We got back into Nuwara Eliya around midday – and with our train scheduled to leave around 15:00, we had enough time for an early lunch, before making it to the train station.

The train did pull in a slight bit late. We had reserved seats in third class – and those were now our home for the next good three hours and until arrival in Ella. While third class may sound bad, it was actually quiet acceptable – certainly not worse than German second class on a regional train – plus the landscape rolling by catered for a welcome diversion. For the first part of the journey we made it through tea country, overlooking the tea gardens of the Ella region. The scenery changed gradually over time – away from the rolling hills of tea to a more mountainous setup with bigger differences in elevation, cliffs down and great valley views.

We got into Ella a bit later than expected, hence made it straight to the hotel. Though with Ella being more of a base for activities in the area around (i.e. mainly consisting of guesthouses, restaurants, bars and coffee shops – and no real attractions) we did not really miss out much.