Cycling the back roads of Sri Lanka
It isn’t easy getting up at 6am. In fact it is a rather silly thing to do when you are on holiday. But when you are cycling in Sri Lanka it is the best time to start the day. After eating as many calories as we could, we would hit the road and cycle as many kilometres as possible before the humidity took its toll. However, it didn’t take long to become accustomed to the early mornings and we made sure we were in bed very early the night before.
Sri Lanka is a tear-drop shaped island in the Indian Ocean lying just north of the Equator and just off the southern coast of India. Sheena and I recently spent two weeks last December cycling the backroads of this tropical island. Normally I like to cycle with no back up support but this time I decided to have it all arranged for us. The hotels were pre-booked, breakfast, lunch and dinner were all supplied and we had a support vehicle with Sunil at the wheel and cycling guides LH and Chamath, of Lanka Sportreizen, our partner in Sri Lanka. Age is not softening me but I could not have found my way through the rice paddies on my own.
It wasn’t hard cycling, but it was a challenge. Not a challenge physically but one of trying to fit too much in. Our longest cycling day was ninety-two kilometres and our shortest, twenty-eight. We cycled through villages where very few tourists travelled and some of the children had never even seen a ‘western’ tourist. We were treated to coconuts straight from the tree, saw potters making pots by hand, weavers making sarongs on hand looms and a forger using hand bellows to heat the coals. We played cricket with the kids and were bowled out by scrawny ten year olds playing in bare feet and smashed for sixes by their friends with bats held together by numerous nails. Hard work in the humidity, but a great way of sharing a few minutes together. We saw village life as it has been for hundreds of years.
It wasn’t all hard work of course. If you had enough cycling you could load your bike and yourself onto the air-conditioned support vehicle. But the best part was having a five-star hotel with a swimming pool awaiting you at the end of the day. And before dinner we often indulged in an Ayurveda massage. I am not religious, but if there is a Heaven then it is here. I don’t think I could have survived in tents with no shower and having to cook your own food. Another place and another time perhaps.
Not many tourists cycle in Sri Lanka and although this trip was organised, often where we had lunch or morning tea was not. Once we had an impromptu stop where Sunil met a guy who he had been at school with many years before back in his home village. So we had lunch in his house. It took an hour and a half to prepare the food as his wife cooked on a one-flame fire. It was one of the best meals I have ever had. And all washed down with fresh coconut milk after his twelve year old son shimmied up a thirty foot high coconut palm to cut down a few fresh coconuts. Would you allow your son to do this?
Sometimes we had to cycle down main roads to get between the back roads. This too had its excitement. Once a guy on his motorbike slowed down and rode parallel to me for a few kilometres chatting about the local politics. Sometimes young kids would race you on their clapped out one-gear bikes and then suddenly turn off to their village with a wave and a huge smile. Bus drivers and truckies would wave to you or madly signal to get out of their way. Never easy trying to figure what they were indicating though.
