Horton Plains National Park is a beautiful, undulating plateau over 2000m above sea level covered with a mix of wild grasslads and thick forest. There are a number of walks in the park which start from the Farr Inn – once a British hunting lodge – including the 7km circular walk to World’s End and Baker Falls, and the climbs up Sri Lanka’s second and third highest mountains, Kirigalpotta (2395m) and Totapola (2359m).
We leave Nuwara Eliya at 5am in order to be here by 7.30 so that we can get the best views from the escarpment at ‘World’s End’ before the mists envelope the area as they are prone to do in the late morning.
We have hired a car and driver to bring us the two hours from Nuwara Eliya and we have come with an American who is staying in our guest house. ‘Mr’ Lee, as he is deferentially referred to by Wasantha who runs the guest house, is an older gentleman who divides his time between India and Sri Lanka. He spends 9 months of the year in a guest house in Mount Abu in Rajasthan and three months here in a suite at the King Fern Bungalow. Mr Lee has suggested that he join us, on the basis that it will save us all money and so we readily agree. Mr Lee has a very wry sense of humour and is an entertaining, if slightly eccentric, companion. However, he does have his own agenda which involves trying to persuade us to extend the trip to take in some botanical gardens and a visit to a property he owns. This will add a further 50km to the trip and cost an additional 3000 rupees on top of the 3,900 we are already paying.
Mr Lee has that forthright, voluble manner, shared by many Americans, which enables him to effortlessly assume centre stage in any situation. When we arrive Mr Lee is undecided about which walk to do. Having been to Horton Plains and undertaken the circular walk several times before, he is inclined to trek up one of the peaks, but due to the early hour the visitor centre is closed and he has a host of questions to be answered before he can make a decision. Eventually someone is found who can speak English and on the strengto of the information provided Mr Lee decides to undertake the climb, while we head for the cirular walk.
Finally its settled – Mr Lee is going to climb Kirigalpotta and we are doing the circular walk and we hurry off eager to get ahead of a large, school party that has just appeared.
The grasslands of Horton Plains are quite a striking contrast to anything we have seen elsewhere in Sri Lanka. Surprisingly, Rhodadenrons are dotted across the grassland – apparently a native species – and so is European gorse. There are Sambar deer, a few leopards and shaggy bear monkeys, none of which are much in evidence unfortunately. Although we do see a couple of monkeys and a impressive lone stag which comes right up to the car to have his photograph taken.
The two highlights of the walk, apart from the wonderful scenery, is World’s end, where the plateau comes to an abrupt end at a stunning escarpment that falls 880m and provides some fabulous views towards the south coast, and Baker Falls. The latter involves a scramble down through the forest to the base of the falls and another to a viewing point half way up the falls. Both well worth the effort.
When we arrive back at Farr Inn, Mr Lee is waiting for us. He didn’t manage the climb to the summit of Kirigalpotta. It turns out that it was twice the distance he been led to believe and the trail wasn’t clearly marked, so he has turned back.
We decline his suggestion that we go on to the Botanical Gardens and decide instead to return to Nuwara Eliya. But not before Mr Lee has instigated two stops at garden centres along the way to buy plants for the guest house gardens and another stop to purchases some glasses and other items, again for the guest house. We are slightly bemused by his completely unself-conscious cheek when it comes to commandeering our outing!
By the time we get back to Nuwara Eliya the mists are rolling down the valley and visibility at the guest house is down to zero – we can’t even see the houses across the road.