Camping Trip to Deanston

Year and Month	May, 2015
Number of Days	Three Day Trip
Crew	5 (between 26-39 years of age)
Accommodation	Camping
Transport	By Car
Activities	Hiking, Photography and Relaxing.
Weather	Sunny in the morning. Misty in the evening. Rain in last day afternoon.
Route	Colombo -> Kandy -> Hunnasgiriya -> Deanston and return in same route
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Not necessary to carry water, there are water streams, but better to carry empty water bottle to fill it, since at higher altitude there were no water sources. Be prepared for leaches attack Do not carry Plastic items, Make sure you bring back everything you took
Related Resources	Attraction: Knuckles South – Deanston, Corbett’s Gap & Traditional Villages Trail Guide: Dothalugala Nature Trail – Knuckles Range Contact Numbers of Forest Department and Wildlife Deparment for Reservations
Author	Sanketha
Comments	Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread Camping Trip to Deanston

Last October I made a visit to Deanston with my family and Harinda’s family.

When I saw the campsite I thought I should do a camping there some day. In month of May this year we are having long weekend and I thought of doing a leisure hike with some of my friends. They are Hiruna, Chaturanga, Damith and Jayaruwan. Many Places came to our mind when deciding on a place. But ultimately Deanston came to my mind. I booked the campsite in advance from Forest Department on May 3rd and 4th.

We started the journey on May 3rd around 4 AM. At around 11 AM we were able to reach Hunnasgiriya. On the way at Mawanella we had our breakfast. It took more than half an hour to reach last 8 Km since the road is in bad condition. But we are able to tackle it with high ground clearance car. We showed our pass to officer in Deanston and directly heading to campsite which is about 2 KM away with our backpacks, tents and gas-cooker. About an hour we were in Campsite. First thing we did is fixed our tents. We brought 2 tents; 4 man-tent and 3 man-tent.

View from campsite

Resting at campsite

Tents are ready

After lunch we started hiking Dothalugala trail around 2PM. Daothalugala trail is about 5km and path is well maintained by forest department. . Actual trail didn’t go to the top. But to add more adventure to our hike we thought of hike the Dothalugala peak. Around 2.5km marked on the trail, we deviate from main trail and climbed up. Climb is not that easy with undergrowth, but we were able to reach an open space and took some pictures. This is not the peak; therefore we climbed again through the bushes while marking the path on trees. We came to another open space where peak is clearly seen very close by from here. Also we can see both sides. But because of the mist we have to wait some time to get a clear view. After some break we descend to the place we start the detour. After that we finished the Dothalugala tail around 4.30PM. Next thing we did after returning to camp side is cool dip in the natural pool very close to camp site.

Dothalugala trail head

Capturing the beauty

Resting

On the way scenery

Can you identify?

Path is well maintained

Landside

View through landslide

View from 1st clear area

View from 2nd clear area

Dolathugala trail truning point

View from there

View on the way back

Posing

Back to camp site

Waterfall near campsite

Natural pool where we bath

Next we quickly made our dinner. We prepared dhal, carrot sambal and rice. After heavy dinner we went to sleep early. Next day morning we get up early to capture the sunrise.

Early morning view from camp site

Sunrise

Second day plan is to walk to Cobert’s gap and return. Total distance is nearly 30Km. We started the walk around 9AM and able to reach there at 12PM. On the way last 2km we get a lift from a lorry. We had biscuits with chees for lunch. There we enjoyed the beauty about an hour. We collect the waste put by others into a garbage bag and give it to a jeep to hand it over to KCC.

Path from campsite

Beauty

Under the shades

Kobonilla

Water steams on the way

At Cobert’s gap

Information board – Click Image to Enlarge

Can you identify knuckles peaks

Road to Meemure

Before cleanup

After cleanup

We turned back around 1PM and started to descend. Suddenly it was raining. While wetting on the rain and enjoying it we were able to come to our campsite around 4:30PM.

Then we had a bath from near natural pool and prepared dinner; Rice with dhal curry, Soya curry and Potato curry. We spent some time at the camp fire made by one of our member Damith and spend an hour under the stars and went to sleep.

Next day early morning we get up around 4AM. Since it was a weask day we saw the bright full moon and took some photos. Also we were able to capture the nice sun rise. After packing our stuff and cleaning the camp site we leave around 10 AM. 11AM we left Deanston and had lunch at Peradeniya. We were able to return home around 6PM.