Our goal today was a little mountain hiking. Actually we investigated further the origins of this area and the lore goes way, way back. Here's an interesting retelling in English. As a child, Jay climbed with his family. The accounts we found on the Internet on how long it would take varied. We are in pretty good shape nowadays and it took an hour and ten minutes to climb and around just 50 minutes. Some, I'm sure, would need to double those figures. To get to the base, we took a tuk-tuk and returned that way as well. Interestingly the ride back was with a lady driver and owner. Her Bajaj still had plastic on the seats and was brand new.
Click this image to see it in a larger format on Flickr.
We ate lunch in Kataragama before coming back to town. For some reason, Tissamahara really lacks suitable places to eat. I tweeted today that some of the local businessmen should sell there "safari jeeps" and invest in a good family restaurant in town. This area is very close to Yala National Park and going to spot leopards and elephants seems the local tourist craze. We have said no thanks to all the offers. We chased around animals on a Kenyan safari once and found it sufficient.
I sweated profusely when hiking up the mountain today. We are going to travel somewhere where is won't be 26C (79F) at night. We will catch a bus up to Ella tomorrow morning.