Today we have a driver and guide to take us on a tour of the tea plantations, a tea factory and local waterfalls. Sri Lanka is the world’s second largest tea producer after India and Mackwoods, who are the largest tea grower in Sri Lanka, have several teas estates in this area including the Labukale Tea Centre which is where we are headed. On the way we stop several times to take picture of the immaculate tea gardens and the tea pickers.
The traditional image of the tea picker sporting a wicker basket carried by a strap across the head has given way, unfortunately for the environment, to the pedestrian plastic sack carried in a similar fashion but much lighter and less cumbersome.
Only the bud and top two leaves are picked and each bush is picked every five days and the tea pickers pick a minimum of 18 kilos of tea a day for which they earn a basic wage of 500 rupees a day. This is well below the average wage, but is supplemented with free housing, health care, education for their children, wedding and funerals paid for, in fact most of their expenses are paid for and they are also provided with land on which to grow vegetables. Most of the pickers are Indian Tamils brought over by the British specifically to work the tea plantations introduced to Sri Lanka after the coffee plantations were destroyed by fungus.
All the tea grown in Sri Lanka comes from the same type of bush; flavour is determined by the altitude at which it is grown and strength by how finely it is chopped. Tea bushes are productive for at least 50 years and are pruned back every five years. The processing of the tea is quite uncomplicated as we discover from our tour of Mackwoods tea factory. The whole cycle only takes 24 hours from picking to packing. The stages are withering the leaf using fans, rolling and chopping the leaf, fermentation, hot air drying, winnowing the stalks, grading and packing. The processed tea is sent to auction in Colombo and is blended by the likes of Liptons and Brooke Bond for strength and flavour. The tour completed we sit in the sun with a huge pot of tea and a piece of chocolate cake. How perfectly civilised!
There are numerous waterfalls in the vicinity, many of which can be seen cascading down the hillside next to the road, but a couple require a little more effort. The views are wonderfully picturesque with the tea plantations carpeting the hills, occasionally interspered with vegetable gardens, and the Miwara Ganga snaking towards the dammed Lake Gregory which provides hydro electricity for the area.
Despite the extensive tea planations, which seem to occupy every last square foot of the hillsides, this is also a major vegetable growing area. In fact it is the only area in Sri Lanka where cold weather vegetables can be grown: carrots, cabbages, leeks, beetroot, potatoes, lettuce and green beans are all cropped four times a year. Small vegetable terraces are with neatly raised beds separated by deep channels to disperse the heavy rains are squeezed amongst the houses to provide commerically and domestically grown vegetables which find their way all over the island and onto the local road side stalls.
After our tour we take spend some time looking around this unlikeliest of towns. Originally established by the British as a retreat from the heat of the lowlands, it is like stepping back in time with its English architecture and toytown feel. Not for nothing is this town referred to as ‘Little England’. There is a horse racing track and an international golf course, the latter kept in immaculate condition, but completely devoid of golfers. Otherwise the only feature of note is the beautifully kept Victoria Park with its perfect lawns and glorious flowerbeds overflowing with dahlias, gypsophylia, antirhinums, marigolds, busy lizzies, lilies and numerous other familiar blooms. Just beautiful. Unfortunately though, one of the small pavilions has been subject to an incongrous promotional make-over including a large tinted pvc canopy and double glazed windows alongside which are advertising boards promoting the myriad benefits of pvc windows. Quite bizarre.
All this before lunch! Lunch in a small pastry shop. No menu, just a plate of savoury pastries to choose from; simply pay for what you eat. But try not to think about how many people may have man-handled them before you! Lunch for two: less than a pound.