Sri Lanka is known for its tea, so even if just for a day, a visit to Hill Country was in order. Our little van struggled up the hours of steep, winding roads, through towns with populations of a few thousand, past countless tea plantations scaling the steep hillsides, being tended to by tiny women picking the leaves.
We planned to hike Horton Plains and see World's End in the early morning, and we needed a place to spend the night. A quick glance at my indispensable Lonely Planet and I suggested a tea plantation in the town nearest the plains. We arrived at dusk, just as it started to rain.
Within minutes it was pouring, but not before we had a chance to settle in to our fantastic bungalow, which used to house the managers of the plantation. Set atop a precipitous drop on one of Sri Lanka's highest points, the view seemed to extend forever. Just as with Galapita we were the only guests, and enjoyed our own cook and butler for the evening. It was easily a place to spend days relaxing, but unfortunately we only had a few hours before retiring as we planned to get up at 4:30am for the hike.
What we thought would be a thirty minute drive to the trailhead turned out to be a two hour one, thanks to the quality of the roads and their many twists and turns. The reason for our early rise was that the clouds come in at World's End around 10am, so we knew if we weren't early we'd miss the view. We caught it by about 15 minutes. As we sat at the summit admiring the drop below, the clouds rolled in within minutes. To be honest I was underwhelmed, and more into Bufala Falls, which was part of the 9 km loop we did that morning.
For me it was more about seeing the countryside, and sitting on top of the world in our little bungalow in the sky.
We planned to hike Horton Plains and see World's End in the early morning, and we needed a place to spend the night. A quick glance at my indispensable Lonely Planet and I suggested a tea plantation in the town nearest the plains. We arrived at dusk, just as it started to rain.
Within minutes it was pouring, but not before we had a chance to settle in to our fantastic bungalow, which used to house the managers of the plantation. Set atop a precipitous drop on one of Sri Lanka's highest points, the view seemed to extend forever. Just as with Galapita we were the only guests, and enjoyed our own cook and butler for the evening. It was easily a place to spend days relaxing, but unfortunately we only had a few hours before retiring as we planned to get up at 4:30am for the hike.
What we thought would be a thirty minute drive to the trailhead turned out to be a two hour one, thanks to the quality of the roads and their many twists and turns. The reason for our early rise was that the clouds come in at World's End around 10am, so we knew if we weren't early we'd miss the view. We caught it by about 15 minutes. As we sat at the summit admiring the drop below, the clouds rolled in within minutes. To be honest I was underwhelmed, and more into Bufala Falls, which was part of the 9 km loop we did that morning.
For me it was more about seeing the countryside, and sitting on top of the world in our little bungalow in the sky.
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