By Train – Central Sri Lanka with Nuwara Eliya + Horton Plains + Kandy Three Days Excursion

This is a typical trapper trip. We travel around the island by local public transport, mainly by train, and we stay overnight in cheap guest houses and local homes.

Meet at Colombo Fort (Colombo main railway station) at 9:00 AM. You can easily get to Colombo Fort by bus or train, practical from every corner of Sri Lanka. The easiest way to get there from the west coast is by morning train. Information on train timetables can be found at https://www.railway.gov.lk/

At 9:45 we set off from the main station. The train ride offers breathtaking views, especially where it runs through the mountainous regions of Nuwara Elliya. After reaching Nanuoya we change to a local bus, which takes us to Nuwara Elliya. In Nuwara Elliya we will spend our first night in a tourist-standard guesthouse. However, before reaching our hotel, we take a tuk tuk to the Gayatri temple, where there are two statues of the goddess Gayatri with five heads, 108 Shiva penises (cobbles fished out of a holy river in India), a mausoleum and a museum of a local guru who miraculously healed the sick. After visiting the temple we go to the city, where we have free time to explore Nuwara Elliya. In the evening we check into a nearby hotel.

The next day we leave Nuwara Elliya early in the morning for Horton Plains National Park in a specially hired van or jeep. Departure at 5.00 am. We arrive at the place around 7.00. Along the way, you can admire wonderful mountain views, tea plantations, and the life of the awakening local community. In the park we start the trekking route, approximately 8 kilometers long. It runs across the border of the jungle and the savannah, and we often find ourselves on a fabulously colorful road in the middle of the jungle or among the grass of the Horton Plains savannah.

Our first destination is the Small End of the World, which we reach after less than three kilometers of hiking. It is a place above a two-hundred-meter precipice, where our World ends and from here you can see the next Worlds. We continue our journey to reach the Great End of the World, a precipice about 800 meters high. From there, in good weather, there is a wonderful view of an even larger space than before. After visiting both Ends of the World, we will hike through breathtaking plains, a short, about two-hundred-meter climb on a steep section of the route to the majestic Bakers Falls. After the waterfalls, return through the plains to the parking lot.

On the way we will cross several bridges over the streams flowing here, admire the crystal clear rivers and small water holes. After reaching the parking lot, return to Nuwara Ellia in our van, from where we will take a public bus to Norwood, a town beautifully situated on the Castlereigh reservoir. There we will have dinner at a local Tamil plantation house and spend the night in the same one.

In the morning, after Tamil breakfast, tour of the surrounding tea plantations, visit to a local Hindu temple.

From Norwood we will go to Hatton by local bus and then change to a bus to Kandy, the former capital of Sri Lanka. After reaching Kandy, explore the city (on foot) and visit the Buddha’s Tooth Temple. After visiting the Temple, optional visit to the Botanical Gardens in Peradenia, and then we go to the railway station, from where we reach Colombo by train at around 7 p.m.