Hike to Horton Plains from Belihul-oya (Ihalagalagama)

It's too late. The hiking-mania has already carved itself into our minds and this hike was like one of our dreams come true, so without any goofing off, here's our next hike, to Horton Plains from Belihuloya, Ihalagalagama.

With a crew of 4, we arrived at the Colombo Fort bus station to catch the Badulla bus (route no. 99). It was around 1.00 am and the bus left at 1.45 am from Fort. After a journey of 4 hours, we got off right in front of Belihuloya Rest and you can see the road to Ihalagalagama running uphill. It was exactly 5.58 am when our hike began. The plan was to go across Nonperial Estate-Nagarak division to Horton Plains through World's End observation point to Ohiya and catch the night mail train back to Colombo.

This hike is considered to be one of the toughest in Sri Lanka, so we had be more cautious than our previous ones and also this trail is prohibited after 2006 and a special permit must be obtained from the department of wildlife to do this hike and also this is supposed to be the longest hike, 23 km we've done without a returning trip with an elevation gain of  about 1.5 km. So we did all the homework :) made all the preparations, the food, the equipment and other necessary stuff and even bought two 1:10000 maps from the survey department.

After walking about 3 km along the Ihalagalagama Road, we found the trail head. The scenery was already indescribable. The trail head started in a pine forest, actually, there was no such visible trail and we lost our way a couple of times. Then we found somebody from the village who was kind enough to give us directions. It was a straight climb from the start, about a 60 degree angle and the land was covered with a thick layer of pine bud scales, but as we climbed up, we just couldn't believe our own eyes and our brains were stuck trying to figure out the difference between reality and imagination because the surroundings were very much like a painting.

Ok that's it, well the moment I started writing this post I was not sure if it was even possible to see an ending, that many things in my mind to say, so instead, it says 'A picture is worth a thousand words' so here it is 'my few thousand words' :)

The pine forest

Next was the most difficult part of the hike, about 1 km with an angle close to 60 degrees.

Entering Non-Perial Estate Nagarak division...

There's also a jeep track leading to Belihuloya town-5 km

Far away is the Samanala-Wewa Reservoir, seen from the Non-Perial Estate Nagarak division.

Entering Hortan Plains...

It was very difficult to find a trail and the thick undergrowth gave us a hard time. Luckily we had maps...

We were traveling along the boundary of Horton Plains Strict Reserve and found another few boundary posts…

Actually, we found so many higher World's End viewing points before arriving at the World's End observation point. The trail was right along the edge of the World's End drop. One step to the right was about a kilometer deep down-da-pallan roller coaster ride. It was a descent to the observation point.

Here's the Great World's End with a crystal clear view. We were so damn lucky..

Next - officially entering Horton Plains (since we traveled along the boundary), Direction- Baker's Falls

Our first sight of sambar deer...

Beginning of Belihul-Oya...?

Ah..this lonely tree.. just like myself

Chimney pond, Horton Plains

It was almost 6.30 pm when we arrived at the Horton Plains visitors' center. Again, we had to walk to the main entrance to find a vehicle to get to Ohiya. It was around 8 o'clock. We got the experience of walking 6 km in a strict reserve when it was dark as hell amid the freezing cold. Luckily, we had flash lights. There were 3 people at the main entrance and they were so kind to us, even treated us with hot tea. Actually, this is where our hike on foot,  more than 23 km, ended. From there, a three-wheeler took us to Ohiya, where we finally managed to catch the night mail train that arrived at 9.30 pm and headed back to Colombo.

Thank you for reading...

The Crew- Buddhila, me, Supun and Shashi