NUWARA ELIYA
An early 20th century English writer commented on Nuwara Eliya: “When he looks out of his window in the early morning and sees the whole world glistening under hoar-frost and the garden brimming with geraniums, pansies, sweet peas and every English flower, he wonders if he is really in the tropics at all.” There’s no need to wonder. It is the tropics and it’s for real.
Sri Lanka is well-known for her hot sunny days and beautiful stretches of palm-fringed beaches. So how can there exist on this island a place that has grey, cold, drizzly days and chilly nights with a mean temperature of 57F? Where there is a need for wood fires and extra blankets at bedtime to stave off the cold? Where there is a golf course, English-style pubs, trout fishing - and not even a palm tree in sight?
But Sri Lanka is, as the early 20th century guidebook writer Bella Woolf says, “An amazing little island” because of its surprising contrasts. So it is that within reasonably easy reach of the capital you will find a temperate climate, and the environment that goes with it. Situated at 1,896m, Nuwara Eliya is Sri Lanka’s most elevated town. It lies at the foot of Pidurutalagala, the island’s highest mountain, amongst a variety of trees and shrubs suited only to this wild and rugged terrain.
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