July 6, 

We awoke, both of us slept even better, due to lack of mosquitoes! I had my coffee on the balcony again, so lovely to watch the cloud play, and watch-hear the birds and the chipmunk/squirrels. Jeff had his hot chocolate this morning. Then we went down for breakfast. It was a lady who served us, I don't know her name, but I have seen her here before with Pradeep, I think she is the neighbor to us (later found out it was his mother). She might be our ages. Anyway, she brought out the food… 26 coconut milk rice squares!!🤯 I am not kidding! The squares are 2X2X1! Then she brought out a water pitcher. We thought that was our breakfast -crazy! But then she back out with an onion curry, that was spicy, and excellent flavor. Jeff and I both had five of the rice squares because of that fantastic onion curry. I felt bad because that was not even half of those squares! But I reconciled that thought– 26, that is just not realistic for us! We also had tea that she had sweetened – too much for me I let Jeff have mine. We could not really communicate with her. We thought she was asking if we were going to Kandy, but realized she maybe was saying Pradeep went to Kandy. 

Anyway, we finished and went upstairs, and sat on the balcony as more rain rolled in. It stopped and we just sat and listened to nature. Around noon we decided to go out as the rain had quit and the sun was playing peek-a-boo. We went downstairs and Pradeep had returned. We told him we were going out and he recommended the place we were going and a waterfall. We loaded in CB and explored the road on up where we had not been. It circled back around to the main street here in Panwila. So we stopped at the main local bakery – a hopping place, and got X3 different breaded things. One was labeled fish cutlet, another vegetable wrap, and last was on the tray with the veggie wrap but it was a more like a stuffed bun. We also got a cookie. 

Now we set out! Adventure awaits😊! We followed Google Maps toward Hatale Mini World's End. It was a fun, but also sometimes scary drive, along a windy one lane road – that public busses take! The hills and mountains are forested that varied and changed practically around every bend of the road. We passed by huge trees – maybe gum trees, and banyan trees; then we passed through some type of pine-looking trees in groves. Then it gave way to tea plantations. Yeah!! It was a great valley and the light play with the clouds it was so beautiful and a nice cool temperature (we even have our windows rolled down) due to our elevation gain. Then we made a turn off and the road became a narrow, one lane road windy through the tea plantation. We past by tea pickers who just looked at us I just nodded and smiled, which they then reciprocated. We found a nice overlook area and stopped. We got out an had our light lunch just enjoying the day and view over the tea bushed landscape, there was even some running water from the irrigation ditch nearby. Quite lovely!

Finished we got back in CB and started the last mile to our destination, but the still ascending road turned into gravel and big rocks with bigger holes. CB is not 4 wheel drive, so we opted to call it good. We could see the Mini World's End from a distance, but not from the top. We were okay with this. Jeff reversed back to where he could turn around and we backtracked to the main road. We found a turn off to go to the waterfall that Pradeep mentioned. We arrived in another small town, Huluganga. This is where the waterfall was. It is called, Huluganga Ella Waterfall. We found parking and went to the ticket booth. It is 500 Rupees ($1.65) each. (That's the foreigner price – it's 50 Rupees for local.)  Anyway, we hike down a cement stairway to a landing area, taking pictures the whole way. It is a gorgeous, full-force, running, shooting waterfall! It hits the rocks causing big, scooping sprays. Fantastic!! And well worth the admission price! We watch it for a bit from the landing and went the rest of the way down to the last smaller landing. Just incredible. It does not have a long unbroken fall, but it makes up by having the shooting-scoop spray, at least 5 feet up before it comes back down. Pretty cool, literally, as we are catching some mist from the spray. The powerful sound of water is amazing. So loud! 

We loaded up in CB and went back to Panwila and our place Kandyan Secret Villa, about 1630. We went in straight away as it started spitting. Then upstairs to our balcony to watch the sky. Thankfully, we did not have any rain on our outing. We unwound, and went downstairs to the living area. I blogged and Jeff read. Pradeep was making supper – the awesome aromas wafting in the air had Jeff and I almost salivating. 

Finally at six Pradeep started bringing it out. It was a large platter of veggie egg rice; a bowl of  chicken curry with dangerous looking chillies, and tomatoes & onions; and a bowl of dahl. The rice was so flavorful with fresh ginger and garlic, but the prize was the chicken curry– the sauce was zingy and so… so good! We set about to eating, but avoided the chillies… because, yikes! Pradeep also brought out a small bowl of curd with honey and a big plate of bananas. We ate our curd, but could not even eat one banana.

Finished we watched some You tube. But what a grand day!