Tour of Sri Lanka 2025 | Day 15 | Nuwara Eliya – Adam’s Peak | 131.5 kms

Before leaving Nuwara Eliya for Adam’s Peak today, I’ll do the Horton Plains World’s End trek. Since it’s in the opposite direction, I’ll leave my luggage at the hostel, complete the trek, and return to collect my belongings before heading to Adam’s Peak.

I get ready quickly, have my morning coffee along with some biscuits and leave around 8am. It’s a 25km ride. I leave the hill city of Nuwara Eliya behind and then hit the jungle patch. This time, I am wearing my jacket to protect from the cold. The roads are superb and zig zag. I pass through dense vegetations of forest trees, mainly ping and eucalyptus. The jungle give way to open grasslands, acres and acres of them. Fresh green carpet laid out just like ‘Windows XP’ original wallpaper.

I can see windmills at faraway distance and cows being herded into the grasslands. This land belongs to the Ambewela Milk Factory, the signboard which I can notice everywhere. I stop to take a photo before moving ahead. Soon, I pass by the Ambewela railway station. I can see the train stationed there about to leave for Ella around 9:30am. I stop the bike at the tracks just to click some photos before the traffic police clears me away.

As I move further, I again enter the dense vegetation of the forest and soon start to climb up the mountain. The air starts to get colder and as the ascent is steep, the bike struggles slightly. Rhododendron’s are abundant and I stop to take a look at them.

A few km ahead is the office of the Horton Plains national park. I have to purchase an entry ticket which costs me around 10,000LKR. That’s a huge fee. I take my ticket and travel further 5kms towards the office and the parking lot from where the trek starts. As I move further, I see ‘plains’ for over a mile on both my sides, even pass a lotus lake and a board cautioning visitors about the ‘things to do when you spot a leopard’.

I see one wild animal with antlers and looking just like deer. At the office, I am checked and stripped off of any plastic that I am carrying. I have a light breakfast at the nearby restaurant before starting the trail.

It’s 9:45am, when I start the trek. It’s a loop type trek close to 9kms of hiking and covers 3 viewpoints along the way. I start the trek in clockwise direction. It’s an easy walk through the jungle on flat land. There are signboards on the roads indicating the type of trek ahead, whether it will be easy, difficult or more difficult. At first, it’s a straight path then it becomes rocky as the road starts to go down a little bit. It feels good to walk among the jungle and you listen to the chirping of the birds. I can hear the sounds but difficult to spot them in the dense vegetation. My first viewpoint is the Mini World’s End.

The view of the surrounding mountains are stunning and feels like I am on top of the world. I am almost at level with the clouds. A couple from Netherlands help me to take my picture. I move further into the trail. A while later, I find the Sri Lankas national bird on the side of the way. He seems friendly and does not mind me taking photos of him. The remaining trail is a mix of gravels and rocky terrain as we approach our 2nd viewpoint which is called the ‘World’s End’. The views are more or less the same like before but here I see clouds getting formed below me which is a great sight to see. There is also a direction and distance marker to popular cities of the world places there like New Delhi, Beijing etc.

Some Chinese tourists help me take my photo. From there, I proceed to move on towards the waterfall which is the last attraction of the trail. In this section, we walk with small shrubs plains to our both sides. I am still on the lookout for the leopard.

It feels good to walk in nature and breathe the fresh air. I see many natural streams as I move forward. For the falls, there is a small hike upwards. On the way, I see wild squirrels and I hand feed them biscuits which I am carrying.

I reach to the waterfall. It’s not impressive but a good one. The drop is just 4-5mtrs. I take photos before making my way back to the starting point close looping the trail. I check the clock and see that I hiked for almost 3 hrs. I hop onto the bike and return back to my hostel. I have already packed up my stuff and after paying the hostel bill, I leave the hostel.

The distance to the Adam’s peak is close to around 70kms as I start from the hostel around 2:30pm. The roads are good but serpentine. The scenery is much the same all over. I keep a constant pace. the afternoon sun is bearing down on me. With the monotonous driving, I am feeling sleepy so I stop and hydrate myself before moving forward. After Hatton, I move inwards through village roads. The weather is clear with moderate traffic.

I pass through 2 beautiful big lakes on the way. The roads are bad in a certain section of the route. Close to around 10-12kms of the broken road. On the way, we are stopped for around 10-15mins as the roads are being cleared of debris. Following that, the roads improve. I get to see a big waterfall along the way as I enter the town for the Adam’s Peak hike. I check hotels through Booking.com but find a good deal with the same hotel offline. The time is around 4:45pm. I move my luggage inside and wash my pending clothes before spending a relaxing evening in the balcony of the hotel writing my diary. I am supposed to start the trek early morning around 2am so sleep early around 8:30pm.