Sri Lanka, Part 5 - Horton Plains NP, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Buduruvagala, Yala NP

It's day 10.  Today we are taking a hike in Horton Plains National Park to the famous World's End.  It is a sheer cliff with a drop of about 4,000 feet.  Several visitors have fallen off the cliff and died here. When we visited there was barb wire at the edge to discourage visitors from getting too close to the edge.  We had to have a jeep operator to take up to the National Park because the drive up was too steep for our small Prius.

At the World's End

Barb Wire at the Edge

Sign to Baker's Falls

Baker's Falls

The trail to and from World's End

A Wild Sambar Deer

 We were to visit Ambewala Farm that afternoon but it was closed.  It is a dairy farm with milk and yogurt production on the facility.  We ended up going to town again looking for an ATM.

That night I woke up in the middle of the night getting a bad upset stomach.  After taking some medication I finally threw up.  In the morning I threw up again and had to skip breakfast.  Fortunately, we didn't have to start early the next day.  I rested most of the morning until it was time to go.

It was a late morning as the train from Nuwara Eliya was not supposed to leave until around noon.  At about 11am we left for the train station.  The crowd slowly grew.  Fortunately, I was able to buy the last first-class ticket when we were in Kandy a few days ago.  I did not want to be in third class and stand for about 3 hours.  I want to have a comfortable seat, preferably window.  The price of the ticket was only 1,000 rupees.

Nanu-Oya is the name of the train station in Nuwara Eliya

Ella Gap - View from my hotel room

At one of the stops

It was a slow but comfortable train ride through the mountains.  You look on beautiful lush valleys with tea plantations and other farms.  Mohan drove to Ella and met me at the train station.  He beat me by only 5 minutes.  We drove straight to the Ella Gap Panorama Hotel.  From the hotel balcony you can see the Ella Gap, which is a beautiful valley below.

The next morning we drove to see the Nine Arch Bridge.  We had to take a short hike down to the bridge as there are no roads.  There were many tourists milling around.  Part way down a train came.  On the way back up we were caught in the rain and had to take a tuk-tuk up to our parked car.  It was 300 rupees.   

Ella, is my daughter-in-law's name

Nine-arch Bridge, with the tea plantation below

Next we drove a couple of hours to see the Buduruvagala Buddhist Temple.  This is not so much a temple as a few (seven) Buddha carvings on the side of a huge rock.  The carvings were done in the 10th century and showed some decay.  It reminds me of the Buddha carvings that were destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Buddha Wall Sculpture

Close-up of the sculpture

Another sculpture

We arrived in Yala in the late afternoon and checked into the Elephant Reach Hotel.  Early next morning we are to drive to Yala National Park (YNP) for a safari.

I met Mohan and the jeep driver Sampat outside the hotel at 5:30am.  We rushed to the gate of YNP to pay for our tickets, then wait in line to get in.  The gate opens at 6:00am and already there was a long line of jeeps waiting.  The jeeps are mostly converted 4x4 pickup trucks.  They are slightly smaller than the ones used in Africa.  There must have been about 30 jeeps waiting to get in.  Everyone tries to get in first to see the animals.  They are most active in the morning.  Everyone is hoping to see leopards or at least elephants.

Seeing animals on a safari is a matter of luck and being at the right place at the right time.  The drivers kind of go to where they've seen certain animals before but there is no guarantee the animal will come back to the same location.  So what we did was criss-crossed the park and keeping our eyes open peering through the bushes and trees.  We saw a small herd of elephants, many buffaloes, crocodiles, iguanas, mongoose, different varieties of birds.  We did not see any leopards, not surprising because they are more nocturnal animals and the noise scare them deeper into the jungle.  I would say this was not a very successful safari.

Yala National Park

Fox

White-spotted Deer

An Elephant

Crocodile by the River

We left YNP at about 10am and drove back to the hotel to shower and checked out.  That afternoon we drove towards Galle but will be spending the night in nearby Unawatuna.