The Adventures of Michalina: Sri Lanka: Horton's Plains, Ella, Kandy

The pool and view from the lodge.

Next up on our gorgeous cultural hiking tour was Horton’s Plains. Our accommodation was at the amazing Worlds’ End Lodge. This place had SPECTACULAR views, although it was a serious mission for our van to make it up the steep hairpin driveway. (One day when it was rainy we had to all get out of the van and instead of waiting we just ran up to the top to avoid all the leeches that would catch us otherwise!) We had the first night to ourselves, which was awesome because our group was pretty loud. The other great thing about this place is Darwyn met me here!! We got to have one day together before he jetted off to South India for his next tour. Happy days. Anyway this place was amazing, and surrounded by creatures! There were frogs everywhere (so many in fact, that Josh woke up one early morning with a frog on his forehead. He dreamt it was a cat’s paw), butterflies, and various other insects and wildflowers.

The first day we went to Lipton’s Seat. It was in the middle of the tea plantations, and yes, it was named after the Lipton Tea man. We had a picturesque tea time in the clouds. We walked around the plantations a bit, and I had the most scenic pee of my life in the tea plants looking out at the lush rolling hills. (Contrast that scenic pee with the most terrifying pee of my life, which was at a truck stop in the middle of the night in the fog between Agra and Varanasi, almost in pitch black behind a truck. Darwyn had to stand guard.) There were some wild flowers on the edges of the plantations, which the bees appreciated, so we got some nice bug photos.

Next we went to Babarakanda Falls, which is the tallest waterfall in Sri Lanka. There was so much wind coming down from it I could barely breathe! The water was pretty chilly and we had to wear clothes when we swam because it was not a touristy place, but it was sure spectacular! Mark also spotted a caddisfly larva (aka periwinkle) living on land!!! I don’t have a good photo of it though. Darwyn had to leave that night, which was sad.

The next morning I went on a sunrise hike with Mark to a point near the lodge. The path crossed little wateralls and streams, which we drank from, and was an old narrow road that the British used to take horses on. The British also had a bridge connecting two mountains where we hiked, which would have been quite a span! We could see the old rock and cement bridge paraphernalia. There was also a big round rock that was balanced on top of a smaller rock. Mark said that that rock was put there by the “primates”. Mystified, I asked what that meant. He said they were sort of like the link between apes and humans, and had lived here long ago. I thought that was freaky. I wondered it they may have been simply ancient Homo sapiens, or perhaps another type of humanoid. The oldest humans remains were found in a cave in Sri Lanka, so I think anything is possible here.

After the sunrise hike we went back to our rooms and found Brett had also woken up, so us three went on a small hike/crock climb/bushwack to a small cave. Apparently the “primates” had lived in this cave as well, and perhaps also modern Sri Lankans and British.

Next we set off to Ella. We wound through tiny roads between tea plantations and clouds to arrive at this FANTASTIC hotel on the hill overlooking tea plantations and a huge valley. This place had a pool overlooking the mountains and valley! It was incredible. That evening the boys went on a hike to a waterfall and met a man with a cow who said he would lead us on a hike the next morning. The girls went shopping in the town, but I stayed at the hotel to work on my keystone. My computer almost crashed, but I managed to get it working again thank goodness!!

The next morning me and the boys got up at 4:15 and set off in the pouring rain and pitch black to meet the man with a cow. We walked along the train tracks. Fortunately I brought my headlamp. We arrived at a small house with a dirt floor. We were told to sit in plastic chairs and wait. The farmer gave us a towel to dry off. A cute dog came to spray its fleas at us, moaning the whole time. It was cute. After a few minutes, the farmer emerged again with 4 steaming glasses of fresh milk from his cow and some biscuits. The milk was sweetened with sugar, and it was soooo fresh and delicious! (Honestly that was the reason I agreed to go on the hike in the first place. Unfortunately I had to schlep through the next several hours of hiking too. C’est la vie.)

When we finished drinking our milk the sun was just coming up, so we followed the farmer down the tracks and over the hills. This guy was in incredible shape; he practically ran up all the hills! I had to ask him to stop a few times for a break, especially since my cough was pretty bad at this point. We passed through stands of trees and saw a bee hive! The colony was Apis dorsata, the giant honey bee, but the locals insisted they were hornets. Apparently people were attacked by these bees pretty often. The farmer had once rescued a Canadian couple that had been attacked and took them to the hospital. The government fined the couple several hundred dollars because they had “disrupted the wildlife”. The couple then kept also sending money to the farmer’s family as thanks. So far he had not spent any of the money but was waiting to give it to his children when they grew up.

We finally arrived at Ella Rock lookout. It was terribly cloudy so we did not see much. The farmer suggested we wait five more minutes to see if the clouds cleared and they did! I have a secret cloud clearing technique that I developed on this rock. Sometimes when I exercise and it is cold or windy out my ears hurt. And if I don’t have a hat sometimes I tie my hair under my chin like a beard. This looks incredibly strange but I assure you it is incredibly warm for my ears. While tying my hair beard, I noticed the clouds parted a bit. So I decided to braid my hair beard and see what happened. Miraculously the clouds cleared to give us a bit of a view!! I’m convinced my hair beard it magic. I will do further testing and let you all know how it turns out if you ask.

Next we hiked over to Ravana Rock, another lookout point. It was Darwyn’s birthday so we all sang him happy birthday on video on my phone and I sent it to him. Next we went down the hill and went to Ravana caves. These caves around 2500 years old I think. We had to climb more stairs to get to the caves (my legs were NOT happy after this). Apparently the queen used to hide in these caves during war. And there are also 8 km of cave tunnels underground which connects the cave to other villages. Amazing! We paid the farmer very well for his guiding services. He was a lovely man.

I had been trying to find honey all this trip, and asked the farmer if he had any. It’s very hard to find the real stuff here. He did have some honey! He brought an arrack bottle full over to our hotel that evening. It was amazing honey! It tasted so caramelly, but I could tell it was raw because of the wax bits in it, and how much I was allergic to it. It’s so special!

Next we took the train to Kandy from Ella. It was a fun beautiful ride. It was quite cloudy, but I still spotted a tree with about 30 bee hives in it! When we got to Kandy we went to see the Temple of the Tooth, the most important religious site in all of Sri Lanka. It contains Lord Buddha’s tooth, which you can only see if you are very important or have connections. It was a very crowded place, but it was nice to offer some lotus flowers there. The bees loved the flowers. Then we had a long drive back to Colombo that night.

Picturesquely unloading the van...

The view at Lipton's Seat

Lipton's Seat lookout platform. The tea shop is below.

Mark at the lookout.

Brett at the lookout

Cloudy tea time

Exploring the tea plantaitons

Apis cerana I think

Look at those big orange pollen pants!

Babarakanda Falls, the tallest waterfall in Sri Lanka

Gigantic pill bug at World's End Lodge. Told you the creatures were amazing! That's my index finger for size reference.

View from the lookout point on our sunrise walk.

This is the canyon where the British had a bridge across. Crazy! I don't know why they didn't just go around...

One of my favourite flowers. They remind me of sea creatures.

More favourite flowers. Anyone know what they are called?

Crossing and drinking from majestic waterfalls.

Dew dropped spiderweb

Cave where the "primates" apparently lived. I looked for evidence of habitation, i.e. smoke marks on the ceiling, but I saw none. I have no idea how long smoke marks last for, though (I am a bad archaeologist).