World's End

A 90 minute drive from Nuwara Eliya where we were staying, Horton Plains is a fairly barren national park which was created in colonial times and is home to Leopards, Baker's waterfall and the famous cliffs of World's End. The plateau is at an average height of 1900m above sea level, and a 9km circular route takes you to the 870m drop off where apparently you can view the ocean on a good day... That's what happens in high season anyway! We could barely see more than a metre off the drop.

As usual we spent too long bird watching and taking photographs, and by the time we'd explored the area to our heart's content, the monsoon had started in earnest and the other park visitors had all gone home. Realising we were stranded on the plateau alone, we commenced the 11km walk towards the nearest village. To our amazement, we witnessed a flock of white-eyes all mating with one another, two of which dropped out of the air right in front of us! Little did we know however, that the last bus back to Nuwara Eliya was due to depart within the hour. Obliviously we ambled on, and were really lucky that some guys we met on the road helped us out. They got us a tuk-tuk to race the last 6km to the bus, which we caught in the nick of time!