Sri Lanka is Awesome 3 - Ella: Mountains and Waterfalls

Onward to Ella

After elephants we were on cloud nine. How could the rest of the trip live up to that?? Here's how:

The drive to Ella (probably 45km, but a good 4 hours) was awe inspiring in its own right. Ella is the quintessential mountain town in Sri Lanka, frequented by backpackers seeking mountain vistas and mildly-demanding trekking opportunities. En route we passed soaring mountains, waterfalls, and the lovely locals. The pictures of the waterfalls do not do it justice:

The craziest part of our whole trip was the road leading to Ella. You can see it on the right below. It was windy, steep, and terrifying. The driver told us that during the rainy season there are frequent deluges that cause rockslides onto the road. At times, the towns in the mountains are cut off for a week or so as they sift through the debris and clear the road. Great.

Once we got to the doorstep of our Ella hideaway (aptly named Ella Hide View; all words in the name are relevant), we were met by a tuk tuk. The pathway down to the inn was too windy and muddy for our car to traverse.

We questioned the tuk tuk's ability to traverse it either, but we trusted the locals on this one.

At last we were here! We initially didn't believe the tripadvisor reviews of the Ella Hide View, because they said the best way to reach the place was to "walk along the [active] railroad tracks from the town until you reach the second staircase up the hill. Walk up the staircase to the top, looking for signs for the Ella Hide View." Well, they were accurate. This was the quickest way to get to the hotel:

The views from Ella Hide View were spectacular to say the least. Mountains, waterfalls, big sky - you name it, you got it.

This is the view from our room's balcony:

Little Sri Pada 

Ella has several hiking paths that provide hours of entertainment and spectacular views. This one, Little Sri Pada, is supposedly a miniature version of the famous Sri Pada mountain that thousands of tourists and locals alike wake up at 2 AM to trek up. Well, maybe we are bougie or maybe we have punished ourselves enough in our past vacations, but Little Sri Pada (a 45 minute hike) was an acceptable proxy for us.

The walk up is actually pretty steep, but passes through fields and fields of Ceylon's single most important export - tea.

Halfway up we were greeted by this:

This is the same mountain you can see from our balcony, just from a different angle. This is also the mountain we walk up the following day - Ella Rock.

At the top we were not disappointed. You could see for miles, and every direction you looked had stunning views.

Couldn't resist.

There were a few other people at the top, but it wasn't overrun at all. Here is me taking a selfie with people in the background also taking a selfie. Because yeah.

The small peaks in the foreground here are part of the same path. There are several peaks with a path cutting directly up the ridge of each. It was other worldly.

A pano of half the view.

Us in front of our next our next challenge - Ella Rock. The ravine between the two mountains cannot be appreciated from this photo. The road into Ella passes along the base of Ella Rock and you cannot even see it from this photo. Beneath that there is even more "down" to fall. If we had fallen backwards when this picture was taken there is no doubt in my mind we would have fallen 1500 meters.

Ella Rock

Ella Rock is the big mama of the hikes in this area. It takes a few hours to scale up and come back, and the path is steep at points, although we saw several families traverse it together, albeit slowly. You actually access the path from the railroad tracks that pass by our inn. You can see a train bridge in the distance in this photo. We had to walk around this ravine to get to the path up Ella Rock.

Here we are on the bridge itself.

This is the top of the waterfall that we can see from our balcony. Later on there was an Indian family walking around this area. Probably ill-advised.

This is looking backward from the train bridge at the inns/homes/hotels around Ella. Ours is somewhere in that mess, but I don't know where. 

Halfway up we already knew we made the right decision to stay in Ella an extra night (we pulled a Von & Jordan and cancelled our other hotel when we realized how awesome Ella is).

It felt like the edge of the world. It also reminded me of the Princess Bride scene where Westley pushes Buttercup (Robin Wright!!!!) down the hill.

At the top we were greeted by fellow trekkers from all over the world that had already made the ascent during a much wiser morning time when it was less hot. We are gluttons for punishment and did the hike midday.

If the folks in this picture step forward a few meters they would fall into oblivion. It was extremely high in relation to the bottom of the ravine. I wonder how many tourists are lost every year...

To give you perspective, the peak is at the top of this slope on the right. We took this photo on the way up. The bottom of the ravine is probably another 1000 meters to the left and down. That's a long way down!

We came all the way up here, we had to get the dangerous picture!

