April 17, 2025
Cycle day 22 - Ramboda to Nuwara Eliya
Rambodato Nuwara Eliya = 27km (Total distance on this trip so far = 1378km)
Weather= Low of 16 with a high of 20 degrees. No wind today as we are still high up inthe mountains!
Accommodation= Serenity Heights = 7310 rupees ($38.56 AUD)
After yesterdays slog up the hill we had a good nights rest ready for another slog up another hill. We worked out (after I completed the blog last night) that todays hill was definitely a hill that is about 19km long with a downhill into Nuwara Eliya. So it wasn't up and down like I thought the profile meant. No we climbed a lot today and in hindsight we are so glad we didn't try to do the Kandy to Nuwara Eliya in one day – we would not have made it!
The sun was shining this morning on our lovely view
We didn't need to start out early as we didn't want to get to our accommodation too early so we left just before 8am. Not many cars on the road and we got up to the main road and immediately started climbing. No less than 500m down the road we have to do a tunnel.
I am thinking that I need to turn my lights on and put my normal glasses on as that is a really dark tunnel. Neil goes through first while I procrastinate and take a picture of a lovely small waterfall just on the roadside.
Now I don't like tunnels – I don't have a fear of the tunnels itself it is the effin’ idiots that will be in the tunnel with me! I am going to be really sexist here (because I can and this is my blog) but the majority of drivers here in Sri Lanka are actually men and they cannot think and drive at the same time. I kid you not. You can clearly see it in how they approach driving with others on the road, so I really did not want to be in this tunnel at all with anything. There was just no way around it!
I start riding through and it was about 100m long and I get about 2/3 way through and it is just my luck I get a red bus going in the opposite direction to me AND a effin' van driver and whatever else was behind him coming in the same direction as me. Kids in the van are hooting and a hollaring and the driver is honking his horn and I begin to panic so I just let out an almighty scream in the hope that they hear me above all the noise, but at the same time I think – yip I’m gone, squished, dead, it is all over red rover. It is then that I decide that I want to come back as a tuk tuk tyre so I can be in a permanently state flatness for those idiot tuk tuk drivers. Alas the van didn't do what I thought it might do and that is try to overtake me while the bus is oncoming -believe me if we weren't in the tunnel and outside on the hill I think the van would have still over taken me!
Just after the tunnel you get a great view back down the valley where I didn't realise there was a lake there and you can see where our accommodation was last night
During yesterday and today between Neil and I we realise our cycling has been reversed– when Neil and I first got together I was young and inexperienced with cycling while Neil was a very strong cyclist so I would always struggle with hills and I remember in USA Neil would always be waiting for me on the hills or would always be way ahead of me ... well now that is reversed and Neil is now struggling with hills while I am ok with them and are alot stronger going up them. We laugh as we now know how each other must have felt/thought back then!
The first 4km of this 19km hill is the hardest part – it is steeper than yesterday and winding. We stop often when we can so Neil can recover. After 4km the road begins to switchback a bit and I lurve riding switchbacks!
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Yes if you listen closely I am huffing and a puffing a bit! You should listen to the next video as I am riding as I video this one
Now we both agree that since we have been here in Sri Lanka that our lung capacity is really shot at the moment due the excessive car fumes we have to breathe in. Basically I would not be surprised if we have both got the lungs of a smoker at the moment. The next time we hear some twat back in OZ go on like a pork chop about the expense of cars needing to be only using clean fuel I would tell them to come over here where there are no filters or regulations to clean the fuel and see how that person feels after breathing in uncleaned fuel – I am sure they would stop going on like a pork chop!
That photo of that valley and lake I took just after the tunnel well here is that lake again (look between the 2 trees) just a little higher up!
Still climbing and we have a very expensive cuppa tea at some hoighty toighty namby pamby eating place as Neil wanted a longer break. 600 rupees for 2 teas. Normally we only pay 300 rupees at most!
More switchbacks and a wee land slip on the side of the road – the first one since Kandy.
As we climb we can see the mountains around us are all below us and we are running out of mountain to climb .... until you go around the corner and there they all are! The traffic is heavy, alot heavier than we thought it would be but once at Nuwara Eliya we realise why, but more on that later!
Plenty of roadside stalls, selling flowers (offerings to shrines along the way or at Nuwara Eliya) and heaps of produce. I love how they utilise the sides of the hills!
Not long after this photo is taken we pull up and I can see workmen above Neil having their break.
And just around the corner I finally see them picking tea leaves. They are quite a distance so I have to zoom right in with the camera. I did manage to video one picking and please excuse the ‘f’ word that I dropped in the video as a car passes just at the wrong time
Some are picking with both hands and some are using a small sickle type tool.
Not long to go now and you can't see it but I have a wry smile on my face when I see this billboard
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Am surprised I thought you would ride like that with a lovely big freedom smile lol 😂
3 days ago
I bet you she wouldn't be smiling like that if she was where I was as I passed the billboard!
Neil is pedalling alot better now as we know we are nearing the top as we can see the mobile towers are covered in cloud and there are definitely no more mountains ahead of us and this is what we had wanted to see – have no idea what the banner says but we do know that this indicates we are at the top in the aptly named town of Toppass.
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Gosh we were elated to get to the top - 19km and it took us 4 hours (including breaks along the way and alot of them!)
Then the steep down hill in Nuwara Eliya township. Great view as you come down the hill and towards the bottom on the edge of town you can see how both sides of this part of Sri Lanka live – the working class up on the hillside
And on the lowlands all the tea workers and their shanty dwellings
In town it was complete and utter chaos and now we know why there were so many people coming up the hill with us – they were all coming to Nuwara Eliya as there are festivals here still celebrating the Sinhalese and Tamil new year celebrations as well as it is school holidays here – gosh we picked the wrong time to visit here!
There are police directing traffic every where! They have turned certain roads into 1 way roads and at major intersections the police direct you but nothing is orderly and some parts of the road have 2 lanes of vehicles while other parts have 10 vehicles across!
Eventually we get through and alongside Lake Gregory we can see there is chaos out on the water with boats, speed boats and jet skis etc all out there doing exactly what they do on the road – driving in utter chaos.
Relieved we get to our accommodation a little earlier than we should be they were ok with it.
It is a nice room and we have a hot shower, no fan or airconditioner as it is cooler up here as you can see from the screen shot below
Yeah it will be a cool night and even outside now it is cold and the thermals may have to come out of the bottom of the pannier bags!
Below Neil found on some mapping site he uses that analyses our ride today.
Tomorrow is a rest day here.
Today's ride: 27 km (17 miles)
Total: 175 km (109 miles)
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