So after I rudely awakened a hungry, sleepy and Ill cat, our trusty guide Wasi was on hand to take us up to Ella a mountain region of Sri Lanka, we requested to go there for the waterfalls.
On the way we visited an ancient (8-9ad) Buddhist temple. In one of my previous posts I suggested that we may not visit as many temples, this temple however changed my perception entirely. There was not gold plated artifacts – for me this is a big deal – as I fail to understand the continuity of overly flamboyant decoration in a religion which preaches disconnect with the material world. At the ancient temple we were created by simply stone steps leading to an incredible carving of Buddha, we took our shoes of and walked around the temple (there was no building) and it felt like an incredible place, peace , nature and somewhat understated decoration.
After a little snack and fruit juice it was onward up a windy mountain road, the hills were covered in cloud and my ears popped multiple times! Think I might be sensitive to altitude!
And then, around a sweeping left turn, there it was in all its glory , The Ravana Waterfall!
Wasi dropped us off and said to walk down to the waterfall, on the walk a fruit seller offered us every fruit under the sun, maybe on the way back we thought..
Upon arriving at the foot of the waterfall we were blown away by the sheer power and beauty of the fall, locals were Washington a smaller sub stream. There were monkeys everywhere! They looked very healthy and rather cheeky! We took a few snaps , took in the atmosphere and walked backed to the car.
On the way we asked the fruit seller how much is a banana(captive market up here) he said 20 rupees, that’s about 10p so off we trotted with our bananas – they were incredible! Wasi tokens there are 20 varieties of banana in Sri Lanka, I think we just had the best one! It is so awesome to be able to eat fresh , non-adjusted fruit (for instance the gas used for uk bananas to keep them fresh). When we get back to the UK I think I’m going to try to only eat seasonal fruit n veg ….
So we now retire to our wonderful room and look forward to what tomorrow brings ..
Actually I just saw somewhere here that sells Espresso, so coffee first !
Cat in front of a sign by Ella waterfalls. A small monkey is perched on the sign A pretty 5 petalled while flower with dark green smooth leaves Leon & !
