A Quick Guide to Camping in Horton Plains

The idea behind this post is to offer a quick insight into the 3 campsites in Horton Plains. We had camped out on campsites 1 and 2 in the past several years, but this year when we wanted to camp out on site 3, we weren't able to find any detailed comparisons on all three sites. So as I have been able to camp out on all 3 sites thought of drafting this breif post on the 3 campsites in Horton Plains.

To put things in perspective this is the latest update from January 2014.

Booking the Campsites

You would have to visit the Wild Life Department Office in Battaramulla to make a reservation to any of these campsites. It would cost you LKR 2500 per day, and you could accommodate upto 10 people. If you are travelling by a vehicle they will charge you a vehicle fee at the park entrance which would be around LKR 280.

Wildlife Offce Contact Number - 0112888585

Getting There

If you are travelling through public transport, its advised to take the Fort-Badulla train and get off at Pattipola or Ohiya stations, from there its a ascending hike of around 9kms, but if you are taking a TukTuk it will cost around LKR 1500-2000, which is worth-it if you are carrying lot of camping gear.

A rough map of the 3 campsites in Horton Plains

Horton Plains Campsite 01

This is the closest campsite to the Wildlife Conservation Office. This is my favorite camping site out of all 3. If you are camping for the first time I would recommend to book this. It doesn't have much space to camp out, but has easy access to constantly running stream of water, which will make your life much easier. It is also completly sealed off from the public eye, giving you much privacy.

The campsite is located on a small island like strip of land with water on three sides.

Getting there - below is the campsite 1

Best thing about campsite 1, a great flowing stream just next to your site.

campsite 1, its covered by the stream from all other 3 sides.

Horton Plains Campsite 02

You could camp here if all other options are out. This campsite is located just across the hiking path to World's End, so you will have visitors passing by your campsite during the daytime. So you will not have much privacy unless you are inside the tent. However, this campsite is located closer to the Chimney Pool, which is a great place to have a wash and a bath.

But I would recommend to avoid this if possible as this doesn't have much privacy and on a weekend the path would get really busy with visitors.But if privacy is not a concern it is a great place to camp as it has easy access to running water.

campsite 2 - Water Bund at campsite 2 (other than privacy, its a great place to camp)

Horton Plains Campsite 03

This campsite is located between campsites 1 and 2, and has a lot of space to setup your tent. However, the only downfall here is that you would have to walk around 100 meters along the water stream to get to a decent place to have a wash, as water just in-front are stagnant and  harder to access.

Since its not covered by larger mountains like on campsite 1, it has a great view at night and in the morning.

Campsite 3 is seen ahead, this is from the path to campsite 1 which is to the right

Campsite 3 is seen ahead- the picture is taken from where you can get access to running water, so you would have to walk a bit to have a good wash

General Tips 

• All campsites are located within around 500ms from the Horton Plains Wildlife Centre and all sites consist of a permanent toilet (squatting) and garbage disposal facilities.

•  If you have a lot of equipment to carry its best to get there before afternoon so you can setup your camp and be prepared for any weather changes.

• No plastics or polythene is allowed within the park, the officers at the gate would check your bags occasionally but are not that strict, in any case if you bring any plastics please make sure to dispose them accordingly at the garbage pit at the site, don't leave them scattered in the campsite.

• Nights in Horton Plains will get really cold, so make sure that you take enough warm clothes including socks and warm gloves if possible.

• Make sure to take a raincoat, as it rains often, you would at least get caught in a small drizzle.

• You are not allowed to make campfires, but the officers would not come to check on it at night but it its advised to take a gas-cooker to cook food ( with smaller gas cyclinder) as it is harder to make fires with the constant mist and rain.

If you are further looking for some solid advise on camping, traveling and sightseeing across Sri Lanka the best place I would recommend the awesome travel community Lakdasun (lakdasun.org). It has a massive load of trip reports and a helpful forum where you can get loads of information. We managed to speak to one of its founding members, Mithila years ago, and you can check out that video on Idea Pettiya.

Special Thanks to Kelum, Varuna, Thinu & Thisara for the pics from our trips through the past few years.

Happy Camping Everyone!

Idea Pettiya E02 - Mithila Somasiri from Lakdasun.org

In this episode of Idea Pettiya we were able to have a brief chat with Mithila Somasiri who is one of the major contributors and founding memebers of Sri Lankan nature and travel site Lakdasun.org

The website is a thriving virtual community of people who share similar interests in travel and exploring Sri Lankan nature and wildlife. The website has now become a great destination for users to obtain free information about places to explore, get advise and share their own travel experiences. The website contains highly detailed trip reports, information about attractions and amazing trekking routes in the heart of Sri Lanka. Their ever active forum has become a  great place to seek advise and share information.

We spoke to Mithila about his inspiration behind the website and his thoughts about conservation of Sri Lankan wildlife.

