Ella & Yala Weekend: Baker's Fall

Also on the trek was a stop by Baker's Falls. A waterfall with a height of 20 metres. Named after Sir Samuel Baker who lived in Sri Lanka from 1847 to 1855, back when Sri Lanka was called Ceylon.

Group selfie at Baker's Falls. Our lovely faces. 

Ella & Yala Weekend: Worlds End cont. (again)

Worlds End! Altogether its a 9.5km trek, 2200 metres above sea level. Worlds End itself is where the mountain comes to a sudden stop with an almost sheer drop of 880 metres, giving a pretty spectacular view. (It reminded me of Hanging Rock in North Carolina from last summer)

Its a long drop! Mum you will be pleased to hear that my shoe in this photo is as near to the edge as I went. 

Hanging Rock in North Carolina near the end of summer 2013 working at Camp Chestnut Ridge

Ella & Yala Weekend: Worlds End Cont.

A lot of the trek was up steep slopes or down rocky and slippy pathways but a large segment was also through the plains themselves. I found the plains to be easily likened to hills at home in Scotland! Apart from the odd bush with brightly coloured flowers that would look out of place at home. Some of the pathway was through dense jungle-like woods where leapords and shaggy-bear monkeys live. The shaggy-bear monkey, also known as purple-faced langur, is described to make a wheezy grunt. Although we didn't see any at one point I am very certain that I heard such a noise coming from above us! 

I think this could easily pass as being in Scotland

No leapords or monkeys on our trek!

up so high the clouds were there!

Ella & Yala Weekend: World's End

We had to leave the lovely hotel and our wonderful blanket-clad beds ridiculously early to head to Worlds End. In order to reach Worlds End before clouds or mist has obscured the view it is advised to start trekking reasonably early. Ella is about 2 hours drive away from Worlds End so we left the hotel at 4.30am!

Worlds End is found on a plateau high in the mountains called Horton Plains. (click the link for more info)

The first part of the trek, taking us to Mini Worlds End, was reasonably flat with some rocky terrain. It felt as though we were trekking through a dried up river bed. Due to being up high it was 'cold' so some people had come prepared with long trousers and warm jackets, as the tourist guidbooks suggest. My Scottish blood actually rather enjoyed the cooler weather for a change! I wore my shorts, a thin tshirt with a second tshirt on top although I soon got warm and took the second one off when we reached Mini Worlds End.

looking like a dried up river bed

At Mini Worlds End, NOT standing too near the edge mother :P

Jenn, ON the edge of Mini Worlds End

Ella & Yala Weekend: A Night in Ella

After the tea plantation we headed into the small mountain village of Ella where we were staying the night. Our hotel was up a VERY steep hill, it was quite a challenge getting the mini van up it! Once we got there we discovered a lovely wee hotel, which worked out as about £8 each for the night! I shared a room with Jenn and Hana. Each 'room' was a wee distance apart so it didnt feel like a regular hotel, it was most definitely good value for money! Due to being higher up in the mountains the temperature was amazingly cool. We had an amazing view of the mountains and plantations too.

Our hotel room, complete with creepy statues above the bathroom! Hana and Jenn were posing here...

View from outside our hotel room

Out for dinner in a nice wee place called Chilli 

Group selfie at the hotel

Ella & Yala Weekend: Tea Plantation

On Friday evening, before heading into Ella and to our hotel we stopped at a tea plantation. Sri Lanka is full of tea plantations and there were several in the mountains surrounding Ella but we specifically chose to visit Kinellan plantation due to Georgina having family ties there. Her grandfather was born on the plantation and lived there for a number of years as a child, and his parents had started the plantation. We paid for a ticket and got of inside the factory, where unfortunately we were not permitted to take photographs. I have never put much thought into how tea was made so it was very interesting to see the process from start to finish. The machines involved were all very old, most of them had dates of when they were installed and the majority of them dated back to the 6o's. I did wonder how it was done before the machines, like when Georgina's grandfather was a boy there. The factory was working and so it was full of local workers as we got shown round. It reminded me somewhat of photos from Tearfund or Fairtrade publications. We got a complimentary cup of tea and then headed back onto the road and onwards to our hotel for the night.

workers in the feilds

walking through the plantation

Ella & Yala Weekend Prt1

For my second weekend a group of us arranged a jam-packed weekend to go and see a tea plantation, do hike called Worlds End, and go on a safari in Yala National Park. We did quite a lot within this weekend so it will be spread over a few different blog posts!    

