OHIYA & HORTON PLAINS

28th - 29th May 2015

After a relaxing day in Nuwara Eliya shaking off the hang over from the night before, we caught the 4pm train heading east. The plan was to meet the Germans at a guesthouse near Sri Lanka's famous national park Horton Plains. The town closest to the park on the train route was called Ohiya so that was where we were planing on spending the night. The train chugged through two hours of beautiful hillsides, plains, villages and tea plantations. We decided to sit by the open door for the entire journey as it was definitely the best seat in the house / carriage.

We arrived at Ohiya round half six to find a couple of houses, a Buddhist stupa and two shops huddled around the railway station. There was no sign of the nice hotel the Germans had booked, or much else for that matter. Just as the train pulled away from the platform, the station master leisurely strolled over and informed us we should have stayed on the train. That wasn't the most helpful news as that was the last train of the day. Apparently the group of Germans had got off the earlier train here only to realise the hotel they had booked was in a different town an hour further down the train line. They told the station master that if he saw two confused Brits get off the train here, to tell them to stay on until the town of Haputale. With no real way of getting there mixed with no phone signal or wifi in the whole town to contact the Germans, we admitted defeat and went about seeing if any of the handful of buildings had any rooms. A nice man from the small track side restaurants said he had a room we could stay in and would throw in breakfast, dinner and transport to and from the national park. It seemed like a fair enough deal. 

The room was basic at best, so rather than spending much time in it we went for a stroll round the village. That took about two minutes. We wondered if there was more to the town over the crest of the hill on the north side so followed the wooded road. We did eventually come to a small wooden guest house with a great view over a valley to the north. We asked where was the centre of the town and he pointed back to the railway station. Confident there really was nothing more to see we walked back to the track side restaurant / cafe for dinner.

The owners daughter was in there doing her English homework. She was really good and was translating for her two grandmothers and sister who were sitting near by. She said she was nine and wanted to be a doctor when she grew up. There was also a new born kitten clambering about it can't have been much bigger than a bag of sugar. 

Dinner was brilliant, a home cooked dal curry, ladies fingers, some sort of aubergine dish, a potato curry, rice and papad (popadom thingy). It tasted amazing not to spicy and full of complimenting flavours. We ate until we were completely stuffed and still couldn't finish it all. We started to realise this wasn't really a restaurant and it was the families living room. They were all hanging out in the kitchen while we ate. We thought it best to let them have their room back and retire to bed, after all it was a five AM start in the morning. 

Up at five ish just as the sun was creeping up on the distant mountains. The restaurant owners son was waiting with a tuktuk and his wife was heating up tea and coffee. She handed us a paper bag of bananas and chapati covered in butter and jam for breakfast that we could take with us. The little room was a hive of activity with the youngest girl getting ready for school, the grandmothers preparing chapati and other treats for the little track side cafe / shop and us getting in everyone's way. We quickly finished our drinks and hopped into the tuktuk. The road zigzagged up and up for miles as we ascended the steep mountain side with the warm glow of the sun slowly gaining on us. As the crow files it was not far at all from Ohiya but the road to get their was like a tangled headphones cable. When we reached the top we were met with miles of lush open plains, with families of wild dear having their breakfast. 

We arrived at the entrance gate at six and waited around for a while. We knew our German friends were planing on visiting the plains today and if we could meet them we could all enter as a big group making the ticket price cheaper for all. After fifteen minutes they still hadn't arrived so we paid the slightly dear entrance fee. Just as we had paid and were about to set off we heard the sound of a van rounding the final bend of the steep hillside. After some excited hellos and good mornings we all headed for the beginning of the path. 

Horton plains is a 30km squared area of protected woodland and wildlife. There is a three - four hour walking circuit that passes some breathtaking viewpoints, a number of waterfalls, streams and lakes as well as lush grassland stretching off as far as the eye can see to the mountains on the horizon.

We walked down a colourful eroded pathway which had been turned in to hundreds of red, orange and pink tones due to the strata in the rock being revealed over time. The sun was still not properly up and the air was cool. After about a forty minutes we reached mini worlds end. The first of two famous viewpoints the park had to offer. It's called worlds end because you reach a sheer drop stretching out of sight to the foot of the mountain with rolling hills and valleys creating a rolling sea of green stretching off into the distance. It was a magical view that has to be seen to really be appreciated, and this was only little Worlds End.

After some obligatory souvenir photos we followed the path towards the big Worlds End. When we got there the view was even more spectacular. There were quite a few people gathered on the wooden platform so me and helen scrambled up the cliff a bit higher and found another smaller secret platform with just a couple of other explorers there. The drop down to the valley below is a sheer 880m. Words and photos can't really describe how amazing the view was so other than adding a couple of souvenir photos I won't bother.

We sat and ate our chapati breakfast and bananas which was quite hard as the view was jaw dropping. When we were not looking a sneaky crow tiptoed over and stole my paper bag of banana  skins. It saved me the job of finding a bin but I still felt like I had littered and felt a trifle guilty.

We carried on along the path through thick woodland which dropped back like a free curtain revealing a massive stretch of lush grassland. After a while this then snaked up a hill and disappeared back into the trees. After a short steep climb we were rewarded with a beautiful glistening waterfall. By now the sun was fully up and the moist air was cooling and fresh. The sun was causing the spray to create a small rainbow just above the plunge pool. It was all very lovely.    

We sat in the cool for a while then started our final leg of the walk back to where we left our tuktuk. We past a smaller weir and followed a crystal clear stream all the way back to the beginning of the path. It was a great place to have visited, very special and memorable.

We said our goodbyes to the Germans and hoped to meet them in a few days time in the town of Ella. Our train was leaving Ohiya in forty mins so we raced back down the twisty mountain road, leaning to the left or right to keep the tuktuk up right. As we drove across the tracks the train was already waiting in the station. We packed up our stuff in record time and climbed up into the last carriage bagging our usual door spot and settled in for the journey to Ella.