I didn't do a blog yesterday of our rest day in Kandy. In fact, truth be known, this is just another city! Yesterday was open for business so we had to go into Kandy itself and find a Dialog shop to add data to our devices to cover us until the end of the trip. And I am sure glad we arrived here on an uncrowded public holiday. Today was just shit to ride anywhere in this town. Kandy has a few one way streets with vehicles seemingly going both ways despite the one way signs! You see if there is a street about 100m from the intersection they are at and they want to go down that street then they will drive down it despite going in the opposite direction to the flow of traffic – so typically Sri Lanka! So it was a quick in and then out and back to the hostel, where we slept, ate and watched tv. A complete rest day in preparation for today – the up hill ride to Ramboda. Where we climbed 1350 meters and descended 860m so we are at about 900m above sea level. Or 500m higher than what we were this morning! One section of hill was about 15km long. The longest climb between Kandy and Nuwara Eilya. We still have tomorrow to get through which is 25km and we get to the altitude of 2000m. We think it is gentle climbing with a little bit of descending! Rather than the one big hill like today.
I think the best way to do todays blog is just via photos and videos ... enjoy!
Pysching ourselves up to do this 15km hill. 1350m of climbing and 860m descending for the day. We are only about 900m above sea level or 500m more than we were this morning.
a gentle gradient for most of the hill with the occassional steep bit usually on a corner. It is very winding and sometimes you can see the road on the opposite hillside where you are going to be soon!
It is lovely riding along here - there is a fair bit of traffic both ways (going up with us and coming down the hill) but they are all going slow. Heaps of vans and peanut buses and the box cars the ones you like Leanne from Japan. We think there is alot of people on this road this week as it is school holidays as there are kids everywhere hanging out the tuk tuks and vehicle windows yelling hi at us!
About 1 hour into the hill I see that I am pulling away from Neil and I look in my rear vision mirror and recognise the body language and suggest we find a place that serves tea and get some sugar into us. fortunately there is one right around the corner! But take a look at someones stairs to their house!
We had to put sugar in our tea, they had no sweet buns so we heaped it in there and once finished had a sweet bun that we were carrying outside. Neil felt alot better and I must admit colour had returned to his cheeks!
Gosh it really is pretty up here and although the sweat is pouring of us and the back of my shirt is clinging to my body we are feeling alright. I think we could have made it to Nuwara Eliya but it is probably best to do it over the 2 days and enjoy the ride rather than slog it out!
One thing we noticed is that cycling this road is not for the faint hearted or those that struggle with cars passing so close. Despite everyone going slow, this road is still narrow and winding for big vehicles like SUV, vans, peanut buses and buses - which there are alot of! So when they pass you they are close but not speedy, I am entitled to be on the road close, but more slow passing close!
Sometimes we had a shoulder to ride in but for most of it it was too narrow and there is a drain alongside it and the last thing we want to happen is we fall into it!
There is irrigation running alongside the road in very thin tubing and I can see they run up to the tea plantations. There were quite alot of pipes that had popped and we gushing water but locals along the roadside had pointed them inwards so they could do their clothes washing. Unfortunately they would hang them over the roadside bushes and by the time I realised they were there I had passed them. all the way up there seemed to be a sense of urgency in doing their washing so I am not sure if they were taking advantage of the tea plantations water! I hope they were!
the road profile after Pussellawa had us perplexed and we weren't quite sure - it seemed to be a series of undulations and steep ones at that from here on until Nuwars Eliya - hence why we broke this journey into 2 days. But it was more gentle down and gentle back up!
Just after Pussellawa is the Rothschild tea plantation. Despite the name (all the plantations have very toffy nose English names and maybe in their previous, if not current, lives they were/are still English ownership. But I think they are owned by wealthy Sri Lankans and it is the tea houses around the world that deal with this Rothschild type companies.
spotted some workers up in the field. Not picking but they were lopping the tea bushes with a machete. It is not uncommon to pass locals anywhere in Sri Lanka outside the major cities and they are carrying machetes or hoes or both - you get arrested in Victoria for that!
A tea bush that will get lopped - I assume to encourage new leaf growth as it is the young leaves that are picked - don't quote me on that and hopefully we will get to do a tea plantation tour once in Nurwara Eliya
Ok we get alot of looks because we are on bikes. Since leaving Dambulla we were one of a hand full of bicycles. In Kandy there was the odd one and we had a lycra brigade type cyclist chat with Neil to Gampola this morning. But this was the first bicycle ridden by kids along this hillside! And he was dinking too! Made it hard for himself!
It feels like we are descending alot but it is gradual and we still have to peddle. We got through the small town of Tawalantenne which is just under 1000m above sea level
We then are surrounded by pine trees and cannot see the tea plantations any more. The hillside to our leftis a sheer cliff face that has a wire mesh covering it to stop any landslips. On the way up we only saw 1 small slip that had come onto the road.
About a few kilometers out from our accommodation we see Ramboda falls and I take a photo as I don't know if we will get to see it or go to it once at the accommodation - well wait to you see the accommodation photos!
Yeah me waiting for Neil to get out light dinner for tonight as we had a fried rice lunch earlier as we didn't know if there was anything near our accommodation for us to eat.
across the way is Ramboda falls and that tree there is full of unripe avocadoes! As well as the cabbages and tea bushes. Now looking at this photo I though NZ was green, so green that it hurts your eyes but here in Sri Lanka it is just ALL green no other colour!
The host comes and our room is massive, the only drawback is our toilet, while ours, is across the hallway from us but the view from our massive window makes up for that!
There is a coffee table and 2 chairs which we are just sitting at with our 2 cups of tea each. So far we have had 4 cups of tea each this arvo, maybe it wasn't a good idea since the toilet is outside our room!
