April 9, 2025
Cycle day 16 - Jaffna to Kilinochchi
Jaffna to Kilinochchi = 60km (Total distance on this trip so far = 1019km)
Weather= low of 23 with a high of 30 but feels like 37! Low humidity when we got here (at midday only 62%) but definitely no wind to cool you down hence it feels hotterthan what it is!
Accommodation= Hotel Marutham = 6920 rupees ($38.83 AUD)– we stayed here on Saturday night and since then we have had all the hoohah in USA so our stay here has gone up 61 cents AUD!
It was a shorter ride back to Kilinochchi today as this time we went on the bottom loop through Pooneryn. We are now headingback down southwards and now our left side of the body will get suntanned – there is a distinct colour difference between the 2 sides!
We were on the road at around 8am. Our turnoff was about 6km out from Jaffna. We turned off onto the A32 highway which was incredibly quiet compared to the other highway that we on to come into Jaffna.
Along the way we could see a few more windmills
Not a huge amount compared to what we have seen when we have cycled Australia. We are still marginally above sea level and arenever far above 1m above sea level and for the bulk of this ride up to Pooneryn is on some very low lands if not on a causeway. I suspect that this road we cycled today would be under water in the not too distant future. And the reason why thiswill be under water is because of the photo below – look closely at what you can see at the end of the arrow!
Yeah we saw this coming and just after taking the photo we both held our breath so wedon't have to enhale that muck!
Not a breath of wind today to speak off hence why the sweat was just dripping of us when we stopped. It isn't too bad when riding as you generate your own sort of wind.
Saw some beautiful birds but only managed to get a photo of our usual Brahminy kite and another type of bird of prey that we hadn't seen before.
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https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/5158-Spilornis-cheela/browse_photos?place_id=7077
1 week ago
I think saw a baby snake cross in front of me today - it was maybe about 15cm long and wiggling just in front of Neils front wheel and then mine. I didn't say anything as I didn't want to scare Neil as at that point 2 dump trucks were going to meet at the same time with us. Alas the snake was well past and into the grass to be of concern to us!
Since the first part of the ride was on partial causeways there were alot of small fishingboats either side that had not long returned and were laying out their nets to dry along the road
Traffic doesn't seem to mind that it encroaches (not alot though) on the road! At about 25km we are on yet another causeway and this one has bridge (which is under repair) and as we get closer we can see that it is a little munter and have to drop gears to get up it. It is not a long gradual bridge but more a short munter.
We did stop at the top to enjoy the view as there was no cars around and even so I think stopping would not have been an issue.
In the photo above you can see the red car oncoming, I looked at them as they waved at us and I could see the passenger was filming us – LOL we are their tourist attraction!!!
After this bridge it is not far until we get to the small village of Pooneryn. Where we see a public toilet (and a newish one at that) at the local bus station. So naturally we take a photo
Why are we taking photos of a public toilet? Because they are very rare here in Sri Lanka and I have decided that should we return to Sri Lanka to cycle again that would be the theme of our next tour. I am going to map out where each public toiletis and go to each one and take of photo of it!
After Pooneryn we are back on land and no more causeways, these have no been replaced with rice fields again. It is like that all the way back to Kilinochchi. So not much colour around except for various shades of green and then you see a splash of colour of the temples which are in the middle of no where! So their colours really stand out.
At some point today we did cross the 1000km mark but I forgot to check before I left this morning at what kilometer mark that would be and as it turns out it was atthe 41km mark. So with keeping with tradition we celebrated the milestone with something special to eat and in this case it was our lunch which consisted of 1L tub of vanilla ice-cream and 2 chicko rolls each– just a note they are NOT chicko rolls like you get in Australia but we just call them that as they look like chicko rolls. Considering they are from Arul Vege Hotel across the road from the Hotel we know there is no chicken in them. They are like a spicy vege pastie filling wrapped in a roti type bread, rolled then covered in bread crumbs and then deep fried! Gawd they are yummy! There is no way that we are loosing weight on this trip!
We are off down to Vavuniya tomorrow -a longer day at 80km so with that distance we just may loose a gram or 2 of weight!
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 567 km (352 miles)
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