Horton Plains National Park
No visit to the Hill Country would be complete without
seeing the breathtaking Horton Plains National Park, an hour away
from Nuwara Eliya. These plains, formed by millions of
years of erosion, lie right on top of Sri Lanka's mountains.
Here large herds of elk, silhouetted against clouds
of the lowlands, move among scarlet rhododendrons. World's
End gives you unparalled views of the flatlands to the
south, as you teeter on the edge of an 800-metre high precipice.
 Buffeted
by the wind, the highlands of the Horton Plains NP include
some of the island's most spectacular landscapes, with
stretches of grassland and forest, giant ferns, trees
clawing the clouds, and peat-rimmed lakes. This strange,
wild, almost melancholy landscape was discovered by
the tea planter Thomas Farr, who named it after Sir
Robert Wilmot Horton, governor of the island from 1831
to 1837.
 Overlooked
by the Kirigalpota mountains, the second highest range
on the island (2395 m), Horton Plains NP forms the
western edge of the Hiputale range, poised high above
the Ruhunu lowlands. Buffeted by the wind and too high
(1800-2160 m) for farming, these vast highland prairies
(patna) do not permit any kind of serious crop cultivation
and have escaped the intensive exploitation of the centre
of the island.
Most of the principal sites of interest
can be visited in a 5-hour tour from either Nuwara Eliya
or Kandapola.
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