On the second of our three days in Ella, we hopped onto the morning train, having decided that we couldn't pass up a visit to nearby Haputale (ha-POOT-a-lay): a town on the southern extreme of Sri Lanka's hill country celebrated for its beautiful surroundings and tea plantations.
With an unbeatable setting high in the hills, tiny Ella has earned a reputation as one of Sri Lanka's most beautiful villages. With its views over the Ella Gap and some incredible nature walks, the town has become one of the most popular destinations in the southern hill country. We spent a few days here, and had a wonderful time.
Twenty miles south of Nuwara Elyia is the Horton Plains National Park, which is most well-known for its amazing viewpoint called World's End. The relatively cool temperatures of the park, steady precipitation, high altitude, and the convergence of three rivers create a rare and fragile ecosystem in which a unique biosystem flourishes. Some of the birds found in Horton Plains are only found here.
Known around Sri Lanka as "Little England", Nuwara Eliya is the highest city on the island, at around 6128 feet above sea level. Throughout history, this mountainous patch of the country had been almost entirely unpopulated, but the British recognized the potential value of its soil and climate. In 1846, explorer Samuel Barker (who would later "discover" Africa's Lake Albert) founded Nuwara Eliya, which quickly established itself as a favorite retreat for the ruling class, and eventually gained prominence as a center for tea cultivation.
