March 27, 2025
Cycle day 7 - Kataragama to Monaragala
Before I do todays blog - above is a video of the elephant we saw in Yala NP, the internet at Kataragama was to slow to upload it to Youtube
Kataragama to Monaragala = 59km (Total distance on this trip so far = 391km)
Weather = decidely lovely! Expected top of 31 but currently just under that and last nights low was 23. No wind to speak of and if any I suspect it was coming from the south
Accommodation = Gangana Resort Inn = 5000 rupees ($26.66 AUS)
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Finally back on the road with my ankle still swollen but it is fine when I cycle – I just can rotate it so I rode in my Teva sandals rather than my cleated sandals.
We were up and away at 7am, excited to be continuing on this part of the Elephant Highway (B35 on a map). We had a delicious dinner last night – vegetarian buffet where we got the fried rice the other night and we weren't quite sure on what to do so we let these men do it first and we followed. You grab a plate and help yourself to what is there. I had rice and I think the following – breadfruit curry, bean curry and dahl and I didn't put to much on as the previous night it was way to much takeaway. Neil too had a small serve compared to the men in front of us! It cost us 700 rupees ($3.73 Aus) for dinner, I think because we didn't take much she only charged us for 1 meal between us!
After dinner we stopped of at Cargills supermarket for our papaya and bananas for brekky with extra bananas for the elephants. Spared no expense with these bananas and got the cavendish ones as they carry better overnight and in the bag. The small ones just over ripen as you exit the supermarket and cross the road to our bikes!
This is a lovely quiet road to ride on very little traffic compared to an A highway.
We are gently climbing alot but not hard climbing and do it at a reasonable pace.
We have our eyes, ears and wits about us half expecting an elephant to come charging out of the bush. We see lots of elephant poo (fresh and old) and lots of elephant runs where they come out of the bush and onto the roads. There is thick foliage either side of the road and there is nothing to say that we rode past elephants munching away 25m in without realising it!
But there it was, our first one, at 10km.
We stopped 100m before it, it is a male as it is large and the colour is browner than a female (usually a greyer colour and smaller). We watch it and it is just hanging around the road, not to one side but in the middle walking forward and back again across the road like it was guarding it!
The last photo – the people on the moped skiddadled when the elephant came towards them. They came down to us and they were a Russian couple that were quite interesed in us and he wanted a photo with us (what are we elephants as well!)
They said just go past it and throw a banana to it as all it wants is bananas. They seemed quite confident that that is the way to do.
We watch the people on the moped and cars and trucks go by, fortunately for them the elephant lets them past.
But what luck/protection do we have on our pushies! We did have an elephant discussion this morning and it didn't help that Neil showed me google maps videos of elephants (looking suspiciously like the one in the photo) harassing the crap out of cars/buses and having no problem taking them on! We had decided that we would wait for it to pass and move into the bush – that was our plan of attack should we encounter elephants today. Was this a good plan of attack I ask myself as we wait at the bottom of the rise watching this animal pace back and forward across the road almost guarding this road? Mmmmm in theory it is a very good plausible plan, however, Neil forgot to tell me about the reputation of some of the elephants on this road is that they do hold vehicles and bicycles to ransom and the only way to get past them is to give them a banana. I know we have bananas with us for them but they were to be thrown should one decide it is very anti bicycle not to be paid as a damn ransom!
So the Russian couple can see our trepidation and he offers to walk back up with us and give the banana to the elephant to distract it and we can ride past and that is what we did – a great plan!
They also warn us that there is another one 5km up the road and sure enough there was number 2 doing exactly the same thing, blocking the entire road and it has a makeshift weapon in its trunk – a fly swat!
Ok we are a little braver and are about 50m from this one. Again another discussion and a plan. While heavily in strategic discussions between us a safari truck and car pass us and pull up basically next to it! I said to Neil ok lets give it a banana and throw it away from us towards the other side of the road so it goes away from us. We will do this once those idiots in the safari truck and car have passed so we have a clear passage to escape, we can't do it now as the vehicles are blocking our escape. Yeah good idea Janet and Neil agreed.
