Year's End at World's End - Horton Plains National Park Sri Lanka

 

We spent the last day of the year at the end of the world. We went before dawn to the Horton Plains National Park to arrive when it opened and hike out to the Mini World's End and Greater World End's overlooks before they were obscured by clouds. We succeeded for one by not the other.

Apparently the clouds and fog rolling in is an event that reliably happens every day. We weren't entirely aware of the importance of timing the morning hike and one of our party was ill, so we only made it to the mini overlook to see that view.

The main World's End overlook was completely obscured by the time we got there (see above). It lived up to it's name by looking like the rest of the world had indeed ended. It reminded me of the nothing in The Neverending Story, except that it wasn't a dark evil. It was just more literally white nothing. It was still impressive with its own non-visible and non-existent view right next to being able to see everything else clearly.

First, here's the end of our one-hour drive to the park as the sun was rising while our van climbed the mountainous terrain.

restroom with a view at the park entrance

a little museum before the hike that we probably should have saved until we returned

beware of leopards

a fog already coming and going near us

a good path for much of the way..

...but not all of the way.

a more difficult part ot the path

Is that the Cloud Forest as mentioned on the local Ulu sparkling water bottles? The sign was kind of high up and I didn't feel like climbing to read it.

the platform for the Mini World's End

after about 10 minutes the view became completely obscurred

The fog streamed up from the valley in a noticable way like steam coming off a pot, but it dissipated as soon at reached our level. We could see everything around us except for whatever was past the overlook. It was a very cool effect even though is obscured the view.

heading to Greater World's End

why did the wild chicken thing cross the road?

well yeah, it did get to the other side, so that's probably why.

We see nothing in the distance, but it's an impressive sort of nothing to see since there should obviously be some kind of amazing view from this overlook.

We didn't continue around the loop to the falls because one of our party was feeling ill so we needed to go back to the mini view where she was resting. I guess we could have looped around and then back but the entire loop was 9 km, so no thank you.

There was excellent nearby visibility for the sign. The world had apparently ended, so the rest of the view was of absolutely nothing. It was still impressive in a way that doesn't come across the same in the pictures. I guess it's because I can imagine a grander view of the mountains from the previous overlook.

Yep, nothing. We waited around a good while, but this is all there was to see.

squirrel! (or something like it)

heading back to Mini World's End

A little break in the clouds lower down at Mini World's End

the mist streamed up from the valley but never took over our area

I have a cool video of the effect but it's a bit of bother to post here so you'll just have to imagine it from these two pictures. Good job! (or bad job if you lack imagination)

another restroom with a view by Mini World's End

There's even a choice of toilet styles on the men's side. I don't know about the women's side because that's not my side to see.

a reservoir on the way back to our hotel after the seeing the World's End