Walking through a Cloud Forest, Exploring Nuwara Eliya and Visiting a Tea Plantation.
25-Jan-2015
From the Hill Club to the Horton Plains
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| Sri Lanka |
Anywhere else in Sri Lanka the cool of the morning is the best part of the day. The air feels fresh and clean, it touches the skin with gentle
warmth that may hint at the fire to come, but for that moment holds all the promise
of a day new born. It was different at Nurwara Eliya. We stood outside the Hill
Club in the pre-dawn darkness, clutching our packed breakfasts and huddling inside
the warm clothing we had put away when we got on the plane at Heathrow.
We were not alone. A car came and took the other couple away and a few minutes later a minibus arrived. The driver got out, looked around
nervously and saw no one else but us. A few minutes later he was driving us
through the still dark streets of Nuwara Eliya and then out of town southwards
towards the Horton Plains.
Dawn broke and away to our right we could see the conical summit of Adam's Peak. Lynne suggested we stop and take a picture. I thought it
was too far away and anyway we would surely get a better view in the next few days.
We took no picture and never saw it again. Adam’s Peak at 2,243m (8,281ft) is
only the fourth highest mountain in Sri Lanka, but it is easily the most
photogenic. The highest peak Pidurutalagala is an undistinguished lump
outside Nuwara Eliya which is close to 2,000m itself.
Onto the Horton Plains
By six thirty we had reached the park entrance and were queuing up to buy tickets. It was now fully light, but misty and still far from warm. After
a couple of days without £16 each entrance fees they were back - and with van
hire on top it was not a cheap morning out.
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| Queueing for tickets, Horton Plains National Park |
Equipped with a ticket, we drove to the visitor centre and parked. A large Sambar stag hung around the car park, apparently used to humans
and relaxed in their company - I presume someone was feeding him.
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| Sambar stag, Horton Plains National Park |
The driver ushered us out of the van. His English was limited and we had not been able to converse, but he had a little speech ready
for this situation. 'Easy walk, good path, can't get lost,' he said pointing
towards a hut beyond the car park.
We joined a small queue of westerners to have our tickets checked and our time of entry noted - I suppose they did not want to lose anybody.
The Horton Plains have been a National Park since 1988 but were discovered in 1834 by Lts William Fisher and Albert Watson who named it
after Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton the Governor of Ceylon. Creeps. Of course they
did not really discover the Horton Plains, the locals had known the area for
millennia, mining it for gems and iron ore and calling it Maha Eliya Thenna (Great
Open Plain). They were not just creeps, they were arrogant creeps. They discovered
the Horton Plains like Columbus discovered America - but at least they knew
where they were and, unlike Columbus they did not unwittingly presage a
semi-intentional genocide of the indigenous inhabitants; the Sinhalese
prospered before the British came and are prospering now. But the Sinhalese did
not discover the Horton Plains either. The stone tools of the Balangoda people have
been found here and they were probably the forebears of the Vedda, the
indigenous people of Sri Lanka, of whom some 2,500 survive. They were
supplanted (i.e. all but wiped out) when the Sinhalese arrived in 500BC. I do not mention this to excuse Fisher and Watson in particular or British Imperialism in general, but merely to point out
that cultural exceptionalism is almost a default position for the human race.
We crossed a stream that was stocked with
rainbow trout by the British planters, civil servants and Amy officers who
could not do without their angling. Nobody fishes for them now and the
intrusive trout are taking their toll on the local ecosystem.
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| The Red Bridge over a trout stream Horton Plains National Park |
A Circuit of the Horton Plains
The path was indeed clear and we soon reached a parting of the ways marked by a boulder painted with arrows and distances. If we turned left we went to Little World's
End, Great World End and the Baker Falls, if we went right we visited the same
places in reverse order. Lynne’s reading of our itinerary had led her to expect
a 4km walk, but the circuit was clearly 9km. She was not a happy bunny. 'Little
World's End is only 2km,' I suggested meekly (and a touch disingenuously).'We
could just walk there and back.'
The Horton Plains are not quite as flat as the name suggests (though flatter than the Plain of Jars in Laos) but the path was obvious and
there were no serious gradients. It was eerily quiet in the morning chill, even
the birds had fallen silent.
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| Across the misty plains, Horton Plains National Park |
After a while the open plain gave way to forest. This is cloud forest, characterized by an abundance of mosses. Clouds drift in from the
Indian Ocean and the first land they hit is the Horton Plains where they became
stuck and give up their moisture to the vegetation.
