Nine Arches Bridge and Udawalawe Elephants!

It rained a lot the night before (it's typhoon season after all) so we weren't sure at first if we'd get to see this viewpoint.  Thankfully it was a beautiful day.  Down the road from Ella's main street, a quick tuk-tuk ride, a walk down the side of the valley and along the train tracks, is a hidden little viewpoint
called Nine Arches Bridge, or Sky Bridge.  Besides the gorgeous views, it is famous for its architect.  At the start of the 20th century, British engineers struggled to connect the railways between two mountains, which included a 9 degree curve, and delayed plans for years.  Finally, a local Ceylonese builder consulted on the project and managed to build this bridge with his local workers from only rocks and cement (no steel or rebar as these materials were diverted with World War I) and completed this in a year.  Our guide told us of a legend beyond this, that the British did not trust this feat so the Ceylonese man offered to lay under the bridge the first time the train passed over.  He kept his word, the bridge held, and the British paid him some of the money saved during construction, which was able to feed the entire village and nearby communities for days. 

From the other side of the bridge, we spotted some tea workers.  Only 2 women for the whole field. 

Just as we were leaving, our guide got a call from our tuk-tuk driver that the train was coming.  We had already gotten off the tracks, but had enough time to walk back to the bridge and see the train go through and stop. 

We stayed on the bridge where the train stopped at first, then walked to the side to give people space to get on and off.  While we waited for the train to move on, we heard screaming from some Spanish girls taking selfies in the bushes with the train in the back ground. We looked over to see four friends filming and laughing as one girl screamed, jumping up and down. She was saying 'Ayuda me' (help me) while holding up her foot.  Our guide chuckled and said 'They're standing in leeches' to which we both looked down and saw a line of small thin leeches wriggling up from the sand a few feet in front of us in the bushes. 

The one girl was so freaked out that she wouldn't hold still to get the leeches off.  Pedro took pity on her; speaking in Spanish, he told her to hold still and scraped a leech off from between her toes while she calmed herself from hyperventilating.  A few locals casually pulled out bottles of soap water and salt, pouring it over the little mounds to kill those on the surface.  Figuring they were now alright after the many thank you's, we moved back towards the train just as it was leaving and made our way back to the car. 

Ella was at 1041m above sea level, 827m below Nuwara Eliya, so we still had some ways to go down to Udawalawe National Park.  We stopped at a few viewpoints along the way, like Mini Adam's Peak, hidden in the fog. We could have climbed it, but our guide said there would be no view today as it was completed covered in fog.  And to be honest, my legs were still hurting from Sigiriya! (I know, I need to head to the gym).  The view from this little terrace on the road down was beautiful and had a direct line of sight down the valley, so greeeeeeen!

A bit further down was Ravana Waterfall.  Our guide gestured to it saying 'This is Ella' which I mistook at first for "Ella Waterfall".  He explained later that the area was named for it's many waterfalls, the Sinhala word for which is ella. 

Our final stop for the day, my personal favorite, was Udawalawe for a safari ride.  I learned later that Udawalawe is known for its elephants the way Yala is known for its leopards. There are around 500 elephants in the park, spanning 119 sq mi, so the chances of a sighting were good. Our jeep took us around the center lake at first to try to catch any animals getting a drink in the hot afternoon sun.  We saw a few water buffalo, spotted dear, many different birds and a few little crocs. But the big show came with the first elephant sighting.  My favorite animal!!

how CUTE

This was a male, which makes sense as he was on his own, away from the herd. We watched him for awhile before finding the babies with the herd. 

They are so smart! They used their feet to kick up grass from the roots and gather it with their trunks, shaking off the sand while bunching it up then eating it. 

Dust bath!

This baby was so young, it was still nursing!

This male came along and was looking for food, I moved out of my seat as he was grabbing everything.  Almost got my purse!

After our tour, we headed straight for our hotel in Tissamaharama, a city just outside of Yala National Park.  We had a 4am wake up call for our last adventure, an all day safari in the hopes of spotting a leopard!