Ken Day's trip to Sri Lanka

Cycling in Sri Lanka

by Ken Day

I went on a two-week cycling holiday in Sri Lanka at the end of November organised by Skedaddle. There were only six of us in the group which was good as far as I was concerned as it minimised the waiting times, but bad for Sri Lankan tourism. The Sri Lanka tourist industry is still suffering badly from the Easter bombings in 2019. Some of our hotels were almost empty, and our cycling guide had not been fully employed and his future work prospects were limited which is tough with a young family.

The tour started and finished at Colombo. Sri Lankan Airways fly direct to Colombo from Heathrow, and you can take a bike as part of your 40 Kg !! baggage allowance. You need a visa which is issued within hours online, and it was free as a promotion to boost tourist numbers. Immigration control at the airport was quick so the ‘getting there hassle’ was minimum.

As the tour brochure said -

Situated off the coast of India, Sri Lanka is an often overlooked gem in the Indian Ocean. An island of beautiful tropical beaches, spectacular scenery and amazing wildlife. Ancient Buddhist temples rub shoulders with landscaped tea plantations and lush tropical forests entice you to explore them.

Our cycling guide was young, fit (too fast at times) and enthusiastic and most days we avoided main roads and took a network of back roads. Road surfaces were very variable mostly surfaced or rideable dirt tracks which were OK on my Schwalbe Marathon 32 mm tyres. We only had a couple of short sections of mud and sand which justified mountain bikes and knobblies as supplied by Skedaddle. These back roads were delightful as we rode through small villages and car traffic was light so we intermingled comfortably with tuk- tuks, motorbikes, tractors, cows, goats, people and peacocks. The peacock is considered as a beautiful and sacred animal; they are quite numerous, and you can hear the piercing calls as you ride along. The more up market villages had tuk-tuks parked in the drives but virtually no cars.

On the main roads the only concern were buses which do not slow up for anybody. The only heavy traffic was near Colombo which is a building site funded by Chinese investment.

The local people were very friendly, and there did not seem to be any extreme poverty as I have often seen in India.

Our hotels were all very acceptable ranging from 5 star modern, to no stars and a bit run down with lots of character. The food was good – dinner and breakfast were generally buffet style with a wide selection of Asian and European dishes.  On this trip Skedaddle mostly arranged lunch at restaurants on route, but we did have a couple of very good meals prepared by the locals – quite impressive as to what can be produced in a tiny kitchen on a wood fire but do not look too closely.

Our route followed the classical Sri Lankan tour circuit and we visited a few temples and saw lots of Buddhas.

Highlights for me were: -

·         Safari to see the elephants of Ritigala National Park. The jeep ride was an adventure in itself as you really did need to hang on over the rutted dirt tracks. The elephants are used to tourists so you can get close to them – good or bad?

·         Safari to Udawalaye National Park. More elephants, water buffalo and lots of birds and peacocks. The baby elephants were star performers.

·         The UNESCO world heritage site of Sigiriya (Lion Rock). An ancient rock fortress that is dominated by a massive 200m high column of rock on which buildings and gardens were constructed. The summit is reached by a narrow walkway that clings to the side of the rock. How did they get all the building material to the top?

·         Spectacular scenery in tea plantation country in the mountains. The hills seemed very steep in places, even with my granny gears, climbing to 2100 metres in Horton Plains National Park (and it was cold). The descents were great.

·         A visit to a tea factory was a trip back in time – don’t look at health and safety as operators were wearing flip flops and operating unguarded heavy machinery in clouds of tea dust.

Our tour finished with a few days at sea level cycling in high humidity and the high 30’s but luckily the mileage between hotels was quite low.

We had quite a few minibus transfers but this was unavoidable, as the distances would have been too great to cycle and would have necessitated cycling on main roads. It was my first time with Skedaddle and the organisation was good and I would use them again.

Author: Paul James