So clearly Neil did NOT listen to the 2nd part of my instructions (wait for the vehicles to go) and he begins to cycle off
I haven’t moved and I am looking at Neil think WTFertiliser is that guy doing the cars are still there! Next minute the elephant sees Neil and thinks – right the stingy locals haven't given me any bananas but maybe this one on the bike will and turns a bit and it looks like it is about to approach Neil and this is Neils reaction
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OMG he quickly got out of there and came back to me. And yes Russell I did admonish him about not listening to the 2nd half of the plan. But the look on Neils face was worth it – him not listening to me!
Ok so finally the cars move on and cameras off and away we break a banana in half and I have to repeat the instructions to Neil again – you go first! And throw your banana away from us, not too far that it misses it completely and I will add mine as I get closer. And that is what we had to do. It was not interested in us but in what we threw and it saw what it was and veered towards it. We rode past and it was about 1.5m from us as we passed making a bee line for the bananas!
Gosh what a thrill that was! Not that I would want go through this on a regular basis!
We pedal on happy as larry with our experiences and wonder if we will encounter any more along the way. We have 2 bananas left, we plan that the next one will only get half a one as we may run out! Alas that was not to be – we saw no more along this road and when we got to the town that separates the 2 zones of Yala NP we knew we wouldn't see more due to the electric fence around the town and we then we out of Yala NP.
Approaching the village we did see monkeys on a bridge
And after the village there was a massive lake – most to the lakes here are full of these massive lilypads that you can hardly see the water
At the 40km mark we get to the end of the Elephant Highway at Buttala and we turn east/left toward Pottuvil on the A4 highway.
It is a busier road than the B road but not as frenetic as the coastal A2 highway. We took a break at Buttala and had our jam bun and the remaining bananas. We are feeling ok, despite the gentle climbing to Buttala. If you turned right/west here you would be heading towards the tea plantation mountains (but we will do that at the end of the ride).
From here it is another 17km to Monaragala and it is undulating but ok.
We pass a latex testing station and a series of rubber trees (Neil thinks they are as they have the small cups to catch the sap once they put a small pipe into the tree and the sap runs down into the cups)
It is not long before we get to our destination. Coming into town we can see a buddha up on the hill.
We decided today that we wouldn't wear our relective vests as the traffic is not heavy. It was a more comfortable ride as we weren't wearing that extra layer which just adds to the heat and sweat.
This place was hard to find and when we finally found it we were horrified it was on the 5th floor! They guy was insistent that the bikes could be stored in his shop and completely safe. He encouraged us to see the room, so up 4 flights of stairs we went passing 2 levels of classrooms (no one in them at the moment – extra education is highly valued here so there are alot of these private tuition places). It was ok going up first time and the poor guy was huffing and a puffing when we got to the room but not that much out of huff and puff that he tried to charge us extra as he said it was the King deluxe room and we had booked a normal room and we said no we didn't we booked this room and the booking .com price was not 6000 rupees (we were quoted 4900 rupees for this room with air-conditioning!) he soon backed down and said 5000 we said ok!
So back down the 4 flights of stairs and he gets 3 young ladies to help us with the luggage. We soon get our share of the luggage into the room and progress to got back to help them. He says no and all the girls are giggling and he is telling them this man (pointing at Neil) is 65 and you are 16, 18 and 32! So no excuses for these poor girls. We thank them and we settle in.
We have a shower, do some washing and that is when Neil realises that the lense out of his spectacles have come out (he said no wonder he couldn't see the map properly and the place!) I fix it temporarily by threading dental floss through where the screw should be (we find the lense in his bag luckily!) There is an optometrist opposite Cargills so we will go there later so we only have to do the 4 flights of stairs 1 more time today!
Tomorrow we head for the coast to Pottuvil.
Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 239 km (148 miles)
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| Comment on this entry | Comment | 4 |
4 days ago
Glad your ankle is better for riding, hope 4 flights of stairs didn’t make it worse.
4 days ago
4 days ago