Camping at Horton Plains

Date	Wednesday, 25th of July, 2012
Crew	Ten people (Age of 22-25)
Days	Two Days (One Night) :  But we traveled at night thus technically it was three nights, over four days.
Route	Colombo Fort → Ohiya Station → Horton Plains Ohiya Entrance → Camp Site 01 → Worlds End → Horton Plains Ohiya Entrance → Ohiya Station → Colombo Fort.
Transport	Train from Colombo Fort to Ohiya and back.
Accommodation	Horton Plains Camp Site 01
Remarks	Camp sites can be reserved from Battaramulla office of Department of Wild Life.

This was the first of our hiking and camping streaks. As it is mentioned above, eventhough we camped only for one night, we traveled at night to save the time. Therefore, we have technically spent three nights for this trip. Other thing is, we originally planned this as a two-night-camping, but ended-up with staying only one night due to the bad weather.

We started from Colombo Fort Railway station on Wednesday night, and took the Badulla-Night-Mail express which left Fort at 8.05 pm. Some of us got to the train from Ragama, Veyangoda, and Ambepussa railway stations respectively, but we had reserved the ticket before hand. We had reserved seats from the sleeperette compartment, and spent the night in the train. Finally we arrived Ohiya station in the morning around 4-5 am next day (Thursday). It was all dark around and was pretty cold along with the breeze. So we decided to wait till the sun comes out before start on the hike. There the station-master was kind enough let us stay in the guests room at the station, and have our breakfast, which we had brought. Then we had a warm coffee from the only shop near by, and was ideal for the cold.

Once there is enough light in surrounding, we start off our hike. There are 11 km from the Ohiya station to the Horton Plains entrance. There was a van belongs to a villager we could hire from the Ohiya station, but since the whole point of our journey was to hike and camp, we decided to walk all the way. But we took his contact number, thinking that we could hire him on the way back. We took the usual pawed road, but every now and then we went off from the road and took shortcuts as the road was windy, and we could track it down going on a straight line rather than going around along with the pawed road. Well, some of the shortcuts ended up being a lot tougher, despite the shorter distance.

On the way to the Horton Plains entrance from Ohiya

Went off the roads at times

This road was always ascending from Ohiya stations to check-in gate at the Ohiya side, which is about 4 km ahead of the Horton Plains Entrance (aka Visitors Center). At some points it turned out to a steep climb, making it lot harder to move forward with the heavy backpacks we were carrying. So we moved really slowly, taking breaks often, as we had all day to get there and were in no hurry. For the first couple of kilometers, the sky was sunny and not a lot of cold neither breeze were there. But as we climb higher and get to the half way stage, weather started to change. The whole surrounding started to feel alot more cooler and the mist started to take over the area.

As we move further along, the mist really started to get heavy and we couldn't even see more than few meters ahead of the trail. The surrounding looked pretty much like 5 pm in the evening, though it was still around 11 am in the morning.

Finally we reached the entrance by noon, and after having a short break, we headed-off to the campsite. We got the directions to the camp site from the visitors center office, as it is situated in a side trail off the main trail. However, as we walked forward through the dense fog, we started to realize that we have missed the point where we have to take a turn off the main trail. We started searching for the trail to the camp site, but every effort failed as we couldn't see more than few feet away due to the heavy fog. Then we decided to get off from the main trail go towards where we believed the campsite is situated (according to the directions we got from the office).

Mist covered the whole surrounding

Went off the road searching for the camp site

Lost and wondering around.

Ended-up on a ledge

We wondered around for about hour or so searching for the campsite with no luck. It was a pretty difficult task to walk off the trail, through the heavy grass cover grown for couple of feet height and thorny bushes that were everywhere. Suddenly we managed to locate the signboard of campsite 2 and 3, but no sign of the campsite 1, which is our destination. (campsites 1 and 2 are situated close to each other, and campsite 1 is situated separately from the other two). Thus we kept moving forward blindly in the mist and heavy wind, and at one point we found our self walking on a ledge of a steep slope, with a water stream at the bottom of the slope. As we never seemed to be finding our campsite by wondering around, we decided to climb to the top of the small mountain of which we were walking across, and have a look around and see if we could locate any signs of the site. 

Once we go up there, we could see a pool of water in the far, which we doubted could be the one next to the campsite 01. Luckily for us, the fog eased out for a couple of minutes as we were starring around. Finally we managed to see a small box-alike thing (which is the toilet of the campsite), next to the pool that we were guessing which could be the correct place. With the relief we got to our minds, we started rushing in to the campsite, without a second thought, as we all were tired after a long walk and being lost. We reached the campsite around 2.00 pm, but since it was slightly drizzling (It was not really drizzling. It was the heavy fog with water particles that made like drizzling), and very cold, we pitched the tent and put our baggage inside. We tied the tent to some trees nearby with some ropes, as the tent was shaky against the heavy wind. The whole surrounding looked really spooky, covered with mist, cold and heavy wind.

Pitching the tent

Cold, windy, and misty 

Our camp surrounded by the mist

The camp site

Some breath=taking scenaries

Just for the photo..

Campsite is located right next to a water stream and a pool, thus we didn't have any shortage of water. We used the water from the stream for drinking as well, as those were one of the purest water sources one can find in the country. By 4.00 pm the lighting condition started to deteriorate. Since we didn't have any proper lunch up to that point, we  decided to prepare some noodles we had carried with us. This became harder than we expected firstly because we couldn't light up the gas cooker due to the heavy wind. After that, it took such a long time to boil the water and the noodles because of the low temperature. By the time we finish the meal, it was dark around, and also was really freezing out there. Hence we all got in to the tent, and took some nap as we couldn't think of any activity to do outside. 

We had to spent a long night, starting from around 6.00 pm until the next day morning, inside the tent. As the night progresses, our situation started to become worse. Our tent was not a typical water-proof one, so with the slight drizzle and the moisture in the fog, water starts to creep in to the tent from all the sidewalls. Thus we had to stay away from the sidewalls while keep our baggage safely without contacting with water as well, which made the space inside the tent not enough for everyone. Things got worst  around the midnight, as the tent couldn't bear the heavy wind, and the ropes which we tied up tent to the trees, got broken. Tent was shaking like a broken sail, and was almost getting blown away with the wind. We tried holding it for few minutes within inside, but there were no way we going to stay that way whole night, holding the tent. We reconsider staying at the tent for the rest of the night, and thought of going back to the entrance. But since it was midnight and there can be leopards who hang around at night, we decided against it. With all these drama happening around, we couldn't sleep at all (except two people who slept whole night), and ended up staying awake, or half asleep at times, through out the long night. Luckily, out tent did not got blown away completely, which was  the last thing we needed.

Next day morning, we dropped all the ideas we had to stay for a second night and packed our bags., and made our way back to the entrance office. There the people at the office were kind enough to let us a room to keep our baggage till we trek the usual world's end trail and come back.

The crew.

The dew on the next day morning

We came back around 2.00 pm and prepared our lunch. Then we start our way back to the ohiya station by foot. On the way, we called the van that we took the contact number from the shop near the Ohiya station, and asked to come and pick us at the check-in gate, since we were to tired to walk all the way down.

Made our own Nescafe

The van guy came on time, and we reached the Ohiya station by 6.30 pm. Even-though we did not have reserved the tickets for the way back, we managed to get tickets in the second class compartment from the station it self. The train was due to arrive at 9.00 pm, thus till then we had some rest, and the gad dinner which we had brought with us. Finally the train arived and we slept all the way up to Colombo, as we couldn't get a sleep on the day before.