Beautiful Ella, Horton Plains & World's End, Sri Lanka

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I had chosen Ella as a stop because of the fantastic scenery. Most guesthouses a traveler could stay in provide wonderful views of dramatic, jutting green hills and the village looks past the imposing Ella Rock. The village itself is very quaint and described in the guidebook as the closest place in Sri Lanka to an English country village. The Ambiente guest house is on the west side of the village away from the majority of accommodation, which is to the south. It looks out on to Ella Gap and Little Rawana Ella Falls and my 1st sight from the balcony leading out from my room was the most spectacular I have ever seen in my life

I arrived soon after Lunch and I had not eaten so I ordered some food and a Beer and spent the afternoon reading and gazing at the view. The room was good. It was clean, large, with a good-sized bathroom and French windows opening out to my own semi private balcony, which was extended out into a patio area. I sat on the comfortable chairs provided. The view was out toward jutting peaks running down steep hillside and further into the plains a long way below. It was a lovely afternoon and I thought about how I want to spend my next couple of days here.

Later on in the day JP came over to discuss plans for tomorrow. Sarojina is a friend of his and had given me his number. JP introduced me to the driver who was going to take me out and about tomorrow. I never caught his name properly. The plan is to leave very early, about 05.00, and travel to Horton Plains and Bakers Falls where the most spectacular view in Sri Lanka can be seen, Worlds End. After this, which will take most of the morning, we will drive along the A4 past the towns of Beragala, Koslanda and then North at Wellawaya back up to Ella stopping at the Diyalumi Falls along the way. JP also gave me a contact for a decent guest house in Kandy that will be a lot cheaper than the Casamara that I am booked into for the last 4 days. I need to think about this as I am running a bit over budget. This afternoon I also booked a seat on the observation carriage on the morning train to Nuwara Eliya from Ella on Saturday morning. This will be a scenic journey on an ancient steam train featuring a loop that the train makes just after leaving Ella in order to gain height.

I had a beer and watched the sunset and then went up to the restaurant for an early dinner of Rice and various curries that was excellent. I chatted to some nice American ladies for a while swapping tales and plans. One of them knew Brighton well. I did not stay for too long, as I wanted an early night ready for a very early start in the morning.

Woke up all fine and on time and packed up my day bag and put some fruit and biscuits in there as I am not too sure what time breakfast is. I had a cheeky smoke and then met my driver outside. We had a good- sized van that was very comfortable. The journey to Horton Plains took a little over an hour. We began in the dark and went down through some hair-raising bends. My driver was taking it nice and slowly though which was reassuring. We passed dogs scattering out of our way on deserted streets and an occasional man opening up his home for the morning, stretching and having his early morning smoke, looking up at the clouds trying to see what the day might bring.

By about 06.00 we had passed back through dimly lit Bandarawela, it’s streets and buildings eerily empty apart from the odd bus that passed carrying schoolchildren on their way. I thought to myself how far the child’s journey must be if they had to begin now. Bless their souls. It was another lesson of how fortunate I am growing up in a country where I take so much for granted. We were now rising gradually higher into Uva Province hill country towards Ohiya. As we rounded a bend a valley opened up before us revealing the early orange glimmers of the sunrise.

By about 06.30 we were at the entrance to the Horton Plains park The Park has herds of Sambar deer and even the occasional Leopard, though sightings are extremely rare. It is also rich in endemic bird life including the Sri Lankan whistling thrush. Most of the park is moor land but there are also small wooded areas of tough skeletal trees with ‘old mans beard’ hanging off them. The walk follows round to the southern edge where huge cliffs fall away for nearly a kilometre to the lowlands below. This is Worlds End. We are fairly high up here, I believe about 1500 metres, and it receives a lot of rain, which produces another fairly distinctive set of plant life including rhododendrons and bamboos.

I left my driver to have some food and a sleep while I began the walk. It seemed a fairly straightforward path but there was another tourist and a guide a few hundred yards in front of me so I was able to keep them within eyesight for most of it so I did not lose my way. Almost immediately I saw to my left some Sambar deer. They were about 50 meters away and had been disturbed by the 1st morning walkers. They were standing to attention, perched amongst the gorse bushes growing in the open heath land. The scenery looked very different to that which I had experienced in Sri Lanka up to this point. It was flat, open heath land with occasional small ponds that reminded me of the Ashdown Forest near where I live and parts of the New Forest I have visited.

After a couple of kilometers the path opened up and led in between what the Rough guide calls ‘a wonderful section of cloud forest’. These trees were small, bushy and moist covered in mosses and with old mans beard descending from them, glinting like new spiders web in the morning sun.

It was a lovely day. Clear, quite cold and blue. I was intrigued by the path’s surface. It was a deep orange colour and its texture was like gravel and also a little chalky. It was still quite cold and the air was crisp and fresh. The contrast of the trees with their bare white branches to the green growth on their lower parts was odd. I looked down below to my right and noticed small dense clumps of trees that looked as if they had never been penetrated by anything.

