Balm to the soul

One writer, one photographer, one camera and all of nature in your face, up close and personal

by Aditha Dissanayake

After standing for two hours on top of the Horton Plains, waiting for the mist to clear, it becomes all too clear to my colleague Thilak and me, that the mystic beauty of the Plains lies in its light.

Surely, the light here, perhaps due to the mist, is like no other light found anywhere else in the world. Picturesque as the vast solitude of the barren plains is, the broad shouldered mountains cloaked with dense woods of pine, the wavering flames of grass, the small white clusters of flowers, the moment you try to photograph it, or transform it into words it turns into the ordinary.

Hills. Trees. Grass. Flowers. Put the camera, pen and note book aside, however, and the landscape begins to glow like a painting hanging at the Lionel Wendt.

Listening to the wind in the trees, shivering with cold which has nothing to do with air conditioning and feeling an immense sense of space in the knowledge there is no high rising blocks of concrete, smoke spewing factories and blocked traffic for miles around it occurs to me that one word might describe the charms of the Horton Plains - bliss.

Bliss though, which might not last for more than another decade or two. For, everything on Horton Plains is fast becoming extinct. Does this mean we should keep away? No, because the point is clear. We can protect this landscape only to the extent of how much we know about it. In other words, to save the Horton Plains, take a hike.

The cold seems almost visible	A happy couple
Broad shouldered mountains	The last shot, adieu, Horton Plains
Finally, the view from the top	August blossoms
An immense sense of space	Waiting for the mist to clear
The long walk to the top
“Be quick, I have not got the whole day”	“Looking for me?”
Pix by Thilak Perera