Chapter 13 -- Sri Lanka Highlands

then&there

Chapter 13 -- Sri Lanka Highlands

An elephant returns from morning ablutions in the Kelani River which originates in the distant highlands upstream and flows west to the main city of Colombo.

“Wow!!!  Did you see that?  Look!  No, over there!  Over to your left, up the tree.  No…….. it’s gone now.  Oh, you should’a seen it!  What a beauty!!!”

Unfortunately, I missed it.  But she’s been talking about it ever since.

Apparently, reclining on a nearby tree branch overhead was a leopard well-camouflaged in the foliage, patiently awaiting the next meal to happen by in the early morning light.  Our vehicle disturbed its perch and solitude, our arrival prompting the apex predator of Sri Lanka to vanish into the bushes.
We continued south along the torturously slow network of backroads on the way to the national park on the geographical roof of Sri Lanka.

We’d heard of leopards prowling throughout the country but especially right here where we were about to do a day hike around the national park at lofty Horton Plains.  The Sri Lanka leopard is a large species, presumably well-fed -- unwary citizens are occasionally part of their varied diets.  These thoughts darken one’s mind when armed only with strong words and a zoom lens.

With another couple we walked a well-maintained path through a mixed landscape of grassy plains beside impenetrable jungle for about an hour, then broke out from the trail to marvel at World’s End, a 900 metre drop, almost straight down from the plateau to the steamy jungle below.  We walked along the cliff edge through the grasslands to a stream that led to braided Baker’s Falls and looped back to the vehicles, a round trip of about ten kliks and a few hours but with no further leopard sightings.  Just as well.

Climatic zones gradually change when ascending up to the highlands as
tea cultivation becomes dominant.

Multi-national agricultural corporations announce their presence in the highlands.

An air quality indicator greets travelers at the bus station in Nuwara Eliya.

Colonial architecture and attitude define The Hill Club whose stately building dominates the town.

Nuwara Eliya is the main town in the Sri Lanka highlands with a population of about 30,000.  At almost 1900 metres in elevation the town and surroundings have a much cooler climate than the equatorial dwellers below. Greenery pervades hill country.  And what could be more hill country than an evening at The Hill Club, the height of toni-ness in these elevated climes.  English and Scottish tea and coffee planters historically dominated the regional economy and established their ‘gentleman’s club’ back in 1876.

The Hill Club adhered strictly to colonial times traditions.  At the reception desk particular attention was paid to a gentleman’s haberdashery, the womens’ stylistic taste presumably taken for granted.  On an extravagant night out your correspondent was adjudicated at the door for adherence to standards and found to be lacking.  But fixable.  I was shepherded into a huge closet full of shirts, ties, jackets, and even pants and shoes for the night’s rental.  Didn’t enquire about underwear. A hasty metamorphosis ensued and a confident stride into the dining room.

What an entrance!  The room was packed with diners, very up-market types, many of the men subjected to the same nightly rental for being properly attired.  While navigating my way through the spacious dining hall a frisson of whispering and quiet chuckling preceded more obvious chortling rising to a polite crescendo, the bride-to-be shrinking in mortification at unwanted attention as I charterd a course her way through the tables.  A hounds-tooth jacket had been foisted on me with cuffs closer to the elbow than to the wrist, looking as though the potential diner was in fact the dishwasher.  A hasty retreat for a more judicious fitting and another re-incarnation in the closet, then back to the table for our most expensive meal in all of Sri Lanka.

Grasslands and temperate jungle in Horton Plains National Park
south of Nuwara Eliya.

Day-tripping on a walking path at Horton Plains.

Impenetrable jungle growth chokes much of Horton Plains.

The plateau at Horton Plains comes to an abrupt end before dropping
into a valley far below.

Baker’s Falls keeps adjacent ferns well-hydrated.

Nuwara Eliya is surrounded by rolling hills of manicured verdance, the old tea plantations as perhaps imagined by tea drinkers since British colonial times. An army of Tamil women work the slopes, constantly pruning and picking leaves for teapots around the world. The tea plantation theme attracts foreigners with several ‘tea centres’ in the highlands. A lunch at the Tea Factory Hotel was outstanding and with impeccable service as we were the only tourists in the large dining room --- minimal tourism in the country was the result of the Dec. 2004 tsunami which devastated much of southern coastal Sri Lanka. The civil war in the country also kept tourism to a minimum.

Individual vegetable plots are intensely cultivated on terraces, bordered by the ever-present tea plantations.

Any level land is mostly devoted to vegetables as cash crops for markets
throughout the country.

Vegetable production is terraced up a slope near Ramboda Pass in the highlands.

The slopes around Nuwera Eliya are constantly groomed by the Tamil pickers.

The tea pickers have exacting standards in trimming the bushes.

Her basket gradually fills with tea leaves for teapots around the world.

Tea bushes are sculpted at an old plantation near Nuwera Eliya.

Vertiginous Nuwera Eliya offers little flat land for home cultivation,
necessitating the terraced plots.

Directing schoolkids at a crosswalk in Nuwera Eliya absorbs special attention
from the mounted police.

Temperate climate vegetables from small terraced plots fill a produce shop near Ramboda Pass.

Many of the homes in town have a hectare or so of land mostly used for intensive vegetable cultivation of vegetables. Most of the vegetables we see in Canadian produce markets are also being grown in this temperate climate. Almost every level bit of topography is growing marketable vegetables, whether for domestic or commercial use, whereas the slopes are the domain of the tea plant. Orange pekoe anyone?

Wash day in Nuwera Eliya.

Domestic chores await at a laundromat near Nuwera Eliya.