Horton Plains National park

Horton Plains National park

 

An hour away from Nuwrw Eliya these plains formed by millions of years of erosion, lie right on top of Srilanka’s mountains. Here large herds of elk, silhouetted against clouds of the lowlands, move among scarlet rhododendrons.world’s end gives you nonparallel views of the flatlands to the south, as you teeter on the edge of an 800 metre high precipice.

Buffeted by the wind, highlands of the Horton plains NP include some of the island’s most spectacular landscapes, with stretches of grassland and forest, gaint ferns, trees clawing the clouds, and peat-rimmed lakes. This strange, wiled, 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 Kirigalpoththa Mountains, the second highest range on the island (2395m), Horton Plains NP forms the western edge of the Haputale range, poised high above the Ruhunu loelands. Buffeted by the wind and too high (1800-2160m) for farming, these vast highland prairies (patna) do not permit any kilned of serous crop cultivation and have escaped the intensive exploitation of the centre of the island.

This is also one of the top destinations for bird lovers who visit the area to look for several of Sri lanka’s endemics; these include the yellow eared bulbul, the Ceylon Hill White Eye, Ceylon Whistling Thrush and the Ceylon Blue Magpie. The diversity of vegetation is also impressive from grasses to ferns, shrubs and large flowering trees. The montage forest is very distinctive with all the trees reaching a similar height to protect them against excessive precipitation; the western slopes support the most extensive area of cloud forest in the country.

Annual rainfall is high with the area being affected by both monsoons as well as the intrmonsoonal periods; it is driest between January and March. The temperatures are considerably cooler than low lying areas. The tea growing area of Nuwaraeliya is a convenient base for visiting the park, and Kandy or Yala can be reached within a half day’s scenic from here.