A wonderful trek and a looong journey-day 4

We reached the hotel at Nuwara Eliya around 2 p.m. We were famished and were treated to freshly prepared fried rice and grilled cheese-tomato sandwiches with some french fries. The hotel was more of an Inn with a friendly and informal atmosphere. You could even customize the menu and get something prepared for you exclusively. The caretaker was quite friendly and we chit-chatted about his family and also got some useful tips and information on the local sight-seeing. I am not sure of how vacant or occupied the hotel was during our stay but there was this elderly person from the UK who seemed to be a permanent feature in the lounge area, watching the cricket match on the television with a mug of whiskey/scotch always by his side. Oh, and yes, Sri Lanka is a cricket-crazed nation, pretty much or more than us. At least it is their national sport.

R spent the waiting time for lunch running about in the patio, refusing to eat any lunch when it arrived, feasting only on the fries and exploring the corridors of the old cottage-like hotel. The hotel was a little cramped and dingy for my liking initially but then the spaced out lounge area and hospitable staff quite made up for it. Throughout the trip, R lived on a diet that comprised of set curd or sweetened yoghurt, some tidbits like biscuits and suchlike, bananas and juice/water/coconut water. When coaxed a lot, he'd eat 3-4 morsels of proper solid food. He was simply content breathing in fresh air and scampering about here and there.

The sitting area of our hotel

Fire-place

We were so famished and tired that we wiped off two plates of the fresh, yummilicious fried rice and the sandwiches and set out to just rest our tired backs from the winding and tiresome drive uphill. It was already half-past three and we intended to be ready-to-go in a couple of hours. The next thing we knew that we were looking sleepy-eyed outside our room window into pitch darkness. It was well past 6 p.m. when we dragged ourselves to the reception area. Mr. Shirley, we learnt from the caretaker, had waited for a long while for us to emerge from our room and in the end got tired himself and not wanting to disturb us, retired to his room. We missed going around the sleepy little town as it was already very dark and quite cold. A few minutes later, Mr.Shirley filled in the details for the agenda next day. We were supposed to leave as early as 5.30 p.m. the next morning to see the World's End via Horton Plains National park. The trek up to Baker's fall is a 9km round trip which has a Mini World's End at about 3 kms from the beginning of the trail, then the World's End  (observation deck at the edge of  highest plateau of Sri Lanka) and then the Baker's Fall.  Do read more about it here and here.  We were not too thrilled to hear about the details as we knew that we could not walk 9 kms with R in tow. Also, we were ill-equipped for the chilly weather. Early morning would be chillier and we didn't want to risk our health without proper winter-gear. However the caretaker, Mr.Shirn and Mr.Shirley had quick solutions for us. They suggested that we walk up to whatever point it was possible since the trek was supposed to be an easy and pleasant one. And, we could always buy some winter wear from the local market as branded ones were sold at dirt cheap rate at the local bazaar (this is indeed true!). Still skeptical, we agreed.

We checked out of the hotel with breakfast packed neatly for all of us and left for Horton's park from where the trail began. The views en route were spectacular as though to give a prelude to what was in store and we were glad that we didn't not skip this part of the trip. We passed by Ambewala, a huge milk factory that had wide and vast green fields where the cattle grazed.

This post is getting longer than I expected. So, will leave you with some pics and continue with a part 2 of the same day.

First rays through the grassy fields

Check out the mist

Spotted wild stags in the wild