Photo Friday: Lipton's Seat, Sri Lanka

Er ... what sweeping views?

At the look-out point on the Dambatenne tea plantation, Sir Thomas Lipton used to bring guests for picnics and to survey the sheer sweeping views below.

My new friend Thomas

Unfortunately, for us much of the 18,000 metre drop down to the valleys below was obscured by cloud on our visit.

It cleared up a bit while we were there, but there was always some lingering cloud in the way of the best view of the area. 

Thankfully, the views in the other direction looking across the lush greens of the tea plantation were pretty impressive too. 

And we particularly enjoyed the winding journey through the estate past tea pickers and up to Lipton's seat.

The Dambatenne estate was the first estate that Sir Thomas Lipton bought. He is accredited as the man who commercialised tea from Sri Lanka. And by cutting out the tea broker and growing, packaging and selling the tea in his shops, he also made tea affordable. The key slogan of tea at the time was 'direct from tea garden to tea pot'.

We got up to Lipton's Seat one late afternoon from Ella. It was around 30-40 minutes by tuk-tuk to get there. You might want to also combine it with a visit to the tea factory - we didn't as we didn't have time.

Have you been to Lipton's Seat? Did you have better luck with the weather?!

Related posts
Our Sri Lanka top tips and practicalities
Where we stayed - Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle: Part 1 - A rock and some caves
Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle: Part 2 - An Ancient City
Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle: Part 3 - A massage and a herd of elephants
Sri Lankan beach time - Arugam Bay
What to do in Ella