Southern India and Sri Lanka: 17. Nuwara Eliya (aka 'Little England')

By train from Ella to Nuwara Eliya

This is said to be one of the most scenic and beautiful railway journeys in the world, a 4-hour climb from Ella at 6,000 ft, through the mountains and tea plantations to Nuwara Eliya at 7,500ft.

A wonderful route took us across ravines and streams, though tunnels, past waterfalls, around precipitous drops and all the while overlooked by 'Pidurutalagala', the highest mountain in Sri Lanka.

Incident en-route
The train came to a sudden halt on a bend, spilling my coffee that the attendant had just brought from the galley.

Looking out, we saw that our big diesel engine had separated from the carriages and was disappearing ahead, leaving us behind. Fortunately, our alert Guard pulled the emergency brake and prevented us running out-of-control back downhill!

Before long, our engine returned and we all jumped out onto the track to offer helpful advise about a re-connection. This took some time as arguments passes back and forth. Finally an engineer with a large hammer bashed the errant coupling into place.

We all applauded this very fine piece of work and everyone climbed back aboard, happy and smiling as the train restarted - just as if nothing had happened. What a wonderful country!

A potted history
The first tea plantations on the island were established in the 'Hill Station' of Nuwara Eliya in the early 1800's by two Scottish migrants, James Taylor and Thomas Lipton. Others quickly followed and tea cultivation became a major industry. Bulk delivery of the crop was made possible by constructing a narrow gauge railway up into the mountains and down to the coast.

The scorching heat at sea level encouraged the British to use the railway to relocate their families into the cooler temperatures of the mountains, where they built grand houses complete with gardens, red brick walls and wrought iron fencing.

The 'hill station' grew into a town that became known as ‘Little England’ with an artificial lake, two Scottish churches, a huge Catholic Church, a St Andrews Golf Club, a Grand Hotel, a Windsor Hotel and two landscaped roads: Lady McCullum Drive and Lady Horton Road.

In addition the Royal Botanical Garden was established to discover improved tea hybrids and Galway Forest Reserve was setup to prevent over- building in the mountains surrounding the town.

Much of that old colonial influence still exists today alongside new development. We rented an apartment in this modern block, a short walk from town centre.

The Royal Botanical gardens were in full bloom when we visited.

Our hotel was a modern block just a few minutes walk uphill and overlooking the town

The view from our balcony was very commercial. In the foreground a small factory making towels and then a jumble of narrow streets with housing, shops and businesses, but a really interesting place for walks around town.

Horsing around
Animals wander all around town. Several horses used to visit every morning and enjoyed rolling in a large pile of sand opposite our apartment.

Oops! some left calling cards just inside the hotel gates !

Grand Hotel
Beautifully maintained, preserving original furniture, lighting, pictures and ambiance. We enjoyed several evenings here with drinks before dinner relaxing in deep leather armchairs beside blazing log fires.

St Andrews Hotel
Well managed by the Jetwing Group and reminiscent of a hotel in the Highlands of Scotland. We didn't play, but the golf course looked challenging

The golf course was well manicured but we saw no golfers on the day of our visit

The hotel gardens were full of flowers, shrubs and amazing topiary.

The Prime Minister was not at home so we had no invitation for tea.

A walk around town
Let’s go to the flicks. The facade of the old Regal Cinema, a sad and neglected relic from a bygone era when perhaps, people swarmed in to see the latest Charlie Chaplin movie. It’s entrance doors are wide open and it now seems to be a safe haven for the stray dogs.