Horton Plains sits between 2,100 and 2,300 metres – high enough for ground frost in February and a mean temperature of just 13 degrees. The 9-kilometre loop crosses open grassland and stunted cloud forest to World’s End, where the plateau stops dead above an 870-metre drop and, on a clear early morning, the view runs to the southern coast. This high plateau is also the source of three of Sri Lanka’s great rivers – the Mahaweli, the Kelani and the Walawe. The return passes Baker’s Falls, named after Sir Samuel Baker, the Victorian explorer who lived in the hills near Nuwara Eliya before his African expeditions. Plastic is banned inside the park after sambar deer died eating litter, so bags are checked at the gate.