Horton Plains is the high, wild heart of Sri Lanka's hill country, a rolling plateau of grassland and cloud forest at more than two thousand metres, and it feels nothing like the tropical island below. The grass is golden and tussocky, the trees are stunted and twisted, draped in lichen, and the air is cold and clear in the early morning before the clouds come in. Sambar deer graze in the open, unconcerned by visitors, and the cries of birds echo across the plains. It is a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site, part of the central highlands of Sri Lanka.
The main attraction is World's End, a sheer cliff on the southern edge of the plateau that drops nearly nine hundred metres to the lowlands below. On a clear morning, the view stretches across the tea estates and villages to the distant coast, and you feel as if you are standing at the edge of the earth. By mid-morning, though, the clouds usually roll in and the view disappears, so the trick is to arrive early. A circular walking trail of about nine kilometres leads to World's End and on to Baker's Falls, a pretty waterfall named after a British explorer.
The plateau is the source of several of Sri Lanka's major rivers, and its forests and grasslands are home to many species found nowhere else on the island, including rare birds, frogs and plants. The park was once used for hunting by the British, and the elephants that once lived here have long since disappeared. Nearby, the railway line from Colombo to Badulla passes through Pattipola, the highest station in Sri Lanka, and if you hear a train whistle echoing across the valleys, that is the slow hill-country line winding towards Badulla.
The roads to Horton Plains are narrow and winding, through tea estates and forest, and the last section to the park entrance is steep and sometimes rough. Entry requires a ticket, and the park opens early to allow visitors to reach World's End before the clouds. There are no services inside, apart from a small visitor centre, so bring water, food and warm clothes. Nuwara Eliya, about nineteen kilometres away, and Haputale, closer to the south, are the nearest towns with fuel and food.