From the title of this blog you could be mistaken for thinking we’ve spent the last few weeks hauled up in a prison drama: Soap bars are dropped and Big Mama gets his way, hairy knuckles dish out tough love to double-crossing rats and a Rastafarian King Coconut is the don…in the meantime (soap bars aside) and back to reality, a rat ate my shoes! Rats come XL in Sri Lanka and with, it seems, a hunger for ripened footwear. The fashion savvy amongst us will be pleased to hear it was my leather hiking sandals that got the gobble. Ratty obviously had a taste for the finer things as these badgers don’t come cheap. Luckily we shared our disaster, and dependence on their product, with Keen Footwear and they’re generously posting us a new pair. These daily delights are what life on the road is all about, though we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for anymore ravenous rodents from here on.

King Coconuts side kick, the star shelled tortoise

On leaving Jaffna, we were blessed by a stupendous tailwind and floated our way into the town of Mannar.  Back in the 19th Century century, Arab traders flocked here to reap the ripe waters of oysters and their precious pearls. Joining the patchwork of colonial reminders across the land, they left behind their donkeys.  Swarms of them now dot the streets. Their bedraggled coats matching the crumbling facades of this bygone peninsula.

The donkeys have seen better days in Mannar

From here we headed to the sprawling ancient city of Anuradhapura.  Our guidebooks suggested bikes were the best way to see the site, result, and we spent a day taking in the gigantic stupa domes, man-made pools and monastic ruins. A days cycle on and we stumbled across the ‘Sea of King Parakrama’, a gigantic inland reservoir off the radar of our guides.  A dazzling jewel stretching for miles, placid crystal waters and a crown of mountains to keep her secret safe.  These accidental breath-takers are again a big slice of the daily bread and butter of cycle touring, YUM!

Giant stupas at Anadhaphura

Its a monitor take over..

The Sea of King Parakrama

Sigiriya. a hike to the city on the top

Our next stop was Sigirya, another ancient city atop a 200m high rock.  With nothing else around for quite a distance the town at the base is a veritable venus fly trap for tourists.  Elephants taking groups for walks around the park, clothed monkeys on chains for ‘your entertainment’ and cobras being charmed from their basketed nests.  Sometimes it’s hard to swallow the tourist show but we understand it too plays a part in the tapestry for locals and visitors alike.

When the sun’s shining with a cool breeze in your face you can sometimes forget you’re on a tropical island.  As a sparkling reminder, mother nature walloped on the water works and we were guest-house-bound for the following two days. Though warm rain and lighting in the tropics will always beat a damp drizzle on a daily commute in London.

From here it was a few more days cycle skirting the Knuckles mountain range to Kandy, where we’d apply for our Indian visas. Anyone who’s had a taste of this bureaucratic visa experience can vouch for the audacious amount of red tape that awaits.  It makes you realise how lucky you are to live in Europe. Able to pedal from one country to the next without even a sniff of a passport or visa.

Our road around the Knuckles

The days rest in Kandy post were a slice of luxury.  On a whim we’d entered a Travel Tip competition with the Guardian newspaper and won!  A hotels.com voucher was the prize and by the time we left the charming city, two well rested cyclists was the result 🙂

Having circumvented the (hairy) Knuckles it was now our chance to dive in.  They make up one of the least developed regions of the island and with construction kept at bay through designated conservation areas, nature steals the show.  Cycling here was a pleasure though with the dense forest knocking up the humidity to 95%, it was a challenging and moist business in our lycra padded shorts.

Water at every turn in the Knuckles

Due to the building restrictions accomodation was scarce.  Back to our tight budget post the lounge room luxury in Kandy it was a result to stumble across a small village guest house run by a charming couple, Sam and Hansi. For the majority of our stay in Sri Lanka we’ve frequented the local eateries for ‘stack em high, watch em fly’ food, but being so remote we got our first real taste of home cooked goodness. Nature looks after her people here and it’s astounding how much of the vegetation you can eat. From the bark of the cinnamon tree and the heady seeds of the clove to the dripping papayas and the bulbous jag fruits like giant growths on towering trunks.  By far and away the winner in this deluge is the coconut, King Coconut.  It forms the basis of every dish from the sauces to the rotis to the fermented coconut milk pancakes.  It’s leaves are used as thatch for roofs. The husks for scrubbing hands and elephants alike and the meat is brewed into the national rum, Arak. It grows just about everywhere. Undisputedly the islands dietary Don.

Our mountain retreat

It was back to Kandy then for another dance with the red tape to pick up our Indian visas.  From there we had a couple more days peddling, bidding farewell to the highlands before arriving in Negombo. We’ve broken down and boxed the bikes in preparation of meeting Brians sister, Elaine, in the Andaman islands.  And they won’t be out again now until we have the Himalayas in our sights. So it’s plenty of rest and plumping up before our wheels deliver us into the arms of these mystical giants.

We’ll miss these everyday suprises of Sri Lanka

In the edited words of Forest Gump our stay here has been ‘Like a box of chocolates.  You never knew what you were going to get’.  It’s been a privilege to explore the islands nooks and crannies and bask in her treasure trove of wildlife, all with the blessing of enough time to make it possible. Being a small yet fantastically diverse land, it’s made us both ponder our own countries and what sites we’ve yet to discover on home soil.  As in Paulo Coehlos Alchemist, we can sometimes forget what beauties and mysteries lie right under our noses!

Go explore some homegrown bounties and until next time….

Brian and Tommy

xx