“Live too long in a city, and you’ll begin to think guardrails are a necessity. Live long enough without guardrails, and you’ll see common sense is the necessity.” – Old Sean
Amongst the Highlands
Following a whiplash-fast trip to Batticaloa, I returned to Kandy to recuperate. Back in the bustling city, I helped out around the hostel I was staying. I spent hours repairing blankets through the manly art of sewing. That evening, I watched Swiss Army Man on a rooftop projector.
The following day, I hopped aboard a bus which gradually rattled towards Badulla.
I like travelling around Sri Lanka by train more than anything else. But the bus ride was nice. I was given an entire row to myself to stretch out. A fruit salesman provided my next few meals. I bought bundles of juicy delicacies, snacking on them as I lounged.
I still have no idea what I ate, but I liked it.
A Stop in Badulla
When we finally arrived in Badulla, I had a few hours to wander around. I began exploring the town,
I first visited the white-dome temple of Viharaya. The low-roofed and beautiful Buddhist temple is decorated in elephant tusks and attended by monks in blazingly bright orange robes.
I continued to wander through town, dodged a rain cloud or two, sat down for a meal and finally hopped aboard my connecting train.
Riding through the countryside that night, I chatted in limited English with various passengers. My clumsy attempts as Tamil paid off deep in the night: A family shared a spicy flatbread meal with me. I provided some of my leftover fruit to the miniture feast.
My goal for the day was to reach Idalgashinna, a small village with winding footpaths and a rest home called Peak’s Rest. My lonely hotel towered above a valley explicitly designed by tectonics to create spectacular sunrises.
I spent the night and a sliver of the morning chatting easily with a couple of lovely guests about the usual traveler chat topics. Normal things, such as the oddities of the universe, the state of the cosmos, cool things nearby.
Horton Plains National Park
The next morning, I departed again. I wanted to climb into Sri Lanka’s central highlands.
More specifically, I wanted to explore the slick, rugged slopes and arcs while visiting Horton Plains National Park.
I took the train at 8 AM one stop to Ohiya, spying a swell of clouds and spearing rainbows as I boarded.
When I disembarked, the man at the train station told me it was a only a nine kilometers walk to get to Horton Plains. He offered to give me a ride, but nine kilometers is not a daunting distance for a hiking day. So, I hefted my bag, said thank you and began toddling.
I might be very, very dumb.
An uphill kilometer and a half later, I nabbed a tuk-tuk and puttered up to the top of the plateau.
Now I know where I’m chubby in life.
Pinnacle of Sri Lanka
Visiting Horton Plains is a surreal experience. There’s an impossibly odd combination of wind-strafed, spiny grass plains, spotted by impossibly dense Mirkwood forests. The trees lock in night itself within their clustered branches.
Elsewhere, pools of tropical green pillars hug the edges of waterfalls and swiftly descending rivers.
When upon the open plains, there’s always a new rain-cloud on the horizon. The elevation creates a chill worthy of the only jacket I had bothered to bring to the tropical island.
These unique factors are responsible for Horton Plains’ increasingly perplexing diversity. Huge deer bounded. Elk gathered in clusters on distant ridges. Strange, half-hidden monkeys chittered. Patches of thorned, searing bright flowers appeared on empty fields. Rabbits flickered into nonbeing, flashing into dense grass immediately after being sighted.
Untimely, Foggy Ends
My hike was often compounded by stiff gusts of wind and a heckling of thin raindrops. Clouds raced over the very tips of grass and trees only to flail and burst as they rushed into solid stone. Everywhere I walked, fog and clouds misted the land, giving a layer of dewdrops to the world.
Eventually, I made my way to the most prominent view of Horton Plains. There is a cliff boasting 870 meters in height atop a plateau, atop a rising highland, atop an island rolling into the sea.
The cliff is aptly named World’s End (Great World’s End Drop).
My initial sighting of this landmark was a simple wall of clouds, absolute as any void, forbidding any view beyond a smattering of inches.
I nearly walked off the ledge in that soupy fog, but paused when I saw the hazed outline of some people standing still. When I asked why we were waiting, a young man grabbed my arm and held me steady until wind broke up the fog briefly and I could see how precariously close I had been to stepping off a cliff.
They should probably throw up a guardrail on that edge.
Moments later, the winds shifted and blended the fog before tearing it away. Suddenly, I was granted a magnificent view of a sweeping valley with the framed Sri Lankan lowlands. The view continued extending all the way to the thin, shimmering line.
Even while visiting Horton Plains in the center of Sri Lanka, I could see the ocean.
I couldn’t remove my eyes from the scene, so awesome was the view. So, I compromised by plopping down and enjoying an orange and some peanuts as the next gale of rain brushed over me and into the vast valley below.
Returning to the Lowlands
I spent several more hours continuing my hike through lands with bounding elk, a few reclusive chattering monkeys and a bag of cashews.
Eventually, I was tired and sated. I spent a few minutes standing on windy hills so my jacket would whip back dramatically.
Fully content, I started heading back into the lowlands. Near the train station, I gathered advice from locals for a place to sleep deeply and completely.
Visiting Horton Plains was the last vacation item I had left. Tomorrow, I return to Colombo for the last day of my Sri Lanka trip. But until then,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written June 29th, 2017
Visiting Horton Plains and Central Sri Lanka? Check out the Leftfade Trails Destination Guide
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