Well, last weekend we hitched a ride to Haputale. The train was already booked for the weekend so we decided to head there by bus. One of my friend'stold me about the "Super Line" bus which actually offers a very comfortable night transportation between Colombo and Badulla.
After some Googling we came up with this very informative post on Lakdasun forum on how to reserve seats on the Colombo Badulla Super Line bus. The ride itself was really good, the bus unlike other AC buses had enough leg space and the reclining seats provided a comfortable sleep during the journey. Our visit to Haputale was in fact to take a hike to the much famous Lipton Seat which is said to be used by Sir Thomas Lipton as favorite look out post during the his visits to British Ceylon. On a clear day you could see 5 provinces in Sri Lanka and the view from there is magnificent.
We reached Haputale Town at 4.00am on Saturday morning, after chilling out at SriLakView rest (which we had booked before arriving) we began our journey to Lipton Seat at around 10.00am. Lipton Seat is located a bit off the Haputale Town so if you are going to take a hike you very much need to take the bus from Haputale to Dambetenna Tea Factory which takes around 40mins.
From Dambetenna Factory there is a long hike which would take up around 3.5 hours. If in fact if you have a vehicle the journey is quite fast where you could get to the place itself in the vehicle.But we of course opted to take a hike to the place and thought of cutting across the long winding roads by making our way through the tea plantations.Though the hike was tiring the view leading up to the place was magnificent and its worth every effort. After exhausted few hours we were able to reach Lipton's Seat, there was a small Shop run by an old couple who served us some awesome tea and biscuits.
We relaxed and spent several hours in the place, and started our way back through the tea plantations as the sun started to set. We heard that the sun set from the top was really amazing but we had to rush back as we needed to catch the last bus from Dambetenna to Haputale. There are some video compilations captured from the hike...
I've located Lipton Seat on Google Maps, you could access it from the following link. On Google Maps swith to Satellite(Earth) to get a better 3d view of the place...
http://bit.ly/LiptonSeat
After some Googling we came up with this very informative post on Lakdasun forum on how to reserve seats on the Colombo Badulla Super Line bus. The ride itself was really good, the bus unlike other AC buses had enough leg space and the reclining seats provided a comfortable sleep during the journey. Our visit to Haputale was in fact to take a hike to the much famous Lipton Seat which is said to be used by Sir Thomas Lipton as favorite look out post during the his visits to British Ceylon. On a clear day you could see 5 provinces in Sri Lanka and the view from there is magnificent.
We reached Haputale Town at 4.00am on Saturday morning, after chilling out at SriLakView rest (which we had booked before arriving) we began our journey to Lipton Seat at around 10.00am. Lipton Seat is located a bit off the Haputale Town so if you are going to take a hike you very much need to take the bus from Haputale to Dambetenna Tea Factory which takes around 40mins.
From Dambetenna Factory there is a long hike which would take up around 3.5 hours. If in fact if you have a vehicle the journey is quite fast where you could get to the place itself in the vehicle.But we of course opted to take a hike to the place and thought of cutting across the long winding roads by making our way through the tea plantations.Though the hike was tiring the view leading up to the place was magnificent and its worth every effort. After exhausted few hours we were able to reach Lipton's Seat, there was a small Shop run by an old couple who served us some awesome tea and biscuits.
We relaxed and spent several hours in the place, and started our way back through the tea plantations as the sun started to set. We heard that the sun set from the top was really amazing but we had to rush back as we needed to catch the last bus from Dambetenna to Haputale. There are some video compilations captured from the hike...
I've located Lipton Seat on Google Maps, you could access it from the following link. On Google Maps swith to Satellite(Earth) to get a better 3d view of the place...
http://bit.ly/LiptonSeat
That is a great trip and report. I love this area. Last December I spent a few weeks in the vicinity of this "lipton's" seat learning about tea. Will be back again this year for a longer time.
ReplyDeleteyeah...the place is simply amazing :) I actually wanted to take the Epic train ride from Fort which takes around staggering 10hrs :D probly wud take it very soon...
ReplyDelete