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| Into the cloud forest, Horton Plains National Park |
Little World's End
The Horton Plains are big, and although there had been many cars in the car park the crowds were easy to lose and we seemed to have the
park to ourselves. That impression was shattered when we reached Little World's
End where everybody pauses, so there is always a small crowd.
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| At Little World's End and not stepping backwards, Horton Plains National Park |
At the edge of the plateau the land drops away into a valley far below, and then, from the valley’s mouth, right down to the coastal plain.
It was too hazy to see the sea 50km away, it is rarely otherwise, but we could
make out a lake on the plain some 2000m below.
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| Looking down from Little World's End, Horton Plains National Park |
From Little World's End it is only another kilometre to Greater World's End. I was expecting a discussion (which sounds better than ‘argument’)
but after we had peered into Little World's End and taken our photographs,
Lynne set off for Great World's End without any prompting.
Great World's End
It was a similar walk, stretches of open plain alternating with cloud forest. The route mainly dropped gently and we sometimes had to clamber
down over boulders making the path impassable for wheeled vehicles.
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| On to Great World's End, Horton Plains National Park (occasionally the path rose gently!) |
It did not take long to reach Great World's End, which looks very similar and a little bigger than its smaller cousin. [Ten days after we returned home a Dutch tourist - a man on his honeymoon - stepped backwards off the deck while taking photographs. He was
stopped by a tree fifty metres below, but rescue equipment had to be brought on
foot so over three hours passed before he could be restored to level ground,
shaken but not too badly hurt. News reports claimed he was the first person
ever to survive a fall from World’s End, which might be true but although the descent
into the valley looked precipitous it was not, literally, a precipice and any
faller would have a good chance of coming to rest at some point from which
rescue could be effected. That is my theory - I would not wish to put it to the
test.]
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| The view from Great World's End, Horton Plains National Park |
To The Baker Falls
From here it was almost as easy to go on as to go back. The next part of the walk took us across more open plain. It was much warmer
now and birds flew above and around us. I wished, not for the first time, that
I could name some of the more exotic. We had seen information boards (I felt
sorry for the ‘dull blue flycatcher’ which is actually quite pretty) but that
did not help with the birds that resembled martins or the ones with red throats
and shiny dark blue wings. Above us we heard, but did not see, something that sounded
like a skylark, while above that birds of prey wheeled threateningly.
We had lost height walking to the World’s Ends, and the path dropped further across the plain. I was a little concerned that we would finish
with a big climb and I would have to listen to Lynne blaming me for it, as she did in Vietnam.
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| Across the Horton Plains |
Eventually we reached the bottom of a wooded hill. The path split, one fork rising steeply up a path of baked and beaten mud veined with tree roots, the other winding round the base of the hill. Unsure which way to go, we tried the flat path which ran for fifty metres before suddenly terminating in a modern toilet block. It looked weirdly out of place hidden in the jungle, but we used it and returned to the split. Here we met the first people going the other way and after comparing times realised we were well over half way round. We cheerfully set off up the hill.
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| A steep path of beaten mud veined with tree roots, Horton Plains National Park |
The Baker Falls were somewhere to our left, but we were not sure which of several paths leading down to the river would give the best
view. We reached the top with remarkably little complaining from Lynne and here
a short, steep descent was signposted to the falls. Lynne was flagging so I slithered
down to take photographs for both of us. More than once I have been disappointed
visiting waterfalls in the dry season, but the Baker Falls, while hardly being one of
the world's biggest waterfall, did have plenty of water.
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| The Baker Falls, Horton Plains National Park |
From the top of the falls it was a pleasant walk along almost level ground back to our starting point. Lynne had completed the whole circuit
with minimum moaning and felt well pleased with herself.
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| Walking back from the top of the Baker Falls, Horton Plains National Park |
Exploring Nuwara Eliya by Car and Foot
The driver took us back to the Hill Club where Ravi was waiting, and he had to wait a little longer as we needed to shower after our
exertions. The plan had been to visit a tea factory, but the writer of the
itinerary had forgotten it was Sunday, and the factories were closed. Ravi took
us for a drive round Nuwara Eliya to see some of the buildings that earned it
the name ‘Little London’. They were not really very British, but they were more
British than Sri Lankan. After finishing our walk in sunshine, Nuwara Eliya was
cold and drizzly so we had no inclination to get out of the car and walk.
