A Plain @ 2200m at Nuwaraeliya

Year and Month	2018 February 04^th
Number of Days	One
Crew	05-Supun, Prabath, Keshan, Nirosh and Myself
Accommodation	N/A
Transport	Car and Hiking
Activities	Sightseeing, photography and Hiking
Weather	Excellent
Route	Colombo->Nuweraeliya->Back to same route
Tips, Notes and Special remark	You can reach this plain with an aid of a known person or by using Google map. Carry an empty bottle to fill drinking water. There are enough sources on your way to the plain. Other than villager’s visit it seems a less attractive place. It is about 200m attitude gain with 1.5-2km walk to reach the plain from trail head. Please bring back whatever you carry. Special thanks to Dr. Supun and his wife for their hospitality.
Author	Niroshan
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread A Plain @ 2200m at Nuweraeliya

This is a beautiful plain situated at Nuweraeliya at 2200-2300m attitude. I have first noticed it in Google map when I was searching something else at Nuweraeliya. Once I have been very close to this plain but wasn’t aware it. Supun ayya has been there twice and his face book album has stimulated us (Keshan and Me) to visit at this plain situated closer to Nuweraeliya.

Freedom day of 2018 was the date we fixed to visit at this beautiful plain surrounded by mountainous forest. Supun voluntarily agreed to accompany us following his shift finished at 8am. As we have reached Nuweraeliya by 7am, we wanted to spend our extra time for something. It was the time to visit Harasbedda mini worlds end but when we reached there surrounding was misty. We have experienced misty weather till we entered Kandapola town where we had our breakfast.

Luckily our doubts were cleared as Nuweraeliya had fairly brighten weather. It proved the norm of unpredictable weather in Nuweraeliya.

This plain is situated few kilometers away from Nuweraeliya city. We have reached the trail head by Supun Ayya’s vehicle. There were some foot pathways going up from trail head. Villagers enter the forest to collect firewood. First it goes through bushes and then entered mountainous forest. First it was an ascend for about 500m and then we walked down to cross a water stream. This mountainous forest is not a difficult section to walk. After passing few ups and downs we have entered this dream plain.

I am not going to reveal exact location of this plain as we don’t want it become another Gawarawila. If someone is clever he would locate it. Just enjoy my pictures.

As usual team except me: Supun (left), Keshan, Nirosh and Prabath (right)

View of Nuweraeliya town. Seems it is getting crowded now.

Journey started…

Rest time…..

Get into wild back….

Foot pathway used by villagers to collect firewood

Wet	First ascend…

Photo time

Looked up…

Reaching the water stream

Crossing the water stream

Foot pathway…

Close up….

It was not hard to walk there

Cloudy forest…

Thickly grown…

Nelu…

Misty…

Nelu

Close up…

Greenish

According to Google map and drone photos it extends for 2-2.5km within mountainous forest. This plain is almost covered with grass which grows about half a feet. Seems it becomes a marshy land in rainy days and act as a sponge to hold rain water. But the day we visited it was almost dry. We have walked towards other side along the plain and noted it has three sections divided by the forest. It was an awesome feeling to walk along this plain with cool breeze. Maharathmal bushes were noted at some places. After walking about another one kilometer through the forest patch we reached the border of a tea estate. It was a nice place to have a look at surrounding. I was able to get good landscape pictures. We have descend along the tea estate using short cuts to reach a mortable road to end up the journey.