The First-Timer’s Travel Guide to Ella, Sri Lanka (2019)

I wasn’t expecting to see her that morning.

I didn’t know what the schedule was, so I hung around by the bridge taking pictures before retreating up the side of the hill. There was a cafe on the ridge offering a clear bird’s eye view of the bridge. I stood there for a few moments admiring the view before turning and making my way to Little Adam’s Peak.

But something made me go back.

I don’t even remember what, perhaps an idea to take a picture of the bridge from another angle, but I got back to the ridge to find a streak of blue cutting through the haze of forest and fog. I didn’t even hear her coming.

I snapped as many pictures as I could, still in disbelief of my good fortune. It was the moment I had been waiting for in Ella, the small mountain town that was far and away my favorite…