Ella Rock & Cooking Curry

Initially the plan was to start our hike really early in the morning at around 5:30 am to avoid all the crowds.. but unfortunately when we got up we could hear the pouring rain.. it had rained all night so we decided to have a nice breakfast and then start the hike later in the day which was the right thing to do.
First stop was the Nine Arches Bridge. Beautiful scenery and right from a postcard we walked the 30 minutes to the bridge, took some pictures and then decided to also do Ella Rock right after. Luckily it stopped raining.
The first part of the hike to Ella Rock was on train tracks. For us Europeans really crazy since we are always afraid a train will arrive, for the Sri Lankan people however its their normal walk on their daily commute into town.
So we walked around 1 hour down the train tracks until the actual hike started. We passed chili fields, tea plantations and beautiful scenery. It rained a little bit but for the most part it stayed dry until we reached the top of Ella Rock. The last part was definitely the most difficult part of the hike and we were a little exhausted but happy when we finally made it up. In my mind I thought this is just the preparation for Adams Peak in 3 days…
We stayed on top for a little bit and enjoyed the view. Unfortunately on our way back it was pouring rain and we arrived almost fully soaked back in Ella at our accomodation.
We were able to rest and dry for a little bit, changed to warmer and dry clothes and then walked to our cooking class.
I just loved this cooking class which took place in a real outdoor kitchen . The woman explained us everything about the spices and that the main four spices of Sri Lankan kitchens are Pepper, Salt, Chili and Brown Curry powder. If you change the ratio of all of these spices the dishes will taste different.
We made an Aubergine Salad which was to die for, pumpkin Curry, chicken curry, dhal, Rice and Okra. The Food was amazing! We were a group of 10 people from the US, Germany and the Netherlands.
I would highly recommend doing a cooking class in Sri Lanka. We even learned how to prepare rice over the fire and make coconut milk the traditional way.
After we had some time to Rest we are now on the train to Kandy :) Tomorrow we will meet our sister! Can’t wait!Read more