There are many railway lines connecting the tea plantation areas amidst the tea growing countries. I have traveled a few such routes that pass through beautiful tea plantations or serene hill scenery in the narrow gauge trains that allow you to really soak in the surroundings. I can say with confidence that the stretch through the central srilankan tea country has to be my favourite. The railway stations between Peradeniya to Badulla,  pass through some stunning sights, nature, tea cultivation, waterfalls and countryside. I have had the privilege to travel the nanu-oya to Ella stretch after staying in Nuwara Eliya. Though this was a journey taken more than 5 years ago, I hear very little or nothing has changed around here, I can say the same about my memories from the train ride.

Nuwara Eliya is a small hill station in central Srilanka. It might as well have the ‘coldest’ temperature in all of the country. Back in the Ceylon days, as Lonely Planet quotes , ‘Nuwara Eliya was once was the favoured cool-climate escape for the hard-working and hard-drinking English and Scottish pioneers of Sri Lanka’s tea industry’ . It is called ‘Little England’ as it has colonial style building, Tudor houses and slightly resembling an English small town. And not surprisingly it is surrounded by tea plantations. I would not be wrong is saying this, there are two things I don’t regret that the British left behind in India and SriLanka, Railways and Tea.

 

After the stay in Nuwara Eliya, we took a ride to Nanu-oya station which is around 7km away, to start our journey towards Ella. I had no idea what was in store, other than this one sentence I had heard, ‘it is a very scenic route’. Before I ramble on about the journey itself, a few things about this rail line that connects Peradeniya  -> Hatton -> Nanu Oya -> Pattipola -> Bandarawela -> Ella -> Badulla . This is not a narrow gauge or meter gauge train. This is a broad gauge (5ft 6in) railway line through the hilly areas. Just saying that makes this an engineering marvel as it was built during the period of 1874 – 1924 . If you are an Indian, you are now thinking about all the narrow gauge lines  (Toy trains, anything less than 4ft 6 in ) you have taken in the hills, Coonor -> Ooty , Kalka -> Shimla, the train to Darjeeling, the Kangra valley railway and so on. Yes they are all narrow gauge lines as building a broader gauge than that in hilly areas is tough. At pattipola this line reaches almost 1900m (6,226 ft) making it the highest point for any broad gauge railway line.

So coming back to, ‘I had no idea what was in store’, I had entered this beautiful nanu-oya station. A simple, clean, brightly coloured platform, tea plantation hills in the background, an ancient timetable of the trains and a punched card for a ticket, which I still have and cherish. It took a good 11 years after the opening of Peradeniya station to lay the tracks and opening of Nanu-Oya station in 1885. Very little seems to have changed even now and I say that in the best of ways.

The train itself is small, one carriage for 1st class or the observation car and 2 carriages of 3rd class, the non air conditioned, all windows and doors opened wide, in other words, ‘the place to be’. As the picture below shows, this is the maximum number of carriages that could be on the train. With people are getting on and off in every small station and the number of tourist on the route seemed less and mostly filled with locals.

From here the journey is through the winding tracks in the luscious tea plantations, through fog, many tunnels, sub tropical forest, crop plantations, sparse villages and their fields. These pictures are from a very young Varied Reflections and does not do justice to the place itself.

Other than the scenery, the train stations themselves were charming. I wanted to take a peek at every little station along the way, as much as I wanted to see how green and lush it was outside the window. Below is a lovely little station of Ohiya, after passing through Pattipola, the highest point this track would go through. The people getting on the trains were so sure about the train time tables that in some small stations, they got onto the tracks to get on the train!

 

 

It is a lot of fun to just stare outside the window. A fare that is less than 100 SriLankan rupees for the fun carriage in the 3rd class, could not be more gratifying, is a thought that did run through my head.

 

It took 9 more years after the Nanu Oya station for the Bandarawele station to open in 1894. The British needed tea from Ceylon and this track would do just that, provide tea right from the plantations to Colombo. Somewhere between Idalgashinna and Bandarawela station there was a lot of fog and mist.

 

From here it took another 30 years to lay the tracks to the Badulla station due to various difficulties that had to be overcome during construction. The Badulla station opened in 1924. But my stop was at Ella, a little before Badulla. We got off at Ella, where suddenly the mountains around me became much higher. We were not staying very long in Ella, we were leaving the same day to go down south. But I did make a mental note to come back to this place and to the other rich sub tropical forests and hills in that region. I get warm colours in my head and a canvas filled with rich greens, fresh with recent rains that I can somehow grasp with my fingers when I reach for it, everytime I think of this train journey. I agree, that it is the most fascinating railway line is SriLanka.

 
Another of the train shot by Sunith Balan & Saying goodbye to the train at Ella station

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