You could visit Lakdasun for more information at :http://www.lakdasun.org/

Hiking to Lipton Seat in Haputale

Well, last weekend we hitched a ride to Haputale. The train was already booked for the weekend so we decided to head there by bus. One of my friend'stold me about the "Super Line" bus which actually offers a very comfortable night transportation between Colombo and Badulla.

After some Googling we came up with this very informative post on Lakdasun forum on how to reserve seats on the Colombo Badulla Super Line bus. The ride itself was really good, the bus unlike other AC buses had enough leg space and the reclining seats provided a comfortable sleep during the journey. Our visit to Haputale was in fact to take a hike to the much famous Lipton Seat which is said to be used by Sir Thomas Lipton as favorite look out post during the his visits to British Ceylon. On a clear day you could see 5 provinces in Sri Lanka and the view from there is magnificent.

We reached Haputale Town at 4.00am on Saturday morning, after chilling out at SriLakView rest (which we had booked before arriving) we began our journey to Lipton Seat at around 10.00am. Lipton Seat is located a bit off the Haputale Town so if you are going to take a hike you very much need to take the bus from Haputale to Dambetenna Tea Factory which takes around 40mins.



From Dambetenna Factory  there is a long hike which would take up around 3.5 hours. If in fact if you have a vehicle the journey is quite fast where you could get to the place itself in the vehicle.But we of course opted to take a hike to the place and thought of cutting across the long winding roads by making our way through the tea plantations.Though the hike was tiring the view leading up to the place was magnificent and its worth every effort. After exhausted few hours we were able to reach Lipton's Seat, there was a small Shop run by an old couple who served us some awesome tea and biscuits.

We relaxed and spent several hours in the place, and started our way back through the tea plantations as the sun started to set. We heard that the sun set from the top was really amazing but we had to rush back as we needed to catch the last bus from Dambetenna to Haputale. There are some video compilations  captured from the hike...



I've located Lipton Seat on Google Maps, you could access it from the following link. On Google Maps swith to Satellite(Earth) to get a better 3d view of the place...

http://bit.ly/LiptonSeat

  

Paraliya Turtle Farm - A Reminiscent of Dec 26th Tsunami

Just several weeks back, I met up with a few old friends and we hitched a ride to Hikkaduwa. On our way back we thought of stopping by at one of the Turtle Hatcheries near Paraliya, just close by where the horrifying tsunami engulfed a train full of passengers.

We went inside the small place, there were around four water tanks which housed few turtles, its owner Nimal guided us through various types of turtles that are there and how hes managing the whole project with donations from visitors. Running a Turtle Hatchery is no easy task, according to him he spends around Rs 30,000 monthly just to buy fish for the turtles that are being kept. He buys turtle eggs from locals who often sell the eggs as a local delicacy.

"Sam the beautiful Green Turtle"

"The eggs need to be brought back immediately after they are dug up otherwise it would be useless and would not hatch". He explained in sinhala showing us a bag full of eggs that he has bought in the morning which he cannot use as they have been kept much longer than they are supposed to.

What was more moving was his story around the Turtle Hatchery. Before 26th December 2004 he was an AC Technician working in Colombo and the fateful day turned his life upside down. The tsunami took away his mother,two sisters, wife and three small children. He returned from Colombo to find out that everything he had including his family, house and the hatchery (which was run by his sister) had washed away to the sea.

Many foreigners and several organizations helped him in rebuilding the hatchery and there are few turtles named after several foreigners who have made contributions. He explains that his knowledge in these turtles are not profound as his sister who was even fluent in two more languages, but showing care and compassion to these animals have helped him much in recovering.

Even now hes having difficulty in maintaining the hatchery as he is not receiving many visitors to the place. If you happen to drive pass Paraliya try to stop by this small hatchery and make a contribution, he also welcomes any efforts in helping him out in cleaning the place out. If you are a student organisation or a group willing to contribute some time and effort in conservation projects you could help Nimal out with his work.

"Lets save more of these cute fellas.."

You can find more information aobut the Paraliya Turtle Farm from here
http://www.srilankaturtles.com/conmain/home.html

or contact him from this number
94 777 292738

The Circle of Life....

Just finished watching the BBC Documentary Earth....

It takes you through an amazing story on survival...How a Polar Bear mother tries to survive with her two cubs, how an elephant mother protects her calf through a journey through the Kalahari, and how in sometimes those who try to survive fail in thier efforts...

The movie reminds us how this wonderful place called Earth is slowly becoming a victim of one of its own residents, the humans. Eating into the delcate balance of the eco-system our actions are killing those who are sharing this home, one by one. It delivers a strong message reminding us how precious this small planet is....

With breathtaking video footage from freezing cold glaziers in the Arctics to lush tropical forests in the South America it is something that is worthy for anyone to have a look.

One particular segment of the movie just left me astounded. A bitter truth which we all sometimes forget in our comfortable office desks and unhindered lives.... Try to get hold of the movie if you haven't already...