Geoff Jones

Biking from Kirinda to Hambantota via Yala on Lifeday 25,407

A lazy start to the day leaving Wild Tusker Resort just before 8am after having my two fried egg sandwiches and mango juice for breakfast. I came away feeling robbed, I’m sure I paid for my dinner when paying the owner last night. 🙁

I decided to bike to the gates at Yala National Park knowing I would return the same way. It was a pleasant ride thinking myself lucky not to be in one of the viewing 4WD vehicles bombing along. I had a chat with the gatekeepers and felt sure I could have hopped on one of the vehicles entering the park, but couldn’t be bothered so pedalled back and getting rewarded with a good photo of an elephant, it seemed to notice me so I quietly pedalled away.

After Kirinda town I disappeared down meandering country lanes on unbelievably quiet roads, I don’t think I saw any vehicles except for a couple of motorbikes 🙂 No sea views though until I came into the busy town of Hambantota after having another big pot of curd this time with some disgusting honey substitute 🙁 but it was cheap.

I spent time looking around the town and found another Dialog shop so I went in to find out why my SIM still wasn’t working. Turns out yesterdays payment went onto a different number 🙁 and of cause that was just unlucky since I didn’t have a receipt 🙁 Good job the amount was only £2 or so. So today I splashed out £5 to get 8GB day data plus 7GB night data and of course I made her give me a receipt 🙂

By the time I got turned away from entering the docks and finding my way onto the road past all the houses about to be demolished (tp close to the water I think), I decided to call it a day and so I’m now at The Samren Hotel. Which is relatively cheap and cheerful.

Todays 48 mile Strava is here and todays pics are here

Cycling Bandarawela to Kirinda on Lifeday 25,406

A great start to the day, a 5km freewheel down a few hundred meters 🙂 Since it was only 6.40am I even had a touch of white fingers from the cold 🙁 However, going up the hill into Ella soon sorted them out. Ella must be huge in Lonely Planetas it was totally crowded with youngsters and rucksacs 🙂 I had a quick omelette breakfast but soon moved on when the bill came 🙁

The hill then gets pretty steep with me hoping for dear life that the brake cables wouldn’t break since its a vertical drop on the left and a hard rock face the other side. I stopped to photo the monkeys and then joined the throngs taking pics of the waterfall.

All went well with no mishaps. Near Wellaway I saw my first touring cyclists. A couple laden down with gigantic panniers still with white skin so I guess just starting. I waved and continued into town. I saw the Dialog mobile shop who quickly diagnosed my data problem. Apparently you are allowed 1/21 of your data per day with only1/3 of that available between 8am and midnight. No wonder it ran out by 11am :-(.

Once on the flat the heat returned and my necessity for drinking buckets of liquids! A 1litre bottle of pop gone in a few seconds 🙁 On the way I met a couple of budding entrepreneurs selling REAL fruit drinks very skilfully made, no machines or electric required, It now needs a whole network of these setting up, rather than folks trying to sell you a whole water melon!

You can tell I’ve hit tourist main stream with the guys on motor bikes sidling up and offering tours etc etc. Eventually I hid and booked The Wild Tusker a new hotel in the middle of nowhere – A good job I’m used to of road riding. The room is ginormous at 50m2 with 4 doubles and 2 singles, bit weird.

Mohammed cooked a great Indian meal for me but alas no beer.

Tomorrow I start exploring the coast and seeing on how to view the whales etc.

The 69 mile Strava is here and Pics here

Cycling Ramboda to Bandarawela on Lifeday 25,405

Posted on February 15, 2017February 15, 2017

Wow that was a hilly day! well over 6,000 feet of ascent (thats 1.5 times up Ben Nevis).

The day started well and fine, the promised rain stayed away thank goodness. The main climb to 2,017m started straight away 🙁 a 3300 foot climb. The first stop was Blue Field Tea plantation tea room, nowhere near as good as yesterdays

road with culvert — Not a lot of room for me

The road up is a bit of a nightmare with a deep concrete culvert down the left side and even worse a tarmac edge a couple of inches away. This means when the trucks/buses push you out of the way there is no where to go 🙁 particularly true on the left hand hairpin bends 🙁 I made it by judicial stopping if I heard a truck grinding away near by. The way up seems never ending with a big wind undecided as to help or not. The most amazing thing to me was the vast selection of vegetables for sale at the roadside.

The top was pretty cold (for here anyway) so I didn’t hang about dropping down to Nuwara Eliya which the English tried to make look like Surrey with it’s race course, boating lake and huge houses. I stopped to try and top up my dongle 7GB for 80 rupees (although it stopped working tonight so maybe it was only a few MB 🙁 ) and get some lunch. I found the place really cold so decided to keep on going down.

Fantastic ride down with many steep ups as well, the road was newly made, possibly due to landslides in the past, and a joy to go on. I stopped at Uva Haputale I saw another tea factory, alas not open but next door was a cafe 🙂 amazingly his tea was Lipton tea bags, he couldnt understand why anyone would want the teas from next door 🙁 I guess it’s asocialist country.

I was beginning o panic a bit going through ever small hamlets with no hotels in site. Eventually I made it to Bandarawela and after some trouble found The Mountains Edge Inn although trying to get the lady to understand was another story!

The whole day was really enjoyable and the scenery is just staggeringly beautiful 🙂

The Strava is here and the pictures here

Biking Kandy to Ramboda on LifeDay 25,404

A bit later start this morning as Benjamin’s mum had made breakfast for us plus I helped him fix his bike so he is mobile again. my first WarmShowers stay although I have hosted 3 couples back in Cambridge.

Bad news was that Three send me a text to say I had used 80% of my monthly roaming allowance in 13 days 🙁 plus I’ve also used up all the data I bought from Hutch on my dongle. So navigation today was just on the Etrex20, which I must say works really well, as long as you download the route into the NAV folder before setting off.

From the house it’s downhill all the way to the university and then on pleasant side roads to the A5, I would imagine it was quiet due to the 25% hill which is probably to much for the trucks & buses 🙂

The A5 was busy and hilly 🙁 I stopped at a roadside vendor selling the very attractive Raputan red spiky fruit. I bought 5 from him, very delicious. Continuing on I came across the Storefield Tea Factory. After a cuppa of breakfast tea the guide then gave me a whistle stop tour of the old dryers, crushers, sieves and a quick explanation of all the names etc. Amusing to see the dust destined for tea bags and local consumption. Now I was ‘expert’ i ordered up a Golden Tea – delicious 🙂 This where you need a follow up van so you can buy stuff.

The hill then started big time so an ice cream was called for! The scenery is amazing with the mountains and green tea bushes in serried ranks as far as the eye can see. I fancied another cuppa and followed the sign but alas it was just a very rough track leading to the office and school for the workers kids etc all very colonial 🙂

Rain showers starting to occur more frequently so I stopped of at the Thuruliya Lodge to have a drink and admire the spectacular value I had just ridden up. The rain got worse so I took one of their rooms and called it a day after 33 miles and 3000 feet of climbing

The Photos are here and Strava here

The forecast looks awful for the next few days and it’s still hammering it down causing the electric to periodically die. Tomorrows ride takes me up to 2000 metres.