Liptons Tea, Dambetenne
23p for this ride to the tea factory at Dambetenne, the original 'Liptons tea', founded by a Scottish chap, Sir Thomas Lipton, late 1800's. The place is also where the hike upto 'Liptons Seat' starts, a mammoth 7kms according to research, hope to find some short cuts. The bus rolls out towards Haputale, the next town along, and soon fills up to bursting point, although the days of climbing onto the bus's roof seem to be well and truly over. Some rather spectacular scenery along this narrow road as the clouds occasionally opening up for a glimpse of the valleys yonder. Bus pulls into the Dambetenne Road just into Haputale and, well that's it - engine off, driver jumps out and disappears. A handful of passengers stay on the bus though, so I have every confidence in reaching Dambetenne sometime today!
20 minutes later and the bus heads for Dambetenne on what us Brits would class as a country lane, a very minor road indeed and a rough ride, especially for those standing. Rides in the hill country are going to be scenic, but this one isn't. The clouds are getting lower or we are gaining altitude - the latter i think.
Some glimpses of scenery in-between cloud breaks, very misty though.
About half an hour from Haputale and Dambetenne tea factory stands promintly among the tea fields, houses dotted around and a more organised community of dwellings just in front. Still drizzling, so let's go and see how the tender green leaves from those tea plants end up in Tescos.
250 rupees according to the sign asking visitors to wait here and no strictly no cameras or videoing. An old wooden panelled room with that subtle musty aroma, a few really old prints pinned on the wall with a historical description stamped into a brass plaque, all very old fashioned. They either want to keep the old fashioned theme for authenticity or things really haven't moved on since mid 50's I would estimate. Waiting and willing to give over my £1.25 but it's pretty quiet around here, surprising since this place is high on the must see list in Lonely Planet. I'll just take a wander outside, see if I can raise some interest from someone - anyone please!
Annoyingly, there's wire mesh across the windows but still, I can grab a few sneaky photos without attracting attention - at least something is better than nothing. Some decent photos as it happens, of the grinders, conveyers and giant sieves. Ok, better not push my luck here - pretty lucky actually to get quite a decent set of shots. Back to the waiting room then, I,m sure by now i've been spotted loitering around the place. Indeed I have as a factory employee gets the tour under-way.
First, up a creaky wooden stair case to the top of the place where the bags are delivered from the fields, weighed and then emptied out onto the wooden slatted floor.Then the leaves are literally stuffed down metal tubes, and to see why, it's down to the next floor. Onto long drying machines where hot air is blown up and through the leaves for about 18 hours depending on how much rain there has been. When 60% dry, the process of making tea leaves begins as the raw material is conveyed into large drums - cutting and grinding. Down again to the factory floor and the mechanics of making black tea. Rough cut at first, dried a little more on conveying belts and cut again, and again. The raw material now starts to look like tea and is sieved several times to remove any rogue elements. Final drying process in a hot vat before being graded, bagged and transported to the auction house in Colombo. Well, there it is, just 20 minutes we see how Liptons started it all off. I did notice quite a significant amount of spillage, but the floor was clean!
Back outside in the drizzle with pretty all the scenery obscured. Well, might as well take a look around the community here for a while, no big rush to get back.
The hike up to Liptons Seat starts from here, but really the effort won't justify the means today since this weather looks set for a while yet.
23p for this ride to the tea factory at Dambetenne, the original 'Liptons tea', founded by a Scottish chap, Sir Thomas Lipton, late 1800's. The place is also where the hike upto 'Liptons Seat' starts, a mammoth 7kms according to research, hope to find some short cuts. The bus rolls out towards Haputale, the next town along, and soon fills up to bursting point, although the days of climbing onto the bus's roof seem to be well and truly over. Some rather spectacular scenery along this narrow road as the clouds occasionally opening up for a glimpse of the valleys yonder. Bus pulls into the Dambetenne Road just into Haputale and, well that's it - engine off, driver jumps out and disappears. A handful of passengers stay on the bus though, so I have every confidence in reaching Dambetenne sometime today!
20 minutes later and the bus heads for Dambetenne on what us Brits would class as a country lane, a very minor road indeed and a rough ride, especially for those standing. Rides in the hill country are going to be scenic, but this one isn't. The clouds are getting lower or we are gaining altitude - the latter i think.
Some glimpses of scenery in-between cloud breaks, very misty though.
About half an hour from Haputale and Dambetenne tea factory stands promintly among the tea fields, houses dotted around and a more organised community of dwellings just in front. Still drizzling, so let's go and see how the tender green leaves from those tea plants end up in Tescos.
250 rupees according to the sign asking visitors to wait here and no strictly no cameras or videoing. An old wooden panelled room with that subtle musty aroma, a few really old prints pinned on the wall with a historical description stamped into a brass plaque, all very old fashioned. They either want to keep the old fashioned theme for authenticity or things really haven't moved on since mid 50's I would estimate. Waiting and willing to give over my £1.25 but it's pretty quiet around here, surprising since this place is high on the must see list in Lonely Planet. I'll just take a wander outside, see if I can raise some interest from someone - anyone please!
Annoyingly, there's wire mesh across the windows but still, I can grab a few sneaky photos without attracting attention - at least something is better than nothing. Some decent photos as it happens, of the grinders, conveyers and giant sieves. Ok, better not push my luck here - pretty lucky actually to get quite a decent set of shots. Back to the waiting room then, I,m sure by now i've been spotted loitering around the place. Indeed I have as a factory employee gets the tour under-way.
First, up a creaky wooden stair case to the top of the place where the bags are delivered from the fields, weighed and then emptied out onto the wooden slatted floor.Then the leaves are literally stuffed down metal tubes, and to see why, it's down to the next floor. Onto long drying machines where hot air is blown up and through the leaves for about 18 hours depending on how much rain there has been. When 60% dry, the process of making tea leaves begins as the raw material is conveyed into large drums - cutting and grinding. Down again to the factory floor and the mechanics of making black tea. Rough cut at first, dried a little more on conveying belts and cut again, and again. The raw material now starts to look like tea and is sieved several times to remove any rogue elements. Final drying process in a hot vat before being graded, bagged and transported to the auction house in Colombo. Well, there it is, just 20 minutes we see how Liptons started it all off. I did notice quite a significant amount of spillage, but the floor was clean!
Back outside in the drizzle with pretty all the scenery obscured. Well, might as well take a look around the community here for a while, no big rush to get back.
The hike up to Liptons Seat starts from here, but really the effort won't justify the means today since this weather looks set for a while yet.
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