Jaffna & Delft Camping with Sodium Scientists

Kasun, Nirmal, and Buwaneka, some of my closest friends from school decided to visit Jaffna for 3 days. I planned the itinerary. They stayed at my home, we hired a van and went around. The highlight, as always, was the camping at Delft.

Delft Island is the furthest island from mainland Sri Lanka, as per its Tamil name: Neduntheevu. It was named Delft by the Dutch, the first European power to control the coastal areas of Sri Lanka. It is a coral island. That is, if you dig the ground, you get corals, not rock. It can be reached from Kurikaatuvan jetty. Tourists hire a jeep and go around for half a day and spend the rest of the day in the beautiful delft beach.

Vegetation is quite sparse, mostly arid area bushes. Fences around houses are built using corals. One of the only two African Baobab trees is present here.

We camped by the Delft beach, right next to the cemetery like last time, since the cemetery had a toilet. I got a bit too minimalistic and brought only one pan. So we had to wash and use the plastic bags as plates. We took all the trash back, as we always do.

First posted on Facebook: