April 19, 2025
Cycle day 23- Nuwara Eliya to Kitulgala
Nuwara Eliya to Kitulgala = 74km (Total distance on this trip so far = 1452km)
Weather = Low of 16 with a high of 30 degrees. A cool last night in Nuwara Eliya and today as we descended and came down to the lower levels the temperature was about 10 degrees warmer! So we are back to our hot sweaty weather!
Accommodation = 38 Guesthouse = 2800 rupees ($14.67 AUD)
We were up early this morning. It was nice and cool but still ok for just a shirt and shorts for cycling. The hosts wife made us a takeaway breakfast for us to have later on down the road. We wanted to get away early to have a quiet first few hours on the road before the traffic became too busy during the descent.
We farewelled our lovely hosts and we were off and it was the usual bright sunny morning (it clouds over just after lunch and that is when the temperature drops again!) Riding out to our A7 turnoff there is hardly anyone about compared to the past few days. I look up to my left and see some lovely new places being built on the hillside!
As soon as you turn off onto the A7 you start gradually going down hill. You are gently winding your way down pass all the small villages and tea plantations then you start climbing again
It is not steep climbing and looking at todays profile we do have some climbing to do but not as much as the down hills we will be getting. In hindsight I can safely say at least 50km of todays 74km is downhill while about 22km is riding up hill with most being gentle long climbs usually once you ride through a town. But most of the warning signs about steep grades and to be carefull are for the down hill parts
We pull over at a bus stop about an hour into the ride to have our breakfast. They packed us 2 sandwiches with an omelette, onion and tomato in each, a potato samamosa each and a banana each as well as a small fruit flavoured milk carton and a small water! So we ate the 2 warm sandwiches and samamosa and left the banana for further down and the flavoured milk for the end of the ride (now that as delicious to drink!)
While sitting in the bus stop there are not alot cars going either way but we did hear what we call a sardine can coming up the hill
It is one of the tiny micro cars and it was going marginally faster than what we would ride up a hill at!
So between Nuwara Eliya and Hatton (40km along) it is mostly down but you do ride some small up hills.
Traffic is very light for the first 2 hours and as we got closer to Hatton the traffic leaving Nuwara Eliya caught up to us and also the traffic going into Nuwara Eliya is beginning to become continuous.
It is lovely riding through here. We are on the wrong side of the road to appreciate the valleys below.
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The A7 up to Hatton is in quite good condition and has a shoulder for most of it so it is easy to pull over for a break or take a photo. There is alot of descending and some of the hills down are about 8-10km long.
At the town of Talawakelle there is a river
From there there is a long climb out of town with the odd steep spot every now and then. Between here and the next town you pass the Castle Tea plantation
And end up going through a short tunnel
As you pass through these towns their signs tell you how far above sea level we are. So we started the days ride at just under 2000m above sea level, but the time we got to Kotagala we had dropped 700m
It is here at Kotagala that I think we saw this colourful hotel
And then we are at Hatton
Slowly we are dropping! A great down hill into Hatton but unfortunately another long gradual climb out of it. The temperature is starting to get really warm now as we are getting lower and the traffic is heavy both ways.
We are finding that traffic coming up the hill are over taking each other while we are there so once or twice we have had to stop so all 3 of us are not across the road at the same time. What we do notice is once you leave Hatton is the A7 goes to shit, it becomes more narrow, the middle line is gone (so since most of the drivers are men they tend to not be able to judge just how wide their lane would be and tend to drive up the middle of the road!) and there is no shoulder and to pull of the road is at least a 15cm sudden drop if there isn't the drain, in that case it is a 50-75cm drop!
Not far off the Carolina tea factory we see a passenger train and we think it is going from Colombo to Hatton to Nuwara Eliya and then onto Badulla. It is 10 carriages long
Passing the Caroline tea factory at the top of a wee hill
Just a little further on we can hear music and see parked cars on the road so we pull up and the village of the tea plantation is about to have a cricket match. There was just a welcome dance being down by a few young girls and women before the game starts. I think the other team was Watawala.
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Once pass the local cricket match we are just going down hill alot and the scenery is magnificent but it is not safe to pull over and take a photo, there is just nowhere safe to do so, the sides of the roads are not level or wide. So I just point and shoot as I ride!
There seems to be no more up hill for us and alot of down hill, so much that the hands start to ache from holding the brake levers. It is not safe for us to going any faster than 20km per hour as it is winding and the traffic wants to be risky when over taking you so you have to cling to the side of the road. It is fine riding down and it is a good pace. The vehicles can't go much faster than us anyway as it is too winding for them and they cannot cut corners, as much as they would like to due to the oncoming traffic. Which are really slow as their up hill can be steep at times!
Just when I think that is it for the down hill we get to the town of Ginigathhena and it is still 650km above sea level so we still do have more descending!
Some poor car owner is not a happy chappy in Ginigathhena!
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We even passed a tuk tuk going down with us that was checking the temperature of its brakes as like us we are all riding our brakes while going down hill, I would imagine ours would be running hot like theirs but we are ok – they still work fine because they are hydraulic disc brakes.
About 5km past Ginigathhena we stop for a tea break – yeah milk tea with 2 tsp of sugar (gosh we are going to have to kick that habit when we get back! – the 2 sugars that is!
We are about 10km away from our accomodation and for the most part we are descending with the last few kilometers following a river so it is a wee bit up and down, not long ups and downs but short ones. We are surprisingly tired at this point and definitely hot and are looking forward to our cold shower.
This river seems to be very popular for water rafting as we see alot of places offering it. We see the town sign and see we are only 50m above sea level!
We find our accommodation and for $15 we don't expect much but this was all there was unless one of us sells a kidney and we stay at one of the resorts. The one I wanted to stay at was all booked out like alot of the accommodation is for this week/weekend. It doesn't matter as it is only one night and although there is no ceiling fan or airconditioner the host gets us a fan on a stand and that can sit at the end of the bed and just gently blow on us all night and that should be enough to stop the sweating!
I didn't realise when I first checked the room and I went to the toilet as I was busting! And when I went to flush I didn't know what to push!
Yeah not the greatest accommodation but is is relatively clean if not dated and isn't musty in smell like some of the cheaper places we have stayed at. Tomorrows homestay looks nicer in the photos!
I am not actually sure on the name of the town we are staying at tomorrow. I just found the accommodation and decided we would go there because we can get there on a series of B roads rather than A roads – so tomorrow we are either going to be permanently lost, vaguely lost or completely on the ball and haven't missed any of our connecting roads, which is very easy to do as we nearly did it today and that was on an A road!
Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 148 km (92 miles)
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