By T. Jayani, JadeTimes News
In Sri Lanka (Colombo to Badulla_ railway is so enchantingly beautiful that it's become a bucket list adventure for many visitors. Awakened by the long, melancholic sound of the siren, felt the train's brakes hiss and screech as ascended the hill and arrived at Radella, a station along one of the most picturesque train journeys globally, the Colombo to Badulla railway.
The journey is so captivating that you don't want to take your head out of the window, a finance consultant who has extensively traveled by train across the island. "It constantly leaves you in awe. You wonder what comes next a waterfall? A tea garden resembling a stupa? Or mist shrouded peaks? You never know. You just have to keep looking."
Eagerly disembarking the train to explore towns and hamlets surrounded by tea estates. The 291km track traverses deep gorges, rugged cliffs, cascading waterfalls, lakes, and rivers from Sri Lanka's west coast into its mountainous interior. It winds through 46 tunnels, snaking past high montane canopies with bright red rhododendrons and wild ferns, remnants of the native hill country forest left untouched by British colonizers. On a clear day, sunlit hills stretch down to the glistening southern coastline as far as the eye can see from the train window. This slow, 10 hour journey might be inconvenient for the modern traveler, but its enchanting scenery has turned it into a bucket list adventure for many visitors.
It's not just the views that have travelers in awe. The train journey itself has become an Instagram sensation in recent years, with travel bloggers risking their lives to take photos of themselves hanging off the door as the train rumbles past rickety bridges. Yet, the journey is also tied to Sri Lanka's colonial history and offers passengers a deeper understanding of the island nation.
A new train for tourists
While the railway was originally opened for trade, only a fraction of it now transports goods. Along with daily passenger trains, a new tourist train named "Ella Odyssey" opened in March, stopping at several key points along the route in addition to the usual station halts to soak in the panoramic views from the open windows and doors.
During British colonization in the 19th Century, Sri Lanka was the third largest coffee exporter in the world. As demand rose, it became costly to transport coffee on bullock carts from the central mountains to Colombo for shipment, especially with deteriorating road conditions during the monsoon months. Estates had to store their coffee for long periods, causing the quality and value to deteriorate. Therefore, British estate owners pushed for a rail system to transport coffee. In 1867, the British completed a railway from the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka to the coastal city of Colombo.
The British didn't build railways to help locals travel. A naturalist at the luxury boutique hotel chain Teardrop Hotels, who also conducts railway hikes for resort guests. They designed railways to transport estate produce.
Boarded the train in Colombo, leaving the muggy heat and low country farmlands to slowly ascend towards the rocky mountains surrounding Kandy. Cutting through rugged terrain, the train climbed 426m over a 21km stretch, passing through 12 tunnels, hugging treacherous curves along the mountains, and soaring above thick tropical jungle. After leaving Kandy, passed fertile riverine valleys and entered Sri Lanka's hill country. Tea thrives in these damp, wet highlands, so, when tea became prominent after the coffee rust epidemic a fungal disease that hindered the coffee trade in 1869 the British wanted to extend the railways to transport tea from the mountains to Colombo.
In the 1870s, the British began expanding the railway from Peradeniya, a railway junction near Kandy, extending the route to the terminal station Badulla in 1924. This 178km long stretch involved navigating through rainy, forested mountains, steep ridges, and a series of sharp twists and turns by building an impressive mix of bridges, viaducts, tunnels, and embankments. It took 52 years to complete. You moved out of the mountains, and over the next three hours passed small, well kept British era railway stations like Galboda and Watawala, built solely for transporting tea from each estate. Slowly ascended past Hindu temples tucked in tea gardens, small housing settlements where tea estate laborers live, and turpentine forests shrouded in swirling mist. After leaving Hatton the gateway town to Adam's Peak, a holy mountain for pilgrims of all faiths, entered the Poolbank Tunnel, the longest of the 46 tunnels at more than half a kilometer in length.
You cannot really see the light at the end of the tunnel here. From here, young passengers eagerly hung from the door to see the gushing cascades of the spectacular St Clair's Falls through tea bushes. Cold air drifted in from the open windows, and rising mist cloaked the towering Great Western mountain range. Many passengers disembarked at Nanu Oya, a tea country town where visitors can tour the plantations and learn about the history of tea on the island; but I stayed on board, climbing up to Pattipola, the highest broad gauge railway station in the world. From here, we finally left the cold central hills, traveling past dairy farms towards the sunlit southeastern mountains.
A couple of hours later, you can arrive at Ella. Over the last decade, this once sleepy village has transformed into a lively tourist hub with cafes and bars lining the streets and people posing for photos in front of the picturesque Nine Arch Bridge, a viaduct with nine arches that soars over tropical jungles of plantain trees and areca nut palms, and has become one of the most photographed spots on the island.
Flanked by thick jungle and tea plantations, the bridge was designed by British engineer Harold Marwood, but according to folklore, it would never have been built without local knowledge. It's said that during World War I, when it was difficult to source steel from Europe, British engineers had to rethink the bridge design. Since colonial rulers had little to no knowledge about local construction materials, a Sri Lankan builder assisted. Locals completed the engineering marvel using only bricks, stone, and cement. Looking out of the train window, gaze at the 90m long viaduct rising through the trees, connecting Ella to the highland town of Demodara. The British also needed a way to manage the steep incline of the terrain from here. The climb was too abrupt for the engines to handle. Again, folklore credits locals who found a way to solve the problem by creating a spiraling track. As we reached Demodara Loop, the train halted at Demodara for passengers to disembark, snaked around a hillock, and reappeared from a 134m long tunnel right beneath the station.
According to legend, local engineer DW Wimalasurendra worked at the site and conceived this spiral design after seeing a kankami (a tea estate worker who manages South Indian laborers) tying and re tying his turban. The cutting edge engineering allowed the train to avoid the steep climb. Nearing the end of the journey, and the train slowly descended to the sleepy, terracotta roofed town of Hali Ela to terminate at the city of Badulla in the lower central hills.
In many ways, as the train snakes past the century old tea bushes, British stations, and settlements of tea estate communities, it quietly reveals the story of an island to those willing to put down their phones and look for it.