Day 34: Ella, Sri Lanka - Vacation or Training Camp?

After our trip to the national park, we continued directly to Ella by bus.

This is a small town further inland, in the central highlands, surrounded by smaller mountains.

Ella itself consists mainly of a main road, where numerous hotels, small shops, and the train station are located, and a road that leads from there, where some hotels and smaller accommodations are located. A perfect little holiday resort and so there were also numerous tourists on the streets. Especially among the Germans, French, Russians, and Chinese, Sri Lanka seems to be already well-known and popular as a travel destination.

Around Ella, there are many opportunities for hiking and smaller excursions.

So we started in the morning towards the train station and walked about 45 minutes along the train tracks before we reached the Ella Rock through the forest and a rocky and steep path.

Ella Rock is the highest mountain in Ella and a popular excursion destination because of its enchanting view.

We arrived exhausted but quickly forgot the hardships when we saw the beautiful view!

We returned to Ella via the rocky forest path and the train tracks and took a short break in our small accommodation.

Then we continued to a bridge, the 9-Arch Bridge, which connects the train tracks over a deep and densely vegetated valley with its high stone arches.

We had to go down a smaller steep descent for this as well, so we decided to be taken back to Ella by a tuk-tuk. The ride took us through beautiful tea plantations, but before that, we had to drive on a narrow path that was extremely steep on one side and dropped into the valley.

Our tuk-tuk driver skillfully maneuvered his vehicle along the curves and the narrow road, but we were really glad when we could get off again upon arrival at our destination.

Since it was already late afternoon, we continued directly to Little Adam's Peak, a smaller summit directly opposite Ella Rock and another highlight of Ella.

The path to Little Adam's Peak first led us slightly uphill through green tea plantations and then up numerous stairs to the summit. So it was good training for the "real" Adam's Peak two days later.

After dinner, we collapsed exhausted into our bed, and the result of the step counter app showed a significant increase compared to the previous days - 34,000 steps!