Days 6-8

Sri Lanka is like several mini breaks rolled into one. We’ve done the Temples and the Highlands, now it’s time for Safari. But not before we made a stop at a tea plantation, something else that was on both of our Lists. Host Uncle suggested we go to a local tea shop to buy tea at wholesale price not tourist price, but being tourists we really wanted to visit an actual plantation and see how tea is made.

Uncle reluctantly drove us to the Uva Halpewatte factory where we joined a tour although they warned us there was no production at the weekend – today being Monday, we couldn’t actually see the full process (another case of not planning ahead!).

We were ushered into a ‘Lectures Hall’ where for the next 45 minutes, although it felt like a lifetime, an old ‘Tea Technician’ explained the tea process in great detail. All kinds of engineering are involved – computer engineering, mechanical engineering… ‘Quality, Strength, Flavour and Colour!!’ are of utmost importance, a point he shouted over and over, almost raising his fist.

We learned that the young tips of the plant are the best (although the tea pickers try to smuggle in the big old leaves which are filtered out) and 4kg of picked leaves makes 1 kg of tea. The tea leaves are dried and rolled and split into four groups, from tip (turns black when dried) to stem (turns brown). A mix is selected to achieve the Quality, Flavour, Strength and Colour. Stronger darker tea is produced mostly for us Westerners who ruin it by adding milk and sugar. Woebetide anyone who selects the wrong mix of leaves when this man is on Tea Taster duties as he will know! Just as we thought we were never getting out of there it was time for questions. This got off to bad start when somebody asked how Green Tea is made – which went down like a lead balloon as our Tea Technician is not a fan of the Chinese process. The next question ‘at what stage do you add the flavours to the tea?’ was met with further disgust. We had wondered what happens to the tea they export and what’s actually in our cup of Yorkshire but neither of us dared put our hand up. We did see the factory floor with all manner of equipment, some shiny and hi tech, some old and rickety straight out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

After an hour and half we finally got to try some tea in a bit of a free for all with everyone holding out their cups for Tea Technian to fill (more, please sir!!). Uncle was right about the prices and we bought nothing. Speaking of Uncle he was waiting for us downstairs and moaning that we had been there two and a half hours (we hadn’t, but Helen meekly said sorry anyway) and he was now very late. I’m not sure why he abandoned his guesthouse and took us there himself when we had only asked him how much a tuk tuk would cost, but by the time he handed us over to another driver to take us down to the town of Tissa he was back in a good mood again.

We arrived at our hotel in Tissa and agreed this was the nicest place we had ever stayed together (we stayed in an actual junk yard in Hawaii), complete with gorgeous pool. We also seemed to be the only guests other than one couple.

Leopards are the reason this place is on the map. Yala national park is reportedly one of the best places in the world to see them and the leopard is the last of the Big Five to tick off for me.

All the hotels organise jeep safaris and we were surprised to find we would get our own jeep – the sheer number of vehicles in the park could be cut dramatically if people shared, which we would have been happy to do. Jeeps are either ‘basic’ with inward facing seats i.e. rubbish or ‘luxury’ with forward facing, height staggered seats (unnecessary when there are only two people in it) and comes with a warning that some seats might be broken 🤷🏻‍♀️

Our luxury jeep picked us up at 5am and off we went in the dark – soon realising our driver was a bit of a speed demon as he overtook jeep after jeep, all heading to the same place. When light dawned I also realised he was about 12 (or are we just getting old?) and we took our place in the queue until the park opened at 6am, now appreciating his speed.

We had been forewarned by Lonely Planet that this could turn into chaos as the race is on to find a leopard and secure the drivers tips. It’s a bit different to African safaris as the part of Yala that you can visit is like a series of potholed lanes between scrub instead of open plains, making it harder to spot animals unless they are chilling out by the path. Our driver informed us that the first hour is best for spotting the leopard (no pun intended) so he wouldn’t stop for other animals. What he actually meant was he wouldn’t even slow down for other animals – even the buffaloes that were in our way.

As we raced down the tracks and passed the couple from the hotel for the 3rd time I wondered how we could possibly spot a leopard at this speed to which Helen remarked that we’d probably run it over.

We came across fresh leopard prints and the excitement grew. This is not a trip for anyone with health conditions as we were almost thrown out of the jeep a few times. Suddenly we started reversing furiously back the way we came – kudos to the driver’s skills!

We screeched to a backwards halt next to loads of other jeeps – a leopard had been sighted!

Naively we looked around for it until realising it was so far away it could barely be seen with the naked eye, and we did not have binoculars 🤦🏻‍♀️ Luckily our driver borrowed some for us and there it was! A majestic leopard lounging on a rock… The jeep next to us had a very expensive looking camera through which their driver took some amazing photos – I took a photo on my phone of their image, as an iPhone camera cannot compare 😂

Leopard sighting complete, our driver relaxed a bit and stopped at the point the sea meets the park, and the tsunami monument to honour those who died in 2004. Finally we could also stop for the toilet, only 2.5 hours of racing over bumpy tracks after I had asked 🤷🏻‍♀️

We saw lots of crocodiles which was the other animal I really wanted to see, monkeys, buffalo, spotted deer, the beautiful bee eater bird (green and blue tailed), horn bills, the national bird of Sri Lanka, elephants, mongoose….

And we were allowed to stop and take photos now!

The rest of the time was spent chilling by the pool, afternoon beers and pre dinner cocktails. And playing Bananagrams of course, as I am on holiday with Helen, the Queen of travelling games! With some chess and Connect4 and my new favourite Monopoly Deal thrown into the mix 😎

Next stop, the beach…