It’s not the end of the world… Ah yes, it is!
7 Oct 2013 | Horton Plains National Park, Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka
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I stay one more day in Trinco to wait for Lucia, a Sicilian girl who teach English in Mutur and wanted to join me for her weekend. From Trincomalee we take six buses to end up in the middle of the night in Belihul Oya.
The plan is to go to Horton Plains national park, and have a look at the World's End which is a 870 meters high cliff, 2100m above sea level. To go there, you normally take a train to Pattipola, and then a vehicle to the park, where you are allowed to walk along an 8km loop. On the way, you are of course relieved of a 40$ entrance fee... Doesn't sounds very appealing to me!
Looking at the map, I see there is a pathway from Belihul Oya, which is basically at the bottom of the cliff. From there you climb 1500m over a 30km walk (I hadn't check before, I thought it would be a two-or-three-hours walk, sorry Lucia ;) ). After crossing 3km of dense jungle, you find yourself right at the World's End cliff. Where we arrive with the night and camp there to enjoy the sunrise! After walking on the trail, we hitchhike a tourist car out to avoid being noticed walking the gate out. And the car takes us directly to Nuwara Eliya. Perfect!
Lucia leaves the following day, I stay one day more to enjoy that city. Nuwara Eliya has been founded by the British during the colonial time, for that it reminded them of the climate of England. For sure it does, as being very high and surrounded by rainforests, it's always cold (max temp. 15 to 25°C) and humid. So it's good for me to enjoy a bit of cool air!