Hortons plain National park.

The worlds end look out.

It was an early 0500 hours start from  the hotel in Nuwara Eliya, a chilly town in the highlands, towards the Hortons plain Nationalpark. An even chillier plateauarea higher up.  We drove trough pretty farmlands with tea and vegetables for quite some time before starting the steep climb towards the Hortons Plain.

Stopping having a look at the pyramide shaped Adams peak in the background.  I was glad i was not going to climb it that morning!

Almost at the plain-looking back. The farmland give way to dense forest.

I shared the jeep with a lovely South african couple.

The locals didn't really care.

There are established and mandatory trails in the park-forming one big and one smaller circuit. We all went for the grand tour taking a few hours. To begin with we set up a little speed-the time factor is critical, one have to beat the clouds starting to roll up from the lowland quite early, obstructing the view. Easpecially in the rainy season this is an issue-and one might not get any view at all during that time.

Trailside flowerbeauty.

Finally we get the worlds end cliff in sight. We are going to beat the clouds and mist and will get a great view.

The cliff is the end of the road-from here the landscape fall down to the lowlands.

The junglefowl. A chicken basically. Nevertheless-it is Sri lankas nationalbird.

This cutie rest just outside the visitor center.

Muine-colourfull sands and fisherfolks.

Mui ne is not the place i normally would go to. It is a resort town-a true touristhole. Here one see more Russians than Vietnamese, and my dinner was followed by Russian popmusic over a Russian lingo menu. My reason for going here was colour. In the form of sand and soil. Mui ne has some pretty spots surrounding it.

Fairy spring was my first point of visit. It is a shallow, warm stream flooding trough a landscape of red and white soil cliffs, creating a beautiful and striking visual image. Going barefoot is perfect. and money saving. The locals charge 5000 dongs for those wearing shoes. Barefoot is for free.

And whereever it is possible to put up a souvenir stand-there is one! Minimum one!

On my way to the white or golden sanddune 35 kilometers from Mui ne. Or at least from the nearest end of town-it stretches for many kilometers. Its colour reference varies. But so do the colour during the day.

Almost at the golden sanddune.

Which soon became more red whitish as the sun went down.

Stripes in the sand.

Like a mini Sahara. it is a pretty spot-the sad ting is the many vehicles driving around-creating noise and filling the area with wheeltracks. You must walk for your photos if you want them clean!

0530 in the morning. Sunrise as seen from the red sanddune.

The sand at sunrise......

And 20 minutes after sunrise. A deeper red emerges.

Sunrise strips. I love these sandpatterns!

Outside tourist Mui ne is a large fishing village. The anchorage.

Today's catch at the market.

The smell left no doubt about what is produced here:fishsauce!

The Seljalandsfoss

Thundering water beats the pool.

One thing Iceland has enough of, is waterfalls. Spectacular waterfalls. Pretty waterfalls. I had a lot of miserable weather in Iceland, but at the Seljalandsfoss in the south east i was greeted with a sun. Creating rainbows in the water droplets thrown away from the riverbody after the fall from above.

The frontal view of the Seljalandsfoss. Foss means waterfall. It is close to (and visible from) the ringroad, meaning easy access and at times way to many visitors.

The extra surprise of the Seljalandsfoss-a trail going behind the waterfall itself.

Looking up. The fall is 60 meters tall and fall down what used to be the coastline. Now the coast in the imminent area is flat.

Most of the coast on this part of Iceland is now flat-so there has been a major shift!

A pretty and easy walk along the cliff brings you pass a couple of more waterfalls. This one, the Gljufurarfoss, being the most remarkable. It has cut itself a little canyon-it is almost like a tube. It is a fun experience to walk into it-but a wet one! And despite the proximity to the Seljalandsfoss, only a fraction of the visitors continue to this waterfall.

A section of the top of the Gljufurfoss. The water caressing a stone before letting go. There is a trail-vague in places and obviously steep in places-leading to the top.