Asia trip: Ella day 3

We wanted to start at 7 am again, but when we woke up, it had already started to rain so we continued sleeping as climbing Ella Rock makes no sense in a rain. We were quite surprised when we woke up at 9 am again and it was sunny and amazing visibility. What a pain in the ass. The forecast said there will be storms from 10 am, but at that time we were having breakfast outside with no sign of any storm coming. We were mad because this was our last day in Ella.

We decided to pack our stuff and give it a try. In the worst scenario, we can come back at any time. The situation about Ella Rock here is quite funny. When we did our research, we read about how locals put fake signs so you get lost and ask for a guide and also they let the grass grow so you think this is not the way and so on. It is very sad, but that is true here. There is no need for a guide, but they will try to persuade you it is.

We began our journey in Ella train station and followed the train track in Haputale direction. There is also one spot where there are around 10 locals just waiting for the tourist. They asked us where we are going, but we didn’t even want to start the conversation so we always answered: “just walking”.

In the middle of our journey, in a more complicated way to Ella rock, 3 girls got lost and they were walking with one of the locals. They asked us if we know where to go. We said that we are also going there, but who is the guy walking with them. They probably didn’t do any research at all, because when they got lost, he offered them “help”. His help was taking them to a forest, telling them about snakes, spiders and so on, practically just scared the hell out of them. They continued following him when we stopped one of them and explained to them the situation that the guy is not giving them help for free and that they can come with us. Vualá the guy charge them 500 Rupees for taking them 300 meters in the forest, not even showing them the right way. Nightmare. At least they got rid of him.

Stepan led us according to the maps.me app and some download maps, but he forgot to download one that was quite important and the signal stopped working haha. So even we got lost haha. It took only one wrong turn and we were standing in very high grass with no clear path 😀 still a path right? One girl ended up with a big bruise on her leg and Katy got a leech between her fingers. Disgusting. In the end, we got to the top and had some great adventures. Those three german girls and we had a chance to swap some travel tips. On the way down, we found the right way down, super easy – boring right! 😀

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