Geoff Jones

Anuradhapura to Trincomalee biking on lifeday 25,399

Posted on February 9, 2017

Once again I left early without breakfast, it seems so much better than wasting time in the coolest part of the day. Amazing to see all the school girls dressed in pure white dresses from infants to seniors. Must be a nightmare for washing.

Once out of town the road wasn’t busy except for the usual nutters driving the buses. Pedestrians are another problem, they just wander across the road without looking then sweetly smile when you 🙂 I also had a couple of dog attacks today, two were beginners and came side on – a good yell sent them away. The more experienced came up from behind 🙁 but my long metal pump did the trick there 🙂

No nice posh eateries out this way but one shack was selling something like spicy scotch eggs but without the meat, quite yummy. Other ones had melon and coconuts etc so lots of fresh stuff today. My microbiome is doing well 🙂

Another thing which I’ve discovered is the joy of listening to podcasts such as the Food Programme, On our line etc etc. Really interesting and they play well on my JBL Clip 2 , unless the loud buses & trucks are passing 🙁

I was getting a bit tired and thee road very busy at the end. Amazing how 99% of traffic is generated in the city. It only seems to need a small amount of headwind to slow me down.

I turned of the busy road asap and stopped right outside Orr’s Hill Guest House, they had a room for 3,500 so here I am. A friendly helpful place, they cooked a great meal tonight and even went into town to buy a couple of beers for me 🙂

After a nap I took myself of to Fredericks Fort, a bit disappointing but a good ride with some 25% hills 🙂 The whole town is a garrison with barracks everywhere.

The main Strava is here

Pictures are here

Kilinochchi to Anuradhapura Lifeday

This place was a first for me. The guy on reception bought a cup of tea to my room OK it was totally disgusting but its the thought that counts 🙂

I made a very early start at before 7am by dispensing with breakfast and hitting the road before peak sun. I was pretty certain food would be easily available en-route. It was a busy fast road with mainly a painted cycle lane so I bombed along 🙂 using the draught from the buses as power. I even saw a peloton going the other way – with a land rover as a safety vehicle! Maybe SWNC should get one 🙂

Amazingly I found a de-luxe roadside restaurant complex for breakfast with a lovely mango fruit smoothie.

cyclists with huge tall wood — Backpacking on a pike

I continued on at speed until I saw these two guys carrying unbelievably high loads of firewood on their old bikes. Totally amazing and they made it seem so stable even with trucks passing them 🙂

The stretch between Medawachchiya and Rambewa was particularly bad with very heavy traffic and the road narrowed due to the edge breaking away reducing the width. Scary in the extreme.

I arrived in Anurradhapura OK and found The Senowin Holiday Resort, once again Resort is in the phase “last resort” rather in any positive sense. She insisted that AC would double the price as the booking.com was for a non AC room 🙁 I agreed. Then I found the WiFi was rubbish.

My Marco Polo guide said I should see the Mirisawatiya Stupa constructed in 200BC (what where we building in the UK then?) so off I pedalled around the complex until a policeman asked me for my ticket, I shrugged my shoulders and he escorted me away. Just wasn’t worth paying $25 30 minutes before sunset 🙁

Trying to get a meal in the evening was hard I could only find one restaurant open. Weird in a tourist mecca like this.

A pretty impressive day with Strava saying I did over 84 miles at nearly 13mph 🙂

The pictures are here

Jaffna to Kilinochchi via Point Pedro on Lifeday 25,397

Posted on February 8, 2017

Today was a feast of Hindu Temples and seeing the mindless destruction of the civil war coupled to a visit of Sri Lanka’s northern most point.

I didn’t leave Old Park Villa until well after 8am due to the dilatory nature of the staff. I don’t think they are used to folks wanting to dash off. Amazingly the route I had planned took me straight past the stunning Nallur Kandawamy Kovil, so impressive I stopped and went inside after been made to take shirt and shoes off!

Once leaving I spied a ice cream parlour – yummy yummy huge bowl of ice cream to keep me going for the day 🙂

The route then took me past at least 10 more temples plus some pleasant fishing villages some still with tsunami damage others blown up in the war! I suspect there will be aland grab going on soon for all the empty plots overlooking the ocean, I eventually made it to the northern most part of Sri Lanka, Point Pedro. Did my selfie then moved on as not a lot there.

I started heading south the wanton destruction everywhere, whole villages blown up and flattened. I came across the HALO mine clearance encampment, what a job! they’ve cleared tens of thousands of them but still 100s of thousands more. Staggering. Apparentlt it was like WW1 with trenches, barbed wire everywhere.

I made it to Kilinochchi and stayed at the first hotel AKR basic but OK. Walking through the town later I came across the blown up water tower, now a memorial, one of the last acts before the town was taken by the south. It reminded me of my Danube trip and Vukovar shot up water tower left as a memorial.

A bigger shock then came in that the town is a dry one 🙁

Days Strava is here

The days pics are here

Puttalam to Jaffna biking on LifeDay 25,396

The Juli Hotel managed breakfast OK although my coffee was tea and arrived just as we were finishing. Reception, or lack of it, caused a huge delay. I was just thinking of doing a bunk when Ashoka the naturalist/birder guide appeared. He immediately rang them up and a guy dutifully appeared 5 mins later 🙁 The hotel still has a lot to learn in western customer service!

A small plug here for Ashoka Jaarathne, Eco tour Operator. If any of my twitcher readers fancy a trip out here to watch the birds etc I would recommend him. Very knowledgable and speaks good English.

I felt really tired, probably the jet lag catching up, so ended up stopping for numerous drinks. A big difference to Cuba is that there are shacks selling junk food/pop every few miles mostly with fridges 🙂 A 300ml bottle of Coke is 50 Rupees (£0.27).

The road is in perfect condition except for a few places where obviously the bridges got destroyed in the war, this and a few burnt out buildings is all that you can see of that terrible time. I must have passed at least 10 army barracks as well.

It’s very flat and reminds me of Titchwell RSPB, although they would die for the birdlife here 🙂 The causeway over to Jaffna is stunning even with an ice cream van at the end.

I haven’t really explored Jaffna yet as I discovered the Old Park Villa for a very reasonable price on the way in!

Really, in the end, an excellent day and I so love biking on smooth empty roads in shorts & sandals. I truly am insanely lucky to still be able to do it easily at 69.531119 years old 🙂

Todays pics are here

The 73 mile Strava is here