Day 8 - Digana to Nuwara Eliya
Friday 7th August, 2026
Back on the bus, stopped back at the Gem Factory for a piece of jewellery being manufactured for one of our group, then off to the mountains. Nuwara Eliya is the highest city in Sri Lanka. There had been lots of rain over the past few weeks which had resulted in rock slides, road blockages, and train de-railments. Apparently not helped by a cyclone that passed through here recently. This all made the trip up the mountain slow and cautious, and of course it was still raining.
First stop was the Rothschild Tea Plantation, where we walked through part of the plantation, then guided through the factory tea processing plant and finally a tea tasting in the dining room. The female tea pickers aimed to pick at least 20kg of leaves per day, if they made it over 20 kg, they were paid a bonus.
We had a lunch stop at a place where 4 waterfalls were visible, but visibility was poor and it was still raining, not to mention the cold was starting to set in as we made our ascent up the mountains.
On the way up the winding mountain roads, there was a guy dancing in the middle of the road waving a bunch of flowers at us and with a huge smile, wanting us to stop and buy them, of course our bus driver didn't stop. We went around a tight switchback in the road - and here he was again ! Well - we all laughed and said how persistant he was. Around another switchback - and he appeared again, and again. By this time we were collecting money and we were just going to throw it out the window for him. We were ready, but he wasn't around the next corner - we tried ! Anyway 2 corners later -- there he was again !! We madly got the money together again and asked the driver to stop to give it to him. He stepped into the bus, we handed over the money, took a photo but we asked him to keep the flowers. He was so entertaining and fit climbing the muddy hillside to catch us at each bend !
Finally arrived at Nuwara Eliya around 16:00, this town is known as little England and boasts a golf course, race course, a British Club (which was only open to men) and a Grand Hotel being listed as a must see hotel. We drove past all this, but didn't get out of the bus. We pulled up in the centre of town at the Post Office, purchased a post card and posted it off to our granddaughter.
Had a a great dinner at Themparadu restaurant, good food, but a great musician and singer entertaining us for he night - ended giving him a tip. Two tips is one day !
The last of the big tippers. Well done you – rain and all.
In case you are interested – it was one hell of a card night last night. So much fun. Wished you were there. The big news was that Karl and Wendy got married recently in a small ceremony on the deck at The Downs.