Having wound my through the vast tea plantations of the Hill Country by train, I was itching to actually get into a tea garden. Our friends, Kim & Paul, told me about a Tamil tea community perched on top of a nearby hill. As so often is the case in Sri Lanka, the journey was as memorable as the destination. A crazily steep narrow dirt track wove its way up the hillside. The car wheels spun on the loose gravel a few times as we slowly navigated the hairpin bends. We managed to cling onto the track. It wasn’t so bad if you didn’t look down.
With some relief the ground levelled out onto the plain. We drove through a tiny village of brightly coloured houses with children playing cricket in the street. There were a few curious glances. When we parked up a family came out to take a closer look at us and say hello.
It was amazing to me that you could just take a walk through the tea plantations, no organised tour and no-one minded.
Nestled among the more mature tea bushes was a tea nursery. Tea plants can take between three and five years before they are ready for harvesting. These were planted in August 2013 so not too long to go.
Eventually the tea gardens gave way to forest, and after an hour or so of wandering we made our way back to the car.
We were greeted again by the family and the children shyly approached us. In the time that we’d been on our walk they had made some drawings with New Year wishes and picked flowers for us. So sweet! And to top off such a perfect afternoon, the mists started to swirl in as we wove our way carefully back down the hill.
