There were many times I thought about not doing the World’s End walk in Horton Plains National Park in Sri Lanka. Not least when I was woken before my 5 am alarm by the pre-recorded chanting at the local Buddhist monastery.
The dank, cold guesthouse in Nuwara Eliya had not made for a good night’s rest. Nor had the sound of lashing wind and rain all night. It didn’t take long to get ready to hike as I was already sleeping in my clothes.
The proprietor kindly brought me a cup of tea and a breakfast packet of friend egg sandwiches and bananas. He was adamant that the weather would be good. “Look, you can see the stars” he declared. I couldn’t see a single one and it was still raining lightly but I smiled and agreed out of respect for my elders.
It is a one-and-a-half hour drive from Nuwara Eliya to the Horton Plains National Park entrance and we couldn’t see more than 10 metres ahead of the van as we climbed into the hills. Tall stands of eucalyptus (planted 50 years ago for railway sleepers) slowly give way to native jungle.
In the thick ‘cloud precipitation’ biodiversity explodes, with many endemic plant and animal species. As recently as the 1960s the only access up here was on horseback or on foot. Now we joined a convoy of vans carrying tourists up to the park gate on a road that switchbacks up the old horseback trail.
As we neared the park, our driver suddenly through to check we had funds for the park entrance fee. I hadn’t done any research on this hike and was slightly surprised to find it was 3,000 SLR each and I didn’t have enough currency. Would they accept US$? Driving through the rain, I thought about calling the whole thing off before we wasted $20 each on a view of cloud. But we decided to take our chances that they would accept US$.
We arrived at the queue of vans and eventually established that we should walk up to the ticket gate. There we found a queue of 50 people inching forward to be processed by one person in a booth. One person who would only give a criminal rate on our dollars. The look on his face as he utterly refused to negotiate was priceless.
This was the view at this point in the day:
The local guides were standing about with chattering teeth, when they weren’t jumping the queue to buy tickets for their clients.
The current costs for doing the World’s End Walk at Horton Plains are as follows: 2,013 Sri Lankan Rupees for a foreign adult (day visit) plus a 250 SLR fee for the vehicle and a ‘service charge’ of 1,073 SLR per single visit or foreign tourist group.
At the point of giving up, we were rescued by a short-term loan from a friend of our driver. After buying your ticket you have to drive another few kilometres into the park. Two-and-a-half hours after leaving the guesthouse we were ready to walk at 8am. A stunning Sambar deer stag wandered out of the mist to greet us.
The World’s End Walk and Baker’s Waterfall is an easy circular walk that took us two hours and twenty minutes with stops at World’s End, Mini World’s End (just a bit further away) and Baker’s Falls. The path is generally a good, level track, although in some places it was muddy and slippy.
I recommend good hiking footwear but, as always on these touristic ‘hikes‘ I saw a wide selection of tourists completely unprepared for hiking, or at least only for walking in the mildest of conditions. There were jeans, cotton t-shirts, plastic ponchos and flip flops. But the mist was beginning to lift…
Reaching the plateau, montane grassland spreads out beside cloud forest, which is a descendant of one of the oldest forests on earth. The animals here are also survivors – relicts of ancient species unchanged over time here in their remote mountain home.
Horton Plains is the largest remaining tract of cloud forest in Sri Lanka. The fog precipitation can actually exceed annual rainfall up here and leads to a rich variety of mosses, lichens and ferns. There were a few red blooms hanging onto the rhododendrons. I could hear the calls of the Purple-faced Leaf Monkey in the bush.
Moisture droplets clung to introduced species such as the yellow flowering gorse and bright green ferns. At times I thought I might be back in New Zealand with the tall tree ferns and rampant gorse bushes. These invasive species are a threat to the native plants and must be strongly managed.
I had read about these misty hills and their potential for dramatic changes in weather as clouds rise from the plains and valleys below. In minutes you can go from thick mist to sunshine and this is, in fact, what happened. Yes, our perseverance was rewarded!
The view from the top of the 870m precipice at World’s End is beautiful. The vertical drop to the tea plantations on the valley floor below makes the buildings look like toys. The green hills frame the distant reservoirs – the first being the one at Uda Walawe where we were only two days before.
There was visibility for the rest of the walk but the cloud was low and the views fairly uninspiring. The waterfall is impressive:
By the time we got back to the park gate the cloud and rain had descended again, which is why it is typical to get up so early to catch the typical window of visibility around 9am.
So is the World’s End Sri Lanka walk at Horton Plains worthwhile? After all, this is one of the recommended places to visit in Nuwara Eliya.
It is a beautiful view but the hassle it costs to get there is not worth it in my humble opinion. If you want to join hordes of tourists stumbling through the fog after battling organised chaos, go ahead. I wouldn’t do it again. I’m sure there’s better hiking in Sri Lanka!
By Natasha von Geldern
Have you done the Horton Plains National Park World’s End Walk in Sri Lanka? What was your experience?
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I’m so glad the view was revealed for you in the end!
Those are very beautiful landscape pictures. They look great!
Horton Plains and World End…
World’s End in Horton Plains in Sri Lanka is not at all an attraction. It’s a waste of time, money and your energy.
You get to Horton Plains via the Nanu Oya Road from Nuwara-Eliya. Turn to your left on Ambewela Farms road which leads to Horton Plains, Ambewela New Zealand Farm, The Strawberry Farm and Jagro (The Fantastic Strawberry Outlet with a great Variety)
World end is just about 10 Kms up and down but it’s a very very difficult walk. Do not recommend taking kids along. Yes the walk is adventures and thru the forest. But the path is very very difficult. Do not enter the place after 1 p.m. as it gets darker on your way back and you may find it extremely difficult to get back. No signs and no proper paths and unless you follow the crowd back you are definitely lost in the jungle.
More importantly it is absolutely unsafe right at the top. So many deaths have been reported and you got to be extra careful when taking selfies etc… if you still decides to explore World’s End.
Do not visit during April Holidays (10th to the 20th) as these places are over crowded.
After a good 2 hours of walking to worlds end all what you see is MIST.
You certainly could visit this place provided you have some extra money, extra time and some extra calorie that you want to burn out.