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| British style house, Nuwara Eliya |
We lunched in a lakeside café. There was a mixed clientele of locals and tourists and an open kitchen so we could watch our food being prepared. Lynne enjoyed her sea food rice, but my devilled beef was tough – what did I expect, Sri Lankan beef always is. A large multi-generational group of Chinese tourist sat at a long table passing round plastic bags containing condiments, sauces, even side dishes, as they attempted to Sini-fy the Sri Lankan food.
We gave Ravi the afternoon off and he dropped us back at the Hill Club. When the drizzle ceased we set out on foot to explore the town.
Officially Nuwara Eliya has 40,000 residents, though it feels like a big
village. Half the inhabitants are Sinhalese, the other half divided almost
equally between Sri Lankan Tamils - descendants of the Tamil influx in the 2nd
century BCE - and Plantation Tamils imported from India by the British to work
the tea plantations. Plantation Tamils have a reputation as market gardeners
and across the road from the club a man was watering his small field/large
garden, of healthy looking vegetables.
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| The Hill Club, Nawara Eliya |
‘Little London’ or not, the town centre is standard Sri Lankan, in looks if not in weather.
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| Central Nuwara Eliya |
At its heart is a busy, occasionally chaotic market.
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| Market, Nuwara Eliya |
The lurid contents of the cake shop were particularly popular.
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| Cake shop, Nuwara Eliya |
Outside the market I liked this line of stone elephants supporting a sort of patio.
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| Elephants holding up a patio/balcony, Nuwara Eliya |
In the evening I donned the Hill Club’s jacket and tie for another of their five course table d'hôte dinners; prawn vol-au-vent,
bouillabaisse, roast strip loin of beef and ice cream in puff pastry. ‘Strip
loin’ was unfamiliar but is apparently an American steak cut, though this
example would have benefitted from long, slow cooking. Roasted it was tougher
than Jean-Claude Damme – we should have had the chicken!
26-01-2015
The Pedro Tea Estate
In the morning we checked out, paid a large bill for our memorable dining experiences and, as it was now Monday, took the short but belated trip to
the Pedro Tea Estate.
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| What the well dressed tea watcher is wearing this year Pedro Estate, Nuwara Eliya |
Properly togged up, along with several others, we entered the wilting sheds where the newly picked tea is spread out and gentle heat is applied
for several hours.
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| Wilting room, Pedro Tea Estate, Nuwara Eliya |
We moved through to the main factory where photography is strictly forbidden and watched a variety of machines, cut, roll and grade the
tea. They were fascinating to watch though
it was not always quite clear what they were doing or how they were doing it.
The guide proudly told us the tea goes from bush to the wholesale market in
Colombo in under 24 hours, but for the workers the hot, dusty conditions were
distinctly unpleasant.
We were allowed to photograph the tray of grades of tea from ‘orange pekoe’ - just the bud at the top of the plant - through ‘broken orange pekoe’ and ‘bud and two leaves’ down to ‘fannings’ (also called dust). I had thought ‘English breakfast tea’ was a brand name, but it is actually one of the lower grades of tea.
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| Graded teas, Pedro Tea Estate, Nuwara Eilya English Breakfast Tea is second from the left bottom row |
We left the factory for the tasting room, where they brewed us a cuppa – none of that messing about with ceremony you get in China. Much of
the tea drunk in England is Sri Lankan so it was familiar stuff. Oddly,
although the country changed its name to Sri Lanka in 1972, the tea is still
sold as Ceylon Tea.
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| A cup of Tea, Pedro Tea Estate, Nuwara Eliya |
We took a walk through the bushes so I could give my expert opinion on the state of the harvest (it looked good) and then set off down towards Ella, still in the highlands but a bit lower and, hopefully, a bit warmer than Nuwara Eliya.
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| Checking the vintage, Pedro Tea Estate, Nuwara Eliya |
Part 1: Colombo to Anuradhapura and Mihintale
Part 2: Anuradhapura Ancient and Modern
Part 3: Polonnaruwa and Kandalama, An Ancient City and a Modern Hotel
Part 4: Sigiriya Rock and an Ayurvedic Massage
Part 5: Dambulla and on to Kandy
Part 6: Kandy and Around
Part 7: By Train to Nuwara Eliya
Part 8: The Horton Plains, Nuwara Eliya and a Cup of Tea
Part 9: Through Bandarawela and on to Ella
Part 10: Ella, Little Adam's Peak and the Demodara Bridge
Part 11: The Sinharaja Rainforest
Part 12: Kataragama and the Yala National Park
Part 13: Through Hambantota to Mirissa
Part 14: Galle, Fish and a Fort
Part 15: Colombo, National Day and a Full Moon
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