April 5, 2025
Cycle day 14 - Mullaittivu to Kilinochchi
Mullaittivu to Kilinochchi = 60km (Total distance on this trip so far = 894km)
Weather = low of 24 with a high of 29. We started out with a sunny day but by lunch time the clouds have rolled in. We started with a headwind but by 40km it had ceased to next to no wind.
Accommodation = Hotel Marutham = 6900 rupees ($38.22 AUD) – a few more choices in this town but we opted for this one as the reviews were good and its location is on the main highway north to Jaffna – so an easy starting point tomorrow morning. We have airconditioning as well as a balcony and as usual a private bathroom. Maybe we are getting soft but we choose the room with a private ensuite first and usually that will have air conditioning (not always but that seems to be happening lately!)
We don't sleep with the air conditioning on as it gets too cold, in fact I always crank it up as below 20 degrees it gets too cold! So we have the fan on at night and last night the fan was a little noisy (it had a wobble that you could hear!). I went to sleep fine but the wobble woke me up some time early this morning and off course you start concentrating on that wobble and can't get back to sleep.
So we were up early and away before 7am. Mullaittivu is a military place and we had dinner last night at some military owned cafe. I had my usual chicken fried rice and Neil had Chicken Koththu. There is not much choice when you go to places. Although this place had hoppers so I got an egg one. Unfortunately I ate it before I remembered to take a photo! Next time!
We are on the A35 heading in a northwest direction to meet up with the A9. There are plenty of small villages along here. Heaps of rice fields again and with that we tend to see more bird life – 2 Brahminy Kites and this is a good one that Neil got of a white throated Kingfisher (thankyou Bill Shaneyfelt!)
As you know there are an incredible amount of shrines, temples, buddhas etc all along the roadside but we saw this one (in a lovely spot mind you!) that I think is a slap in the face to the Tamil People
Yes, without getting too political about the civil war that occurred here but I feel this is just in real poor taste, rub it in the faces of Tamil people and just goes too far!
Anyhow, it is Saturday morning and lots of people out and about heading to the shops of Kilinochchi maybe. We had pulled over in one small town as it had a big tree that offered us shade and across the road we watched a troop of monkeys in the trees – they are really quite comical at times. There was a the big male in on a big tree by itself and it seemed as thou it was throwing a hissy fit at everything on the road but no one was listening. In the meantime all the smaller monkeys were coming out of the bush, along the wall or power lines and ignoring the male monkey and just playing about seeing who could unbalance who on the power lines – a few weeks before we came we read an article that a monkey on an important power line managed to kill Sri Lankas power supply for quite a long time!
There was 1 very small young monkey who was last and it started from the tree and almost too arrogantly and fast began to run along the power lines and nearly came a cropper but just managed to grab the lines before it fell. It resumed its position but walked ever so slowly across – clearly it had learnt its lesson that it isn't that good at balancing yet!
After that entertainment we continued on. Neil had seen on Google Maps there is an alternative roads to Kilinochchi so we take that! Little did we know that in these back roads we wouldn't get mobile reception!!!
So we came to a crossroad a little lost and were unsure so we made the executive decision that we should follow the bus route as it had to be going to Kilinochchi and that is what we did – followed the blue bus shelter signs Every now and then we checked to see if we could get internet and we didn't appear lost for too long! It is always a dead giveaway that you are in the internet area as everyone is on their mobile phones while driving, riding and walking!
One thing on these back roads that I did notice was that the people here in Sri Lanka are very resourceful when it comes to making fences out of natural products
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We were on this back road for about 25km and then we come to the A9 and I tell you it was bit of a shock coming to a big city like Kilinochchi – it has been way back in south Sri Lanka at Matara since we have been in a big city type atmosphere (Trincomalee was big but that was spread out and the city center was small).
There is a wide highway rather than small narrow highway and lots of shops! Oh well it is nice to have choice!
We find our hotel and check in – we are on the 2nd level and out balcony faces the highway. They have a lift but it has no lights – but we ain't walking up 2 flights of stairs with our luggage so we chance it in the dark.
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We arrive just after 11am so we have plenty of time to settle. We go across the road to get some vege rolls (spring rolls but more rotti, rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried) they are lovely and then we get a tub of 1L of mango ice cream to finish it off! While in the supermarket I come across these
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Tomorrow we make for Jaffna and we will take a 3 night break there.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 692 km (430 miles)
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