Chugging up to the Tea Country of Nuwara Eliya

10-4-1 Thursday March 2nd

My hat bids farewell to its third temporary home!

We leave Ellerton and take a long and winding road though the brilliantly hilly countryside to get the The Orange Field Tea Plantation - where a warm welcome awaits from the owner Sebastian.

Sebastian explains that the plantation is a "bought tea factory" and that the tea is completely processed within 24 hours of arrival, and on our whistle stop tour we learned that the factory processes 14,000kg of tea tips per day - 45 kgs of leaves produces 10 kgs of black tea and through the process there is a 45% reduction in the moisture in the tea.

A "withering" process of yesterday's leaf tips uses a conveyer belt with a warm air bed to start the process, followed by a sifter to remove the sand and grit. The tea is then rolled in 300g batches, at 30 revs. per min for 20 mins, then separated, this process is repeated 4 times, gradually what is extracted coarsens as the finest of the separation is gradually reduced. This is known as "five particles".

Cooling the leaves to ferment them at a lower temperature than the outside temperature for 2 - 2.5hrs, oxidises the tea, they are finally dried for 20 mins at 232F.

This is followed by a thorough grading and separation process which includes the tea going through a fibre extractor, an electro static machine and then onto grading, where the "five particles" are graded into five qualities this includes grading according to weight and colour. Finally the tea is colour sorted - the factory now has 25 grades of tea, each tailored to a specific market. After packing in large triple layered paper sacks with foil lining to prevent moisture absorption the process is completed - all within 24 hours of the picked tea tips arriving in the factory.

We rounded off our tour in the best way possible with a cup of tea! We now have a significant understanding and much higher respect for what we tend to think of as that every commodity - tea - we are not sure that we will ever be happy drinking "tea bag" tea again, now we appreciate that it is naturally positioned at the end of the grading process.

Back down the hill we quickly arrived at busy and bustling Gampolla where the trains depart from. Gampolla (sixth in a series of seven capitals ruled by Ceylonese kings) was the starting point for our journey through the high tea country to Nanu Oya, just south of Nuwara Eliya - four hours trip.

We sat on the station platform and admired station life at its best - freight trains and passenger trains passed through with a jumble of parcels and furniture! Lunch sellers walked the platform and then the train once we boarded.

Our first class tickets were vetted by a handsome guard beautifully attired in a dark navy jacket with immaculate white trousers - a resplendent train officers' braided uniform. Declining offers of tea from the mobile urn we took up our seats armed with a picnic lunch supplied by Sumith of sweet bananas, Jacobs cream crackers bottled water and Audley hand wipes - what more can one need!

The train wound its way through the tea country getting gradually higher and at each stop, as this is a single carriageway track, there were pauses for the train baton to be exchanged. Despite the arrival of the rain after the clear and sunny morning, the light rain could not dim the wonderfully dramatic scenery of rolling hills covered with manicured tiered and terraced tea plantations. With no observation carriage on the train Simon stood at the open carriage doors taking pictures for most the four hour journey to Nanu Oya.

We have ridden the train with Ann & Kinnaird in the same carriage, so we're able to swop notes on our journey, and on alighting were delighted to see Sumith who helpfully had already located "The Foreigners Toilet!' especially for Ann & I. The drive to Stafford Bungalow through the tea country was if anything more spectacular than the train itself.

However on arrival at Staffords Bungalow in "higher" tea country - we absolutely blown away by the location, views and service - we received the now familiar welcome of cool hand towels and a welcome fruit juice, but Stafford Bungalow as we learnt always go that extra mile and presented us with lovely welcome garlands.

So my hat has found another new home and after unpacking we enjoyed dinner - chatting to the other guests, and catching up on trips and their latest Sri Lanka experiences.