To Nuwara Eliya Digs
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To Our Nuwara Eliya
Digs
  The train pulled in and we caught our
first glimpse of Nuwara Eliya, a city of 43,000
population. The city was founded by Samuel Baker, the discoverer of Lake
Albert (in Uganda) and the explorer of the Nile in 1846. Nuwara Eliya's climate
lent itself to becoming the prime sanctuary of the British civil servants and
planters in Ceylon. Nuwara Eliya, known as Little England, was a hill country
retreat where the British colonialists could immerse in their pastimes such as
fox hunting, deer hunting, elephant hunting, polo, golf and
cricket.
 We had researched the price of a taxi to our digs and the first one to say £4.00 was chosen. Soon out of the main town itself and we saw the Edinburgh Estate sign.
To our right the Pedro Estate sign. Nuwara Eliya has twenty-one tea estates, more than half the population lives on these estates and many, many are employed in the industry one way or another. The area is the best-known of Sri Lanka’s tea-growing districts, is the most mountainous, and has the highest average elevation. Combined with low temperature, this produces teas of exquisite bouquet. The infusion in the cup is the palest of all the types of Ceylon Tea, with a golden hue and a delicately fragrant flavour. Sought after grades include whole-leaf Orange Pekoe (OP) and Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP).   We turned right at the race course, races have been held here since
1875.
 A real surprise was seeing houses for sale that could be in any
English town on a new estate. Looking at the website late the prices
started at £200,000 and went up from there. Rooms in the houses offering bed and
breakfast rent at about fifty pounds a night. Had I have known the area was
known as Little England I may have put two and two together and stayed on the
train to Kandy, just as a sprinkling of rain began.
  Up the hill and we assed our first
Funeral Directors, at the top of the hill the huge
(and similar size to any we saw) Pedro tea producing
factory.
  Beds
settled but was very unsure about the fluffy blanket. We had to agree, it
weighed a ton and was about three inches thick – we swapped it for a much
thinner one. Sadly, the top sheet was a single and as that kept the heat in
there was a bit of a rugger tussle for ownership...... The bathroom was
quite....... we have got used to only having a cold tap at the sink though. The
rest of the house was subterranean so it always felt cold and fairly damp. This
did not help Bear’s Colombo cough and we had to go out for more cough syrup.
Needless to say not much sleep, couple that with barking dogs and an overflow
flow pipe dripping and I did wish I had stayed on the train to
Kandy.
  As we are the only guests.......... –
our lounge and dining
room.
 The view
from the lounge balcony.
ALL IN ALL THE TEMPERATURE
WAS A BIT OF A SHOCK
NICE TREK INTO THE SUBURBS AND
COUNTRYSIDE
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