We woke up and went for breakfast in Java Cafe. I had a really nice coffee and almond croissant.

You could see our hotel from the cafe and some police horse guards also came to direct the traffic.

After breakfast we packed up and headed down to the lobby.

We had originally planned to get the train from Kandy to Ella, but there were no train tickets available – the only ones we could get were from Elka to Nanu Oya. So we booked a driver via the hotel. The first car that turned up wasn’t very big and we couldn’t fit all of the suitcases in the boot. We had to wait around 45 minutes for another car to turn up. This wasn’t really suitable either, but I sat in the back with the cases, and we set off. The journey was around 4-5 hours.

Zoe was still feeling quite poorly, so we had to stop a couple of times. At one point, she fainted, and we were all really worried. We stopped at a pharmacy to get some rehydration sachets.

Some of the views along the way were really nice.

Unfortunately, as we got to Ella, it started to rain.

Our hotel was right at the top of a hill, and from our balcony and from the viewing point upstairs, we had great views of Ella Rock and Little Adams Peak. (Ella Rock on the right and Little Adams Peak on the left).

You could also see the small Rawana waterfall.

As it was raining, we decided to get a tuk tuk into the town and do some shopping.

I bought a few bits, as did Mandy and Karen, and then we decided it was time for some lunch. We went to Chill Cafe as it had been recommended to us by the dive instructor in Kalpitiya. We had some delicious bruschetta and wine.

We were hoping to do a small hike of some sort in Ella, but it was continuously raining. We went back to the hotel to check on Zoe, who still wasn’t feeling great. She had mainly been sleeping whilst we were out.

After a freshen up, we headed back to Chill Cafe for some dinner. Zoe stayed behind.

Mandy and I tried Lumprais. This is a Srilankan dish, which is rice, chicken curry, deep fried hard boiled egg, deep fried sweet aubergine, and all wrapped in banana leaf. It didn’t look great but tasted really nice.

After dinner we had another small walk before heading back to the hotel and to bed.