Kandy corner

~Trip to Loolecondera - The first Tea land of Sri Lanka~

"LOOLECONDERA Tea is the essential drink in the world next to water"

Date- 2010.12.?

Crew- 5 (samith,sandun,manuj,bhathiya,Suda)

Accommodation- N/A

Route- Kandy->Delthota->Kandy

Transport- Bus

Activites- Bird-watching ,Photography,Hiking

Weather- Misty,windy and slightly raining

We started from Kandy at about 9 in the morning and it took almost 2 and half hours for us to reach Loolecondera from Kandy because of our transportation way was public bus service :)))). which was located in a distance of 35km from Peradeniya.

The road was bit narrow but had been maintained well. It was nice scenery of hilltops at Gampola area visible in our right hand side. The road was run through natural rain forests, pathana and pines lands.

Having passing Galaha & Deltota we reached the boundary of Lulkandura Estate.This the first commercial tea plantation of Sri Lanka.

The road inside the tea estate was in real bad shape.Having climbing nearly 1.2km we came to the 3way junction from where the access to the first tea plot planted by James taylor in 1867 was begun.

From that junction on wards the tea plantation was appeared to be much green & healthy. It was a nice fact that some forest patches ware maintained along the tea plantation.Passing a plot of recently trimmed tea plantation,With a walk of 100m, we reached the site where the cabin of James Taylor was located. Since the cabin was made with logs, the chimney made with rubble in masonry work was the only in remains.

James taylor the grand viceroy of Sri Lanka tea lived and died at Lolecondera. He remained a bachelor and Lolcondera was his first and last love.

Planting tea has done a huge damage to the natural environment of the hill country in Sri Lanka. Comparatively the damage done to the forest is low here in Loolecondara where James Taylor designed Tea estate in such a way that the effect on the environment was minimized. The virgin natural forest in top of the estate is evidence of his great work.

The special feature of this forest is the forest type which it belongs to and its rich biodiversity. It belongs to a unique forest type called “mid elevational lower montane forest”, which is one of the thirteen different forest types that can be found in Sri Lanka. Forests of this type are seen only in Knuckles and Rakwana, except Loolecondara, which represent the three major mountain ranges in Sri Lanka. Elevation of this forest type is 900 – 1400 m from sea level and the temperature, rainfall and cloudiness of the forests vary with elevation.