Horton Plains National Park

I woke up 4:00 am to walk down to the city center with my headlamp and metup with my travel mates to ride in a hired vehicle to the Horton Plains National Park which is a protected area at ~ 2000 meter elevation with biodiversity and in the central highlands of Sri Lanka and is covered by montane grassland and cloud forest. The hike was about 4 km to a sudden end at World’s End, a stunning escarpment that plunges 880 meters, then loops back to Baker’s Falls (2km) and continues back to the entrance (another 3.5km). The 9.5km round trip takes a leisurely three hours. To minimize plastic trash in the Park, the park rangers strip plastic labels from plastic bottles, and swap plastic food packages into paper bags. As a side note, to get discounted admissions, our driver  coordinated with two other drivers to consolidate my group of four with two other Chinese tourist groups near the ticketing office into a 11-people group. 

After the hike, we were dropped to Pattipola railway station Which has old fashion telegram machines and is the highest railway station in Sri Lanka with an elevation of 1,897.5 m high above mean sea level. From there we took 1-hr scenic train ride to a small town Haputale Which has many Tea estates around and located on top of a mountain range with exceptional views. We had a late lunch at the famous Risara Bakers serving to all international & resident visitors & tourist. I had egg noodles and milk tea.