Nuwara Eliya to Ramboda Falls to Pussellawa to Gampola
Kilometres: 63.5 Elevation gain/loss: 1186m/2659m
The route down from Nuwara Eliya promised spectacular views, stunning vistas over tea plantations and rippling mountains falling away below me as I walked. But promises are not always kept... As soon as I hit Toppass, a few kilometres out of town, I was enshrouded in thick - THICK - fog, the dense clouds sitting smack on my head, making it difficult to see the oncoming traffic and for them to see me, so I found myself diving into the roadside ditch on more than one occasion to avoid an unobservant truck.
For several hours little improved, with a complete whiteout hiding everything but the sight of my own feet in front of me. I reached a small rest house and was offered their finest room, the one with the huge windows looking out over the dramatic scenery. This was the view for the best part of the day:
Only by late afternoon had enough of the cloud lifted to offer a glimpse of all that I had been missing.
And by evening, the same clouds that had ruined my morning view put on a dramatic show.
The following morning I continued down to Ramboda, famed for its huge waterfalls. From the road, the public view of the falls is impressive, but the messy little town that the road passes through, with its profusion of tea stalls and greasy restaurants, the noisy families of picnickers bathing in the falls, the litter of discarded shampoo packets and empty water bottles, all detract from its beauty. It's a sad reality that many of Sri Lankas most picturesque spots are being ruined by a complete lack of environmental sensitivity, and I quickly moved on.
If you continue down the road a few hundred meters, on your left you will come to the Ramboda Falls Hotel, the town's one "expensive" hotel. The lower levels of the hotel and the viewing area of the restaurant offer unbeatable views of the bottom of the falls, which can't be seen from any other position along the road, and it's well worth a small detour here even if you don't plan to spend the night.
One need not worry too much about seeing this particular set of falls or another, for several unnamed, unfamous, but lovely little waterfalls tumble down along the route, each with its own charms and most ignored by the cars speeding past.
The cool damp climate is a tea grower's paradise, and the flanks of the hills are carpeted in the green of tea bushes. Huge plantations like that of Labookelie and Rothschild dominate for miles around. In between, where there are villages, gardens are awash with colour and young boys run alongside the road to flag down traffic and sell their bouquets of bright flowers.
As you descend further from Pussellawa, the temperatures noticeably rise, the clouds are left behind, and the sun comes out again. Fruit stands display their luscious wares, pomellos and avocados and cocoa, and roadside vendors offer up boiled corn.
Eventually, I hobbled into Gampolat at the base of the hills. Little more than a transit point out of the high country and into Kandy, it offers little for the tourist, but I had come 64 kilometres from Nuwara Eliya in two days and was knackered. Accommodation is extremely limited in Gampola, but I managed to find a humble yet adequate home-stay. My 84 year old hostess, a sweet old woman with the short-term memory of Dory (the blue tang fish in Finding Nemo), kept me amused. We had this conversation no less that seven times:
Will you have chicken for dinner?
No, I'm vegetarian.
Will you have sausages?
No, I'm vegetarian.
What do you want for dinner?
Vegetables.
Will you have some chicken?
I humoured her. Hell, with the semi-permeable, molten-cheese like excuse for a memory I have, it's a future I can look forward to myself.
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