Sri Lanka 6 - Tea drinking and Bird watching

One surprise for us was the wonderful birdwatching in Sri lanka, so we decided to extend our car and driver option for a few days to go to the Hill Country and Uda Walawe National Park. Nuwara Eliya is an old colonial town high up in the mountains where the tea grows. The old Brits went to town creating England in the only place in Sri lanka with cold, drizzly weather. There are still some old buildings around and a good golf club. We stayed at the Grosvenor Hotel- nice old place but lousy food and went for drinks at the Grand Hotel. Of course the surrounding tea plantations make for very pleasant scenery and a tea factory visit is basically compulsory. Many tourists stay at the town of Ella; especially good for hikers and climbers; but just like all over Sri Lanka rather dull in the evenings. Despite a few cloud bursts, Uda Walawe did not dissappoint. We saw 45 different species of birds on one game drive and didn't have to work too hard on  identifying them because our guide was excellent. We also saw loads of elephants and water buffalo who lie around in the water all day like hippos. We spotted two jackals as well. In all we saw about 80 different bird species in Sri Lanka.