Poonagala run

Peak: Lipton's Seat/Poonagala (1950m)
Area: Haputale, Sri Lanka
A well known walk through the tea plantations from the Dambetenna factory above Haputale. It also lent itself to a running approach, although it was hardly the conventional way to do it! After taking the train to Haputale from Kandy yesterday, standing up for six hours on one of the world's best rail journeys, I spent the morning walking to Adisham in perfect weather, then got an ancient bus up through the mist to Dambetenna. From here, a narrow road twists through the tea plantations, incredibly scenic and atmospheric as the mist continually rolled in then occasionally lifted to show glimpses of distant hills and villages. It continues at a gentle gradient for 7km, perfect for running actually, and reaches the famed Lipton's Seat - supposedly the favourite viewpoint of colonial tea magnate Thomas Lipton. It was, inevitably, misty - which was why I'd taken advantage of the clear weather first thing this morning to go to Adisham (I would never have reached this point in time - the mist comes down very early). A tea shack was open on the summit of Poonagala: I had a wonderfully restorative cuppa and selected from a tray of Sri Lankan 'tapas'. Fresh warm rotis, sambal, and a selection of vadai. I was just pondering another roti when I spied a young Macaque monkey in the vegetation below. As I pondered how to protect the food, he immediately leapt over the wall and took the remaining three rotis: calibrating his jump precisely before I'd had a chance to cover the food. Admirable and ingenious. The ambience up here, at 2000m, was wonderful, and I spent some time enjoying the peace before the cold sent me jogging back down to Dambetenna and a chaotic bus back to Haputale.