There are train journeys, and then there is the Nanu Oya to Ella run, a four-hour passage through some of the most beautiful landscapes on earth that has earned a permanent place on every traveller’s bucket list. If you only do one thing in Sri Lanka’s hill country, make it this. The train departs Nanu Oya station, a short drive from the colonial town of Nuwara Eliya, in the cool highland morning. At first, the landscape outside the window is familiar tea country – vivid emerald terraces ascending in precise rows to the hilltops, overseen by colonial-era estate bungalows and the occasional pepper-red post-box of the British era. The Tamil tea pluckers, their collecting baskets strapped to their heads, move methodically through the rows with a practised grace that has not changed in a hundred and fifty years. Then the train begins to climb. The track winds through a series of tunnels blasted through the granite core of the mountains, emerging each time into a new and more spectacular panorama – misty valleys dropping away to the south, the silver thread of a distant waterfall, a colonial viaduct arching with impossible elegance over a jungle gorge. The carriages sway gently; the windows are open; the air smells of damp earth and tea. Fellow passengers in the observation car lean out to photograph the curves ahead, or simply fall silent, staring. At Demodara, the train performs one of its most remarkable feats of engineering: the famous Loop, in which the line doubles back under itself in a complete circle to descend the mountain without runaway speed – a piece of Victorian railway engineering that still astonishes travellers more than a century after it was built. And then, quite suddenly, the train coasts into Ella station – a small, flower-filled platform in the heart of the mountains – and the journey is over. The Nine Arch Bridge, a five-minute walk from the station, is best photographed from the hillside in the mid-morning, when the train crosses it in a cloud of diesel smoke and the whole structure – nine graceful arches of British-era brick spanning a deep jungle gorge – seems to belong to another world. Stand there for long enough and you will see why travellers who pass through Ella rarely leave as quickly as they planned. This small mountain town has a way of holding you. Practical tip: Book your hill country train tickets as far in advance as possible, particularly for the observation car seats, which are limited and in very high demand. Ceylon Escape Holidays handles all train reservations as part of your itinerary – simply let your travel designer know that this journey is a priority, and they will ensure you have the best possible seats on the best possible departure. This is one experience where preparation truly pays.