March 23, 2025
Cycle day 5 - Matara to Ambalanthota
Matara to Ambalanthota = 71km (Total distance on this trip so far = 273km)
Weather = last nights low was 23 degrees with todays high was damn hot so probably around 31 degrees but it felt really hot today! Sunny today with not much cloud. Wind was coming from the east so a headwind, along with the heat and hills todays ride was tough. So the 3 H's – heat, headwinds and hills!
Accommodation = Sobaya Residence = 5000 or 6000 rupees. ($26.90 or $32.28 AUS) Not sure on price until we pay tomorrow morning as we think the quoted price includes the airconditioning but we have the A/C on as the room gets hot.
Last nights dinner was lovely – we both had Chicken Kottu and they bought over the chilli paste and Neil really piled it on while I was very liberal with my helping.
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This morning as we left at 7am the sunrise was lovely across the bay and we were only ones on the road (but not for long!)
We are a few kilometers from Matara and although we had half a papaya each and 3 cavendish bananas for breakfast we were too full to each our usual sweet buns but we grabbed some and ate them in our breaks along the way.
We also had to stop at the bank as we are not sure if their will be many banks once we leave the coast (in hindsight that is not the case – they don't do alot of electronic payment and prefer cash so there are plenty of banks around) so I go in and get my usual 50000 rupees from the ATM. Last time I got it the machine spat out a combination of mixed notes which was great this time it took longer and you can hear the machine whirring away and taking a while and next minute it spits out a thick wad of money all in 1000 rupee notes – crikey I was shocked and worried so I grabbed my pile of money and instantly described it as my wad of drug money and put it in my wallet that was positively bulging and wouldn't close!
We weren't quite sure what sort of day we were going to have but we knew it was going to be our biggest day so far. We suspected hills as the road on the map didn't hang around the coast for very long!
At first the hills were ok, as it was before 8am and the temperature was only around 28 degrees but after 9am the temperature slowly rose to the days high of 32-32 degrees and crikey those undulating hills became mountains to us! The sweat just sat on us the entire ride. We guzzled down so much water and the sun was quite hot that once in the shade we could feel salt on our arms and legs (there is a national salt shortage and I tell you if they just scraped what was on our arms and legs then that most certainly would have solved their salt shortage!)
On one of our many breaks today we came across a little skink type lizard that did not move away from us the entire time. Actually today, you could say, was very much an animal day – we managed to see alot more animals today. Also today was the first time the stray dogs have had a go at us – we had 2 lots bark and growl and approach us but they were all bark and no bite (lucky as we couldn't get a rabies shot before we left Australia as there was none in the country!!)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_garden_lizard
6 days ago
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We did take a small detour around a lake to have a break from the main highway and that is where we saw the monkeys on the roof but they were very hard to get a photo off. This road though was narrow and lovely to ride along.
We are beginning to see alot more open country/jungle now and heaps of rice fields and banana plantations.
LOL we even came across this poor young farmer that was ploughing their field and managed to get their tiller bogged – the older farmer/father? crossed in front of us cursing this young worker who was laughing and waving at us. See if you can spot them in the photo below – the young farmer was covered head to toe in mud and blended in quite nices!
Also today Neil broke his sunnies and unlike my father who, when this does happen to him just looks in his bag and grabs 1 of the 3 extra sets he is carrying! (along with the 3 extra spoons, 3 extra hats, 3 extra reading glasses etc he would be carrying as well!) We have no extra sunnies in our bags so Neil stops in some town we pass through and grabs a pair. They didn't have dark shades only these yellow shades that makes him look like Bono from U2!
There are alot of shrines dotted everywhere here in Sri Lanka, some big, some small, some plain and some colourful but too many to stop and take a photo off but today we saw (it is not a shrine) this linked hand and it was in some Agro park but it was nice to see
Just after this we encontered what I call a mini tractor and we got stuck behind it but we managed to overtake it, had to crank the speed up to 20km per hour to do it and I let Neil go first before I attempted it!
By now we were beginning to tire and the rolling and undulating hills with the heat were beginning to wear us down. We know this is what we will have from now on and we are glad that we have made the decision to delay going into the tea plantation hills until the end of the trip where we will be stronger and approach it from the north aspect. We were so looking forward to our icecream at Cargills car park ... again!
Outside Cargills Supermarket we see 2 mature aged cycle touring women who are going in the opposite direction to us. We chatted for a while and it was great to listen to them talk about the trains. Not sure if we will do the trains (as I think that is cheating) but most do it to make up time or do it so they get to see more as they all seem to only do the 30 day visa – I suppose it is because you have to pay another US$50 or $100 to extend – we will be doing that soon!
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3 days ago
It is less than 2km to our accommodation and it is off the main road down a rough track of about 100m and it is a lovely villa and a sensational room that we don't mind if we have to pay the 6000 rupees for airconditioning!
Tomorrow is a short day to the ancient town of Kataragama. Apparently in mid year there is a pilgrimage made by worshippers and they come from the far north and walk all the way to here and then have a festival where they prove their devotion to their religious beliefs by performing these acts of courage like placing hooks on their backs and hanging, walking across hot coals etc – they believe the gods will protect them and give them the courage to do it. Would have loved to have seen this!
Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 311 km (193 miles)
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Heck you were brave with your little bit of chilli 😂
Great video of Neil peddling his little legs to overtake the tractor 😂
It was amazing seeing all the wildlife today, yes under that heat I also would’ve bathed with the buffalo 😂
Neil’s glasses make him look like Don Johnson of Miami Vice 😂
5 days ago