Tony Cunnane's RAF Years

Here are some more unedited extracts from my diary

Thursday 10th to Monday 15th February 1955

Don Taylor and I started 10 days' leave today, Thursday. We had intended travelling to the United Services Rest Centre at Diyatalawa (DLA). However our railway warrants had not been sent from Negombo so that meant someone had to go and fetch them. I said I would go because I like the ride to Negombo. There was no trouble about the warrants and I collected them from the Signals Centre.

We had a film in the billet tonight - same one as last night. I showed it. It was Bing Crosby in 'Birth of the Blues'.

Don and I had an early call at 0545 on Friday and I rang for a taxi which arrived just as we had finished breakfast. The train left Colombo at 0730 - five minutes late. For about the first couple of hours we travelled more or less on the level but after that we started to climb steeply until we reached a plateau around the 1,600 foot mark. It was an exciting ride and we got some wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. As for the gradient, well - it made the Lickey Incline south of Birmingham look very silly. Then, somewhere in the vicinity of Nawalapitiya , we started to climb again and this time we didn't stop. We went over the highest point of the railway - about 6,200 feet - and then started to go down the other side. We could see the camps at DLA about an hour before we reached the station although we didn't know it at the time for the railway sweeps in a wide circle as it descends into the valleys. We reached DLA station at about 1800 at a height of 4,387 feet above sea level.

Then the Royal Navy took over. A small six-seater bus was waiting outside the station to take us to the camp. The camp is run by the Navy while the Army, Air Force and NAAFI pay part of the expenses. The Rest Centre itself is called Ella Camp and is about half a mile from the main RN camp, HMS Uva. As soon as we arrived we were issued with our bedding - which included two blankets - and shown our billet. And that is where, in my opinion, the otherwise good idea of a leave centre flopped. When I go on holiday I like to have a good night's sleep and in my eighteen months or so in the Service I have discovered that is rarely possible in a billet. This one was no exception. On Friday some sailors were playing cards till about 0300 and on Saturday night they brought several bottles of beer into the billet and had a noisy drinking session till long after midnight. Sunday night was quite reasonable and I slept well.

The food was not bad but not as good as at Gango. Only once did we have corn flakes for breakfast; the other mornings large slices of papaw fruit adorned the table. If there is one thing I like for breakfast it is a large plateful of cereals. To make things worse on Sunday morning breakfast consisted of kippers and potatoes. So I had to make do with toast and marmalade. The bread is not as nice as we get at Gango. It had a peculiar yeast flavour but on two afternoons we had some very nice currant bread for tea. Two dinnertimes we had egg and chips so I was quite satisfied with that.

The weather was most disappointing and it was that which made us decide to leave early. Most of the time it was very dull and there was a lot of rain. I don't think we saw the sun clearly all the time we were there. During the day it was quite cool and in the evenings it was cold. We didn't mind that and, of course, at that altitude it was only to be expected. For a great deal of the time the surrounding mountains were hidden by low cloud.

On Saturday morning we hired a bike each and went for a ride to Bandarawela, a small town about four miles from Ella Camp. It was a most enjoyable ride although the bikes were not in very good condition. There were some steep hills to go down and some equally steep ones to go up. There were some wonderful views and if the sun had been shining it would have been very beautiful. We didn't stop long because it was much the same as any other Ceylonese town. We went back to Diyatalawa Station along the railway track. We had to go through a railway tunnel and that provided a little excitement as we could hear a train in the distance. We got through safely and I took a photograph of the train.

The weather spoilt the rest of the weekend as I have already said so we hung around camp most of the time. On Sunday evening we went to the pictures in the village. There were only two or three dozen people to see the show. The main picture was 'The Spiral Staircase' and caused us to shudder and cling to our seats in spite of the noise from the projectors.

On Monday morning we finally decided we would leave on that day's evening train so after breakfast we walked to the main camp and arranged for transport to pick us up at 1930 to take us to the railway station. The train left on time at 2010. We went in a first class compartment - Don said he always does this because if a ticket collector comes around he just turns you out and no more said. Our particular first class compartment was complete with its own lavatory and wash basins and the seats could be converted into two bunks. After about half an hour we did this and tried to get some sleep. Just before midnight we arrived at Nanu-Oya and a ticket collector came round. I gave him our tickets and he scrutinised them carefully.

'These are second class,' he said at length.

'I know,' I replied immediately. 'We want to pay the extra and go first class.'

I thought I had better say that as he seemed the conscientious type.

'It will cost a lot,' he said. 'Perhaps 30 rupees.'

'Oh well, in that case we'd better move,' I said, 'because that is far too much.'

He then said we would have to pay the excess fare up to that point and went off to work it out, taking our tickets with him. He came back a few minutes later and said we would have to pay 27 rupees which comprised 10 rupees each fine and 3.5 rupees each for the excess fare. All our arguments were in vain so we had to pay up. He seemed very relieved when we did so and explained that he was only doing his duty and couldn't charge us anything less. We then moved into a second class compartment and a little while later he gave us a receipt, waved to the guard who blew his whistle and the train moved on. It cheered us slightly when we realised that we had kept the train waiting.

The night dragged on and we eventually arrived at Colombo dead on time at 0715. We walked to a taxi rank and arrived at camp at 0800.

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