We left early-ish (not early at all compared to the previous Saturday when we left at the crack of dawn for the elephant safari at Uda Walawe!) on Friday morning to head to Ella, a town in the mountains. For trips like this one where we would be travelling to various different places not easily accessable by public transport the PMGY co-ordinators suggest that volunteers hire a private taxi and driver. In Sri Lanka it is reasonably cheap to do so, so we had a mini-van and driver hired for the entire weekend. There were nine of us going; Simon, Dan, Georgina, Claire, Jenn, Hollie, Kirsten, Hana and myself. All seen in the photo, apart from the other Claire who had nipped to the loo!

On the way to Ella and the tea plantation we stopped to stretch our legs and admire a waterfall. By this point we were reasonably high up in the mountains and the view was spectacular. There were also a handful of monkey on the trees nearby! 

Monkey!

The view from the bridge at the waterfall

End of Sea Turtle Conservation Project

The end of the first fortnight marked the end of my time on the Turtle Conservation Project. We released baby sea turtles into the wild, completed the building of a hatchery for keeping eggs bought from locals safe, cleaned tanks, fed the turtles, cleaned the disabled turtles shells and painted information boards at the hatchery. Overall it was a good experience but I am excited to be starting a new morning project teaching english to Buddhist monks at a temple.

Nom Nom Nom

wee baby chilling at the side of the tank

Adult sea turtle under the water

The Most Amazing Painting You Will Ever See

At the turtle project we each had a board to paint with pictures and information about sea turtles. The hatchery will be open for groups of school children etc to go and learn about sea turtle conservation. For example local Sri Lankan people believe that eating sea turtle eggs will increase the longevity of their lives. Dodgy joints means any artistic skills I once had have long since been forgotten and so my sea turtle painting is rather terrible! But it was fun to do and there will be plenty of other volunteers to paint over it soon I am sure! My board was a welcome board with a brief paragraph about the hatchery. 

My board and I. The green paint run out and so the face was painted the next day with a darker colour!

I just know you are all gobsmacked at the amazing sea turtle painting you see here...

I resisted the urge to paint a Scottish flag!

Parachute!

The end of the week saw the last day for Katie and Aimee too, and so they took along a parachute for the girls to play with after lessons. Great fun was had by all!

More Farewell's

Today at the orphanage it was the last day for a lovely girl named Polly, who is going to meet a friend and cycle around Sri Lanka. The kids and her fellow volunteers were sad to see her go!

Two other Scottish volunteers, Katie and Aimee, had bought Sari's and the girls were delighted to see the white volunteers wearing local dress!

Polly and the children 

Katie and Aimee wearing their Sari's

One of my favourite girls

Having fun playing snap!

Orphanage Dancing

At the orphange today the girls were telling us about a dancing show they were going to that evening. It was two girls last day at the project so we finished lessons early and instead of doing the usual 'play' of volleyball etc we had the girls show us their dances. It's not really something I can describe so I am adding a few photos to illustrate.

Uda Walawe Elephant Transit Home

Near to the national park is an elephant transit home, which is supported by the Born Free Foundation.

They have orphaned elephants here which they raise with minimal contact and then release them into the park. Some of the elephants have artificial legs because they came from the north of the island where there has been recent violence disputes. We paid a donation which went towards the cost of milk and got to stand (at a reasonable distance) and see feeding time. The wee elephants were so cute! They all get fed 4 times a day and there were a considerable number of elephants there so they must go through a LOT of milk! I haven't been to any other elephant places yet but from photos a lot of elephants, especially city elephants, have chains round their feet and have close contact with humans and tourists. Even elephants who belong to and live with monks at temples are chained and controlled with long sticks with spikes at the end. It was really nice to see proper wild elephants in Uda Walawe and to see the good work happening in the transit home.

the older elephants eat leaves after having their milk

this guy was just a few months old!

the little guys getting their milk

Uda Walawe Safari Birds

There were lots of birds in Uda Walawe and Polly in our jeep asked our tour guide a lot of questions about them and so he began to stop the jeep when we passed interesting birds as well as the elephants. Some of the colours of the birds were phenomenal and I really wished I had a tripod with me and an additional zoom lens for some of them! There are a lot of national parks in Sri Lanka which are primarily for bird watching rather than spotting mammals.

not a very clear photo but he's eating a fish!