Rise and shine before sunrise today, only getting a cup of tea before departing the hotel with our packed breakfast ready to be eaten on the trek. All up we will be trekking about 12 kms across Horton Plains.

Set off in mini vans to the start of the track in darkness. Watched the sun rise as we drove along and found that the day was very misty and cold. Didn't think I would be wearing layers here but am sure they will soon come off as we trek along.

Horton Plains is a mixture of grasslands and cloud forests giving an unequivocal sense of nature. It is known to be the coldest and windiest location in Sri Lanka. The National Park spreads over 3169 hectares and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The trail opens up with an expansive view of flora: bare patina grassland here; densely wooded cloud forest over there. Once the grasslands are passed, the trek leads for about 2km through a fine expanse of cloud forest. Grown in the forest amidst nellu shrubs and keena trees are spices grown in the wild: pepper, cinnamon and cardamom. Also seen are rare Ayurvedic medicinal herbs.

This was the most awe-inspiring trek I have ever done and I can only hope my photos give you some idea of the majestic sights I have seen. It was hard going in some places but then you turn a bend in the track and are confronted with such beauty. Our trek took us to Mini Worlds End to start with and we stood there looking agape at the wonderful sight and then another tourist walked past and said "wait till you see the big one". That gave me the inspiration to get moving and see what he was talking about and sure enough World End is truly magnificent. Here the ground drops beneath your feet and there are stunning views across the plains. Fortunately the mist lifted and swirled up high just as I arrived so I was treated to a spectacular sight. I just sat there drinking in the views and watching the mist swirling around. I was mindful of the sheer drop and couldn’t help but wonder how many might have gone over…must have been all those years in mental health!! Anyway as it turns out falling and/or jumping off do happen at regular intervals, mostly tourists getting too close to the edge and not realizing that it falls straight down 1000 metres!! Our guide provided me with the interesting fact of the costs associated with body retrieval – it costs 25,000 rupees to have the body rolled down the remaining hillside, 50,000 rupees will get the body taken to the bottom and 75,000 rupees will get you the full body back intact – obviously a profitable business for someone as that sort of money goes a hell of along way here!!!

We then continued on with the trek up and down the plains through grassland, montane forest areas and finally reached Bakers Falls. There are 2 tracks down to the base of the falls and guess who took the **********e……yes that would be me!!! Baker's Falls named after Samuel Baker who was a British explorer and founder of Nuwara Eliya. If the scramble down to the waterfall is easy though slippery and steep, scrambling up the waterfall back to the trek will find you short of breath in the high altitude. Mind you going on the track I took I got the best view of the falls and was able to dip my feet in the ice cold water then of course I had the difficult climb back out again – definitely harder going up than down!!!

As we headed off on the last leg of the trek the mist really came rolling in and it was difficult to see much at all except a swirling white wall. Past Baker's Falls, the track runs through open patina grassland of which stillness is broken only by the resonant croaking of thousands of frogs in the trees and grasses.

Was pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the vans but oh so happy to have experienced this magnificent place. We were then returned to our bus and headed off again. This time we went through remote villages to Haputale and then onto Beragala - small town located in Badulla District of Uva Province. The area is very famous for the natural beauty and land slides. Roads proved to be very bumpy and dislodged a bag which fell on me. Luckily it was only a small one and no damage done- just a bit of a shock.

Stayed the night is a hotel set against the hillside with wonderful views from each of our balconies. It was nice just to sit and watch the sunset after trekking for most of the day.