A different route to Horton Plains

By Udena .R. Attygalle

" Like travellers trespassing in the realm of the gods, we stopped and stared. The green valley we had traversed was now just an old green carpet with patches of brown: the only sign of man.The mighty mountains below felt almost close enough to touch . Oh how we wished we could fly!"

These were among the images that stuck in our minds as The Sunday Times "adventure" team came to Belihuloya last Tuesday, in search of an alternative route to Horton Plains .

Discussions with local residents soon made it clear that there were at least four routes to the top from this side in addition to the popular route via Nuwara Eliya .

A route through the Non Pareil estate, a trail past Bambarakande Falls or a trek up via "Kuburutheniwela " seemed to be the hardest options. The first two meant travelling along very bad roads, the third offered no road at all. So we chose the third!

With the Sabaragamuwa campus at Belihuloya as our base we went to meet the Grama Sevaka of the area late at night. Premarathne Gamage, the 52-year-old Grama Sevaka of Kuburutheniwela's eyes lit up at the prospect of climbing the mountain that he had trekked up, ever since he was a boy. He would be our guide.

Collecting a few supplies from the town we set off around six a.m.

The route led us up the road just past the Belihuloya rest house, on the "Ehelagalagame" road. Three km up the dilapidated road and we were at Kuburutheniwela, a valley of green paddy fields surrounded by mountains. Our van journey ended there. From here on, it was all on foot.

As we used short cut after short cut, we criss-crossed the stone- laid path from Belihuloya to Ohiya that JRJ is said to have crossed using a horse! Unimaginable at the present time.

Up the Pabahinna mountain we went, through a Pinus forest, planted by the wild life authorities in the 1970's . Gamage quickly warned us of the slippery fallen pine needles. One wrong step and we would go right through the symmetrically planted trees and land many feet below!

As we went further up through the natural forest cover, we were left wondering at the beauty of the natural over the planted. The multi-coloured canopy afforded us relief from the gusty wind.

As we hit an open space, on one side of us was the "Nas daduhinna", a natural formation like the edge of a nose . On the other side was a scene right out of a fairy tale, so unreal in its beauty that we could almost understand why all was silent except for the wind and the gentle drip of a stream.

The various lichens hanging everywhere made me recall my science teacher saying that this was a sure sign that the air is pure and unpolluted .

Opposite us was the ' Hagala' mountain: rocks jutting up here and there to break the otherwise unbroken green .

As we climbed to the top of the "nose" we met the road and a board which said we had travelled 11 kms from the Belihuloya rest house. And a further four km more to reach the "end of the world" (and here we were at the end of our tether).

Two km more and we were at the Nagrak division bungalow. (the bungalow can be booked for the night through Balangoda Plantations in Ratnapura). A welcome cup of hot tea at our local friend Premadasa's house who told us the bitter cold was quite usual and we were off again. This time through the Horton Plains nature reserve and jungle so thick that after one of us had passed through, the next had to clear the forest again to make it through. And in the middle of all this was the old tree that for decades had been the boundary between the two districts of Ratnapura and Nuwara Eliya.

As we moved along we were hit by an unbearable stench .Investigating (or creeping bent double! ) we stumbled upon the remains of an animal that the villagers had said had been attacked by a leopard the previous night. Pieces of meat were scattered everywhere beside the now bare skull. Were we glad that leopards usually shy away from human contact.

A hop, step and a jump (a very very long step) and we were at World's End. We come out of the thicket from the path opposite the normal road to this spot.

A look down the gap, a small incursion into the plains and we were getting cold and hungry . The mist was coming down fast and the clock read 3.30 pm.

The trip back towards Nagrak took 45 minutes, half an hour less than the upward trek. We all agreed the vision of Premadasa's promised plate of hot rice was the driving force behind our fleet-footedners!

A good dose of rice and curry inside us we were loath to move back down. Imagine our suprise when our driver came along. We had heard that the road named "Devil's Staircase" was impossible to cross with out a four-wheel drive vehicle. But Buddhika our driver said "he had battled the 32 reverse bends and narrow broken roads and had found it hard, but not impossible in a van". Were we glad.

Of the two-hour journey down, I remember little except for the wondrous images that kept coming back each time my eyes closed....................

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