Ratnapura → Bomburu Ella → Nuwara Eliya → Horton Plains → Ratnapura
Day 1 · Ratnapura to the villa. Out of Ratnapura at 5, the long way round through Balangoda and Welimada. That routing is the whole point: it puts Bomburu Ella on your path instead of making it a detour. You climb 1 800 m today. Check in before dark, then walk down to Gregory.
Every bag is searched. No polythene, no plastic bottles, no wrappers. Decant water into steel or reusable bottles the night before or you will be unpacking on the roadside at 06:00.
It is 5–10 °C at the gate at 06:00 and windy at World's End. Ten people, ten jackets. Nobody enjoys a three-hour loop shivering.
The access road is narrow with nowhere to turn around. Park low and walk up, or split into tuks from town.
About 2 km uphill from the parking area, rocky in sections. Not for anyone with a bad knee.
Stations thin out once you are on the hill roads, and Day 2 ends with a long empty stretch.
That is the road to Horton Plains. Not the Ohiya road — it is rough and steep for a loaded van.
Drop Bambarakanda. It saves about 1.5 hours and puts you at the villa well before dark.
Exit Horton Plains via Ohiya toward Haputale. Faster home, but you give up Lover's Leap.
It closes at 16:00 and Day 1 gets in around 17:00. It would need a third day.
Distances and times are estimates for a van on hill roads, not turn-by-turn routing. Altitudes are approximate. The route lines on the map are sketched between towns — use the Google Maps links for real navigation. Signal drops between Welimada and Pattipola; this page keeps working, the map tiles do not.