The Loolkandura estate was the first tea plantation estate in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) started in 1867 by Englishman James Taylor, it is situated in Kandy District.

Both of us were looking for a getaway and this time we selected central hills rather than the usual dry zone. Went through the internet and finally found a nice place close to Nilambe. And yes the place was well worth and the perfect location with a window view towards Piduruthalagala western reaches (my kind of place). Though the food was terrible the surrounding environment made us forget it.

We started from Colombo at about 9 in the morning (we were got late due to some unavoidable reasons) and it was around 3 in the evening when we left from Kundaslae. Though it was just a ride of around 30km, it took almost 2 hours for us to reach Loolecondera from Kundasale because of the bad road condition and the weather. The luck was on our side as the masses of land were cleared just in the morning that day, if it wasn’t so we really would have been in serious trouble as there were no turning backs at some points of the route

We were heading Lulkandura / Loolecondera Estate, the first commercial tea plantation of Sri Lanka, which was located in a distance of 35km from Peradeniya. Just after the University premises, the climb was began. 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, especially the Govijana Seya of Ambuluwawa. The road was run through natural rain forests, pathana and pines lands.