Lazy train trip

Tuna

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Today is Poya Day, it falls on the full moon and is a public holiday around the country. This particular Poya Day marks the end of the Esala Perahera, so there will an even bigger evening of festival activity in Kandy.

We took the train from Nuwara Eliya to Ella today. It is only about 2.5 hours but trundles along the mountain sides through the beautiful tea plantations and villages. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

We then sat on the balcony of our room, overlooking tea plantation and the hills, read our book and watched the sun set.

We finally staggered out of our room and upstairs to have dinner in the stunning and spacious restaurant.

A pleasant and relaxing day.

It’s the end of the world as we know it

The Albatross

Monday 19 August 2013

Today we headed out to Horton’s Plains National Park. To see the best views they recommend a 7:00am start from the trail head. This involved a 5:30am start from the hotel which was pretty nasty as we’d had a terrible night’s sleep. We had some breakfast packs from the Hotel, but the thought off food after a too early beginning and a bumpy ride in the dark was mighty unappealing.

Setting off, the light misty rain cleared away, leaving a lovely morning.

The walking was easy and pretty, mainly through grass lands with clumps of forest, the walk also woke us up and we started to feel better.

After a few km’s you arrive at some falls, then a few more at the highlight: World’s End. This is a brilliant view from atop a massive cliff, looking down to a valley below. It really is quite spectacular, and made for a good breakfast spot.

Finally we had a stop at Little Worlds End which is much the same view but littler. Oh yeah, we saw some Elk and bearded Monkeys too. Back home by 11:30am. We had a shower and a sleep.