Walking once more….Up country Tea Estates & Horton Plains
I tagged along with Arjuna as he attended a meeting in Nuwara Elyia. Up island, “up country” as they call it here. The British were quite fond of Nuwara Elyia, for the climate is much milder. The elevation is right around 5,000 feet, so the temperatures are much nicer. The fog rolls in and out of the basin area, which includes a very picturesque lake in the centre of town. The names of most hotels, cafes, restaurants still bare English names; “The Grand” is the largest and best known hotel/restaurant in town though there are a host of them.
One of the greatest parts of the journey was the rented van the tea industry provided Arjuna for the trek. An air conditioned Toyota van. The lap of luxury in these parts, especially the winding uphill trek. He helps organize and support the pickers and tea workers on these giant tea plantations. After dropping him at his meeting in Nuwara Elyia, I continued on for forty minutes or so to Horton Plains, where I had traveled with Arjuna and Larry 31 years ago. It was simply brilliant. Wide open grass plateau with jungle on both sides and a river running cutting straight through the heart of it.
Hopefully the pictures do it justice, because the tea is grown down the face of cliffs and pretty much hangs in the air at points, draping over the most unlikely geography. We passed two water falls reminiscent of ones in Yosemite Valley. Our first stop, a local tea cafe that prepared incredible roti with dahl and a spicy onion curry. This cafe hangs on a cliff overlooking a gorgeous valley with these two waterfalls visible and a lake further down the valley.
Horton Plains featured a 14 km hike in a circuitous shape. The trail meanders through a grass plain with a river cutting down the middle. One soon comes in and out of jungle. Saw two purple faced monkeys but was too slow with my iPad camera. All sorts of birds. Over 200 species make their homes here or pass through. “World’s End” had a dense cloud cover, so we could not see the 770? M cliff, drop off. Impressive. At Little “World’s End” the cloud cover lifted for a few minutes and one could see straight down. They used this setting for one of the Indiana Jones’. They also filmed The Bridge Over Que here.On the way back to the van we viewed a heard of their Elk. Although these creatures are much less threatening and apparently not dangerous.
ljm22 