Horton Plains Hike and Train Ride

The peaks in the Central Highlands.

 A sanbar deer at the beginning of the Horton's Plains Hike.

Look closely, we are up above the clouds.

 At the World's End viewpoint.

 Baker's Falls.

 The area around Haputale train station.

 Our train arrives, a half hour late.

From the train.

Saturday, February 10^th.

We got our wake up call at 4:30 and were in the lobby for our 5:00 am start. There were ten of us going in two little vans. The drive was on 32 km but took an hour to get there. As we were driving we kept seeing other vans and I was wondering where they were all going. As it turned out, they were all going the same place as us. When we finally arrived at the entrance to the Horton Plains National Park we found dozens of vans and tuk tuks full of tourists. There was a long line of people to buy the entrance tickets. We waited there for at least a half hour. Then we finally drove the last five kilometres to the parking lot. The first order of business was to hand out our breakfast boxes and to eat them. It was very windy and cool up there as we were at about 2500 metres.

Then we began the hike with all the other tourists. Once we got going the people spread out and it was good. The hike was through a beautiful plains and forest area that reminded me of Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain. The hike itself is about 9 kilometres up and down some hills until we got to the End Of The World lookout. From here we could see we were above the clouds. The view was spectacular, and the cliff was a direct drop. The hike continued on to Baker’s Falls, which were quite nice. The whole hike took us about three hours. John finished first, followed by me. I was exhausted, partly because of the altitude. When everyone else arrived, we loaded back into the vans and drove back to the hotel. 

After we got organized we drove out of town to a fancy restaurant on a man made lake in the Little England area. I didn’t feel like lunch as I the breakfast box was huge, so I sat on the lawn and watched a couple of motorboats and skidoos bombing up and down the lake. It felt really surreal. I think there would be money to made starting a water skiing school here.

Then we drove again through the really beautiful hills past tea plantations and small towns. All the roads here are paved but they are incredibly winding because of the hills. We arrived at the train station of Haputale. We had to wait an hour for the train as it was late. This was part of our Sri Lankan experience, to take a local train about six stops through the lush countryside and the valleys. The views from the train we very nice. When we arrived at Ella, almost everyone got off. They were all tourists and were staying here in this town. We walked from the train station to our hotel past dozens of restaurants and checked in. John and I worked on our blogs before venturing out to a recommended restaurant called Chill. We had a good meal and a beer and then headed back to the hotel for the night.