( Overview
/ Sri Lanka 2024 - finally here!
Thursday 22nd February
After breakfast (again similar levels of hilarity!). We’ve booked a driver to take us up to Norton Plains, it’s the equivalent of the Scottish highlands. He picks us up around 10 and it’s probably about 25-30km away from Nuwara Eliya. We arrive around 11.30 after climbing some fairly monumental hills in his tuktuk (I thought he was bringing a car to take us) anyway he drops us off and we pay a hefty price to enter the National Park (about £55 for both of us) but there’s the promise of Leopards, barking deer and all other kinds of wildlife. It is stunning, we are able to do a 9k self guided walk which takes us through the plains and forest to a look out point called World’s End which is one of the highest drop off points in Sri Lanka (880m) and then we head to Baker’s Waterfalls. It’s a nice circular walk, lots of different terrain. No Leopards spotted but lots of other stuff; several types of deer, a snake, a rare lizard, numerous birds including the brahminy kite. We get back to the start point just after 2.30 and make our way back through the National Park and back down to Nuwara Eliya, I’m freezing cold by this point so take a very hot shower I then put all my winter clothes back on (including my coat!) and we head out to Themparadu for an early dinner. Get there just in time as they’ve lit the fire inside the restaurant and I bag the table right by the fire. Food is good and we spend dinner talking over plans for the next bit of our journey which have changed. We had planned to go to Hatton but feel that it may just be a few tea plantations and a fairly crummy hotel with a few dire restaurants so we’ve decided to bin that idea and plan to head south instead… we find another hotel for tomorrow night (we’ve decided to move into town) and then start looking at where we might head south to. Transport is a logistical nightmare seemingly if you want to head north or south, possibly the only way is to head West back to Columbo, which I hate the idea of! Think we’ll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.
After breakfast (again similar levels of hilarity!). We’ve booked a driver to take us up to Norton Plains, it’s the equivalent of the Scottish highlands. He picks us up around 10 and it’s probably about 25-30km away from Nuwara Eliya. We arrive around 11.30 after climbing some fairly monumental hills in his tuktuk (I thought he was bringing a car to take us) anyway he drops us off and we pay a hefty price to enter the National Park (about £55 for both of us) but there’s the promise of Leopards, barking deer and all other kinds of wildlife. It is stunning, we are able to do a 9k self guided walk which takes us through the plains and forest to a look out point called World’s End which is one of the highest drop off points in Sri Lanka (880m) and then we head to Baker’s Waterfalls. It’s a nice circular walk, lots of different terrain. No Leopards spotted but lots of other stuff; several types of deer, a snake, a rare lizard, numerous birds including the brahminy kite. We get back to the start point just after 2.30 and make our way back through the National Park and back down to Nuwara Eliya, I’m freezing cold by this point so take a very hot shower I then put all my winter clothes back on (including my coat!) and we head out to Themparadu for an early dinner. Get there just in time as they’ve lit the fire inside the restaurant and I bag the table right by the fire. Food is good and we spend dinner talking over plans for the next bit of our journey which have changed. We had planned to go to Hatton but feel that it may just be a few tea plantations and a fairly crummy hotel with a few dire restaurants so we’ve decided to bin that idea and plan to head south instead… we find another hotel for tomorrow night (we’ve decided to move into town) and then start looking at where we might head south to. Transport is a logistical nightmare seemingly if you want to head north or south, possibly the only way is to head West back to Columbo, which I hate the idea of! Think we’ll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.
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