Feb. 23rd - Ella to just south of Wellawaya - Kim and Glory - Cycling beyond

February 23, 2024

Feb. 23rd - Ella to just south of Wellawaya

A wonderful ride!!

Today was a perfect day in so many ways. I woke up this morning and planned to climb Little Adams Peak before heading out. I thought I had read it was a 20 minute climb. It's a 20 minute climb once you get to the actual trail part. From my hotel, it was an additional 30 minutes. It was a nice cement path with vendors setting up to sell their wares. The views early on were incredible! Oh, and about that last 20 minutes....Did I mention it was all stairs from this point on? My weary little legs were not very happy about that. I was sweating buckets as it was. I just practiced my "rest step" from my mountaineering/scrambling days. It helped immensely. The views from up top were incredible as well. I stayed about 15 minutes before heading back down. Man oh man, I beat the rush. Tons of people were gathering and/or headed up the trail when I was going down. So thankful I didn't have to deal with all of that.

Got back to my hotel and took a bit of a break to cool down before finishing up my packing. It's a national holiday in Sri Lanka and if I want to stay in Ella I have to switch hotels again. My hotel last night was really nice so I wasn't in the mood to downgrade which is what would have been happening. Besides, I was on a such a high note from my hike and the beautiful scenery, I figured it was a good note to leave Ella on.

Good morning, Glory. You are looking mighty fine today.

What an amazing view and I'm still walking up the cement path

Glory and I have made it to the top. Let's have a seat. The last section was all stairs. I just paced myself as buckets of sweat poured off of me.

Victory is mine and these views are incredible!

See that road down there? That's my descent. Zoom! Zoom!

Finally saw a lady picking tea leaves and snapped a quick picture.

And then this man beckoned me back, which I refused to do because I knew money would be involved and I didn't like the fact he was keeping a pet monkey as a way to make money. Only one quick snap. Look what's in the baskets though!

Leaving Ella on the A2 road also involves a long, wonderful descent with magnificent views of the valley. I still had to be very cautious about traffic, but I could definitely get some speed in some sections as there weren't as many curves as my last major descent.

Great views to accompany my speedy ride down

So I stopped a couple of times to enjoy. Why not take a picture of my bike while I'm at it? :)

After a few miles, I stopped at Ravana Waterfall. Utter madness. There were so many people, that even if I wanted to leave my bike unattended for a closer view up on the rocks, the volumes of people were a big turnoff. I left my bike long enough to get to the railing and hold my camera above all the selfie taking groups.

I continued on and as I descended the temperature increased dramatically. I felt like the air was getting sucked out of me. I miss the mountain air already!

I hate when my pictures don't turn out. This field had an off-white flower and I was curious as to what it was. Plus, it looked nice.

Surprisingly, this tastes way better than it looks. I wanted some protein! The bread is actually tasty, but I was missing ketchup and ummm, size matters.

Turned off the main highway to my homestay for tonight

I had booked a reservation at River Cottages Hotel. I had noticed I was picking a "budget room" but when I did a "dummy" reservation further out, it seemed like all the rooms said that so I wasn't worried. I didn't even think about the a/c factor. When I arrived, I realized that meant no a/c. The owner showed me the room and the fan but said if I waited about 30 minutes for him to get another room ready, I could have a/c, but it would cost $5 more. I was a little confused and thought maybe he was moving someone just to be kind, so I said I'd be fine for one night without a/c. The fan seemed like it was powerful. In hindsight, it was not fine. 😂 And the person I thought he was moving was just a guest who had overstayed way past the checkout. (They were a local so he didn't push the issue with them.) I was so hot. At one point I thought about using the "wet towel" trick during the night, but I powered through. Just remind me not to make that mistake again!

His place has a large yard and along a small river. Super peaceful and today I learned peacocks can fly and he has one that lives in a tree on his property. Who knew?!

Today's ride: 22 miles (35 km)
Total: 1,150 miles (1,851 km)

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