This part of the track ended after about a kilometre and the path opened up onto small Worlds end, which looked down to Udawale Lake and also in sight were the 2nd and 3rd highest peaks on the Island, Kirigalpota and Totapolakunda. This gave me my first sight of the views. It was not sparklingly clear but it was good that I had made an early start because the clouds were rising all the time and obscuring part of the view. Looking immediately down I could see the stark, steep fall down a kilometer below with the occasional tree growing out of the brown coloured cliff face. Into the distance the hills descended into a green valley that was cut through the middle by a large river. There were 2 more small parties of tourists here. From this point I walked up a winding steep footpath with the cliff edge only a few meters away and finally reached the viewing point and gazed in awe down below to the lakes and green fields below. The drop was sheer so these sights were immediately below me. It felt like being in a low flying aircraft.

I was feeling a little nervous about the heights but I followed a very disheveled looking path that takes you 50 meters or so further up to gain a view from a different angle. I thought it took me back to the path that leads away from Worlds End on towards Bakers Falls and as I continued I came extremely close to the edge and it seemed as if it would peter out in a short distance. I turned round and regained my bearing and noticed a feeling of nausea in the pit of my stomach, which I put down to my fear of heights. I had followed no path at all! I could have been walking anywhere I was so close to the edge. I realized my hands were sweating a bit. After snapping away some amazing pictures I carefully followed the track back to the path that led away from Worlds End. The views towards jutting tree covered cliff faces and the river below was amazing. It is said that a number of loving couples have jumped to their deaths from this point so that they can be together for eternity. It is the sort of place that could inspire such feelings.

I walked back along a path that looked out onto rolling heath land again. We passed through streams and I got a bit wet on the walk back but I was soon in the Cafe having some Tea with my driver. We left Horton Plains at about 10.30 and headed for the A4. We passed by some scenic countryside that I had not been able to enjoy on the way, as it had been dark. The weather was clouding over quickly and as we passed through Beragala the whole of the town was shrouded in cloud, so much so that when we were driving around tight bends every 300 metres as we turned one part of that stretch was non visible and as we drove on a hundred metres later we could see again. I felt eerie. The air inside this cloud cover was moist.

After an hour or so we stopped at Diyalumi Falls and I had a look at them. There were a few vendors at the roadside selling coconuts and milk and for each vendor there were 3 or 4 friends and acquaintances sitting down and passing the time of day. The falls are quite slim but very long, around 200 metres falling sharply from a sheer cliff face. There is a track leading up so high, at which point there is a natural pool and falling from the ledge above are remnants of the main falls that acts as a shower for the locals who were busy bathing.

Throughout this drive back it seemed to me that the mixture of people in this area was fairly evenly split between Muslim and Tamil. I think this is because we are very much in Tea growing country and a lot of the workers on the plantations are Tamil. This stems originally from the 1830’s when the local Sinhalese population were unwilling to do this lowly paid and unpleasant job under the almost slave like conditions that the British imposed during the first clearance of these forests that were formerly owned by the Kandyan kings.

Initially Coffee was the plant cultivated but in 1845 and in 1869 a disease attacked the coffee plants severely resulting in the industry being wiped out by the late 1870’s the harvest failed and the ingenious idea of planting tea began which permeates the landscape all across the area from near the South coast up into the middle of the country.

At Wellawaya we drove North up the A23 to Ella. I stopped here and had a little look around the village itself. There were quaint homes with paths bordered by pretty flowers. Many of the houses here were well-built and looked in good condition. There were a few more touristy shops and some nice looking restaurants and small guest houses. I was pleased that the area did not seem too modernized and touristy. It certainly retains a lot of quaint English, Colonial atmosphere mixed with a warm and slow Sri Lankan way of life.

This is particularly represented by the Railway station which was very small with a tiny waiting area and all of the train numbers, times and destinations presented in deep thick wooden frames on an ancient, well used black board. The drive leading up to the entrance was swept clean and clear and was bordered by well-tended plants and flowers. The stations here have a real ‘tumbleweed' air about them as if nothing has happened or is likely too! Sri Lankan railways employ a lot of staff, which is good, and I felt that the stationmaster here who has a bungalow adjacent must be particularly proud of himself. It looked as if it had not changed since the English left!

I got dropped off and was back home by about 16.00 in need of a good shower and clean up. I had a relax and a few beers and jolted to attention as I heard a huge shrill whistle. I looked out on the scene below and saw a number of people in their gardens in the distance watch the train arrive. I’m not sure how many trains arrive and leave Ella each day but I don’t think it is many, as it seems to be a landmark event. The train stops for a while and then slowly shunts into the station whistling and juddering along at a snails pace. I ate a monumental platter of rice and curry and went straight to bed, which meant I woke up nice and early and was able to sit outside writing and enjoying the view for half an hour. I had a shower and packed up my belongings and then had a really nice breakfast on the balcony of the main building here at the Ambiente. I went back to my room and smoked and then got a tuk-tuk down to the railway station ready for the journey into high hill country.

It was a bit busier than normal mainly because the train was due shortly. I queued up for the stationmaster and paid for my reserved ticket, which was in the observation carriage. I waited close by my bags and shortly heard the screeching and whistling that announced the impending arrival of the steam train. A group of western ladies about my age turned up just in time as the train arrived and we all got onto the observation carriage together and they were sitting behind me. Every seat was taken and we got comfortable and settled. We waited and settled into the Sri Lankan railway system time zone where things happen at a different pace!

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Photos

Ella
View to Little Rawana Falls