I love punishing myself by walking to the top of hills for views. This one did not disappoint. This gives you good perspective on the ravine, which goes down even further than what you can see here.

The hike was not all about the view (ok, it was MOSTLY about the view). The foliage was rewarding as well. This forest looked like something out of a fairy tale.

On the way down we got bold. We read in the Lonely Planet that you could hire a guide to go to the base of the waterfall. For $10 we found a guide and went for it. We had no idea what was in store. Here is the top half of the waterfall. We walked across the top on the right.

The "path" to the bottom was no path at all. In fact we had to walk through tiered rice fields that were actively being farmed by the locals. The whole time we felt bad that we were traipsing around their future food. They didn't seem to mind. The rest of the "path" was literally us just walking through the jungle, picking leeches off our legs along the way.

The adventure was worth it! This is the view looking up from the base of the falls.

This is the view looking back at the rice field we scaled down to get here.

Our guide was obsessed with taking pictures of us. For that we are grateful! Speaking of our guide, he did the entire trek either in his flip flops or barefooted. I applaud you, sir. When we completed the hike and paid him, he told us that was his first time to the base of the falls!! He did all that without having ever done it before. Such an industrious people.

Ella is a must-do for anyone wanting to see the mountains of Sri Lanka. We had an amazing time! 

Sri Lanka is Awesome 2 - Elephants

The main reason we wanted to go to Sri Lanka was to see the elephants. They have one of the largest populations of elephants in the world and they cherish them. Several times per year the elephants instinctually gather at a lake to... chat? Not sure why, but they do. We unfortunately weren't there for that event but we still saw a ton of elephants and satisfied our cravings for nature.

I know I say this frequently, but this place was a page straight out of Africa. This could have been the Serengeti or Ngorongoro Crater. The safari demands an early wakeup call of about 5 am. From there you go to the national park where you get tickets and drive in. This lake greeted us at the border of the park and it was just stunning.



The jeep ride was mostly on dirt roads through dense forest and over dusty terrain.



This shot is from within the park itself and it really took me back to driving through rift valley with baobab trees dotting the horizon.

The safaris use these converted pickup trucks with stadium seating in the back. This is the best shot of the safari vehicle that I have, equipped with local tourists and all. It was interesting that in Sri Lanka many of the tourists were definitely either local or from India. I guess Sri Lanka is only recently safe enough where people can come enjoy the wildlife and the friendly people, locals and regional folks included.



The park was crowded with safari-goers in their stadium trucks. Passing other trucks was common. So was tilting to the verge of tipping over.



The park had numerous lakes and fantastic mountain vistas. I live for a good vista. On the whole the park was beautiful,



Of course, the stars of the show were the elephants! We were greeted immediately upon arrival by a group of them waiting by the gate. We couldn't have planned it better if we tried! These guys came right up to us but barely noticed - they were focused on food. I understand, elephants. I understand.



This shows how close they were. These elephants are much smaller than the ones I remember from Africa. I am told the Asian ones are significantly smaller biologically. Still, these guys were about as big as our truck, if not a little bigger.

See for yourself:

Once in the park it took a while to spot more elephants, but once we did they were everywhere. This family was moseying around in search of that perfect leaf. Or perfect pool of water. Or perfect place to poo. Who knows.

Here they are meandering through the bush. Our guide pointed out one with a tusk and said it was very rare for them to have such large tusks. Apparently only the females get tusks in Sri Lanka. 

We found one drinking and I thought it was so cute. I couldn't resist taking pictures...

...and filming...

...and having some GIF fun.

This one came right up to us as if to say hi. 

I think elephants may be the cutest large animals on earth. Look at this one's ears!

This one was very friendly. 

We were told that the nature preserve contained far more than just elephants - we were promised leopards as well. OK, we weren't promised (they are nocturnal) but I certainly had high expectations and focused on the trees the entire time. Alas, we saw no leopards, but we DID see some other fun creatures. Like this monitor.

And this peacock in full bloom! I had never seen one in full bloom in the wild before. He must have thought Jordan was handsome. 

These water buffalo are tough to see but they are in their favorite area of the park - the lake. I remember them from Africa as well. I also remember their affinity for water. Hence the name, I guess.



No leopards. Maybe next time. This safari was still a resounding success though! We saw probably 25-50 elephants, a few lizards, numerous birds, monkeys, water buffalo, and some crazy beautiful scenery. We were satisfied.



I swear the elephants enjoyed our visit as well. This one is smiling at us!