Ella and the tea plantation

The Halpe tea factory tour was one of the highlights of our week. We learned how they grow, pick and sort the leaves (all by hand) for taste and color, and then how it is dried and sorted. Fascinating.

The factory dates back to 1867 when the English ruled Ceylon and decided to compete with China for tea production. Ceylon tea is black, because it is full of antioxidants. Its smokey flavor comes from the burning of land (and rubbish) that is ubiquitous in the area (and stings the eyes).

As Shamus said, the 1800's methods - which have barely changed since - meant that anywhere else (like the UK or USA) the factory would have been closed down for safety reasons. No hard hats, no shoes, no gloves!

We bought loads of tea, and drove back to Ella for lunch. Ella is a really cute little town, full of bars and restaurants. We tried La Mensa, which despite the Spanish name was 100% Sri Lankan. For a bottle of white wine, they had to go to another restaurant to 'borrow' one! Wine is not a 'thing' in Sri Lanka.

Our hotel was on the mountain; it was fairly basic but the view - OMG.

(Victor's hotel was also on the mountain, but up a really hilly, bad road - and the van could not get up the hill. We got out, and after several runs at it our driver got up. It was about 9pm by then and pitch dark.)

After two nights in Ella, we drove the 3.5 hours on really windy roads to Yala. Upon arrival, we sorted the guide for the next morning's safari and Shamus was ordering a breakfast box for the morning when the hotel worker said 'By the way, safaris are cancelled!'  Coronavirus strikes again. All national parks and activities, including whale watching, were cancelled.

Disappointed, we spent the next couple of days sunning ourselves by the pool and still managed to see loads of wildlife - boar, Langur monkeys, birds...

Sri  Lanka was cracking down, and there were already visibly fewer tourists. Luckily, we decided to check on our flight for Saturday, although Sri Lankan Air had not sent any notice of any changes. Turned out, the last flight to London was leaving on the 18th - and there would be none after that for the foreseeable future.

We love Sri Lanka, but really did not want to be stuck here for a month - without our laptops we couldn't even work from here. I got on the phone to the airlines and got us seats on the last flight - economy. Even though we paid for business class each way, we will be stuck in economy - for the SAME price! So much for no penalties.

Our last 4 nights on Talpe Beach were reduced to 1. We checked into our fabulous hotel, which was empty bar another couple. It is a very windy beach, so swimming was out of the question. We went for lunch instead at Victor's Wijaya Beach hotel and cafe - fantastic. 

At the airport now, in business lounge then to our economy seats (argh). Fingers crossed!