well communicated with the rest of the country. Elle is part of the famous railway track Kandy – Badulla. This is by the way probably the most scenic way to get there. Of course in a high season this may be also quite challenging as the train is gently speaking overcrowded. The journey from Kandy is 7 hours so having a seat is a great added value to this adventure.

Ella Rock 

Elle sits around 1000m.a.s.l and is surrounded by lovely hilly landscapes. This gives opportunity to take some easy hikes to enjoy the views. Climbing Ella Rock seems to be an iconic target.  The mountain is 1300masl and is visible from almost everywhere in the village.

The loop hike takes roughly 5 hours with steady step. The most fascinating thing about this hike is that this is a competition between you and local touts who for sure would take an opportunity to mislead you. Why? Because if followed the wrong way into high grass and bushes you would certainly meet a helpful guy who would agree to be your guide for some decent price. On top of that you will see a number of fake signs leading you to some stalls with drinks and snacks. Internet provides with endless route descriptions so finding your way will not be as difficult. However, it is good to learn some tips.  Of course there area many variants how to get to the top. The fascinating debate goes on which way is better and why another is simply a suicide. Do not take this too seriously! First of all please note you will not be alone on the way. This is very popular truck and gets crowded closer to the top. Second, it is like in Rome: all roads lead to Ella Rock. At worst you may loose some time but probably you will have occasion to take some nice views. Of course I believe there won’t be many who wants climb at night as then the situation might be a bit different.

The usual starting point is to get to the railway truck directly from the main junction, 500m uphill. As soon as you see the official sign that walking on the rail is forbidden you know you are there. Anyway, you can always ask a tuk-tuk driver to bring you there.

Now, take something like 2.5km along the rails in the direction of Kandy. For sure you will not be alone when walking down the rail. Especially around 1pm you will see a lot of children coming back from school. You need to ignore all fake signs and proceed until you reach the train station Kitalella. Now you feel the excitement rises. Take another 10 minutes walk and pass the 166 1/2 mile sign. You will see the railway turns right into the small gorge. As it ends there is a sharp left turn path just behind a remarkable rock. Take it!

There is a bridge few meters ahead. Just after it you will have two choices: left uphill or right. Both directions are ok, however it’s easier to take the right path and come back to this point from the left side, thus completing the loop. You will get to the cultivation area with some wet fields on the right and small tea plantation on your left side.

That was the place where we met our friendly tout for the first time. We approached the guy with some stupid questions about cobras living in the tea bushes. Indeed he confirmed the area is well habituated by those lovely creatures. Then, pointing at a structure we had considered to be a termite cast he called it a cobra house. We have looked around discovering this snake house was not at all isolated. The morale of our team has gone through the floor…

Anyway, we had to proceed. The path led through the fields into direction of the small yellow house few hundred meters ahead C-curving to the right. Surprisingly the guy suddenly appeared again proudly showing the field with some green peppers. Just in front of the yellow hut we turned left and went uphill approaching another house. Surprise! The guy was already there showing the house which seemed to be his own. We did not want to take the stairs leading to his garden and turned right into the bushes and high grass, passed the grey structure on the left (a toilet?) and following the path in the grasss. We came to the end of the path and turned right through some tea bushes towards the tree line. On the left side there was a narrow uphill path where our lovely friend was pretending to collect some woods from the ground. The guy was desperate and started to call us showing his path as the correct one. And this is important point as for sure that was not the easy alternative leading probably to the fact that sooner or later one would need to ask the guy for help. Fortunately we did not follow his suggestion and took our easy tree line path. Very soon after the path leads up through the light forest and you reach the incredible view point where the path joins the other Ella Rock highway. Now, the way is easy as you can clearly see the rock on your right side. The path starts to be quite steep and slippery but straightforward. Allow 20 minutes walk in the eucalyptus forest and you are there.

There is some work going on. It looks locals are building the fence to barrier the view point on the rock. So probably in short time you will need to buy tickets to admire the view from the summit.

It’s a good idea to continue the walk some 15 minutes along the edge of the mountain. You will get to nice tiny Buddhist cave shrine where you can enjoy wonderful view on Ella gap and Little Adam’s Peak.

When coming back it is good to take an alternative way and follow the main path which is very easy to find and where most people go. There is another occasion to see much wider tea plantations and refresh in a lovely straw roofed bar. At the end you reach the known bridge and get back to the rail tracks.

As we live in the XXIst century you can download the full GPS track from Wikiloc site and have it offline. This is very precise logging record so no fear to be lost.

Wikiloc Ella Rock track – here

Little Adam’s Peak|Nine Arches Bridge|Kinellan Black Tea Factory 

Beside Ella Rock climbing the village offers some other easy hiking destinations. As we spent there only 2 days we have combined some interesting places into one half a day extensive walk. Both the iconic 9 Arches Bridge and Little Adam’s Peak are located in the close proximity to each other. Reaching the Bridge may be a bit more challenging as the way leads through the village houses. Note this is very popular destination so you will not be alone. The Bridge is located something like 20 minutes walk from the main road and at the end it easy to navigate. Good starting point on the main road (Passara Rd) is the small Hindu temple on the left side. Just follow the gravel road towards the rail tracks.

 

The Bridge offers really unforgettable views however it is crowded. After spending some minutes on place take the way back by different path starting on the other end of the Bridge, just before the tunnel. Take the stairs in the forest and you will find quite a straightforward path leading to the Passara Rd. You will have a nice photo spot on the way.

You will reach the main road on the curve where just on the opposite side there is a concrete road leading into the tea fields. This is a beautiful way towards the Little Adam’s Peak leading through huge tea plantations. 

Note the walk is really easy like a stroll and only last few meters to the summit are a bit more tiring. From the top (there are indeed 3 peaks; the principal hosts 2 little Buddhist shrines) there is a nice view on Ella Rock.

This tour should not take more than 3 hours depending on your sensitivity to mountain and tea plantation views. As the day was young we decided to explore more about tea and directed towards a remote tea factory Kinellan. Why not the Newburgh Tea Factory? We have read a number of bad reviews of that plant (very consistent by the way) as well as saw quite a lot of local advertisements so we preferred to chose less popular place. Apart from that the Kinellan is black tea factory which means the process is a bit more complex than the green tea plant.

Kinellan factory is located on the other side of Elle so it offers another opportunity to take a walk as well as a rest in the village center. In all tea factories the photo capturing is forbidden. Everyone who ever had occasion to visit such a place would certainly know why. Simply saying the process is disgusting and lacking any hygiene standards. None of the pictures available in internet is exaggerated! But that’s how it works. Taking this apart the visit is interesting and quite well guided. No crowds at all – we were alone and really appreciated the visit. And now we know why the quality of tea that is put into the tea bags is called “dust”. This is the lowest quality tea dust being swept from the floor…Enjoy:-)

Again please see the Wikiloc for the log record from this daily walk. Especially helpful for the Bridge part.

 

Wikiloc Elle Icons Walk – here