Let’s go cycling

Day 15- Ella to Nuwara Eliya

It became cooler as we ascended so the heat wasn’t a big drama today, but the height gain still took it out of (me) and it was slow going.

Finally made it to the Burbs of Nuwara Eliya around 2ish, coming across a serious looking cyclist on our way into town. Suj is a local guy and outdoor educator setting up his own cycle touring business in the area.  Within a few minutes he’d found us somewhere nearby to stay and by the end of the evening a plan was firmly hatched for him to join us on the trek to Hortons Plain the next day 🙂

Meanwhile we had a quiet afternoon exploring the sights of Nurawa Eliya and a lovely little waterfall not far out of town.

Day 16- Hortons Plain

An excellent breakfast at the hostel saw us on our way with Suj for a really great day of exploring.  Suj led us through the majestic colonial buildings of the township before heading out toward the steep climb up to Hortons Plain.  A really scenic ride the whole way…and quite a bit of walking our bikes up the really steep bits 😳

A couple of nourishing meals shared with Suj- Shared a bag of sour guavas (wild fruits picked from the surrounding jungle) whilst waiting for the train to pass through the level crossing at the highest railway station in Sri Lanka, a terrific plateful of Samosas and Rotis at a little stall close to the beginning of the big climb…and some delicious curry buns later  that we picked up from the very fancy bakery at the Grand Hotel for approximately 10 times the price you’ll get them on the street…

Said goodbye to Suj (who also takes great pictures- thanks!!) about 1/2 way through the park so that he could make his way back the way we came.

Sambur deer, birdlife and a 5km walk to another speccy waterfall punctuated the Horton Plains national Park…no leopards, for which we were somewhat thankful as the sky was darkening by the time we rode out the other side!

Down the hill (steeply!) to a little town called Ohiya where we found somewhere just a tad dodgy to stay for the night. A homecooked meal with rice that was so weird in flavour that we probably both underate- might have to dig deep and find that residual muesli bar for a midnight snack…

And then at 10pm when we just really wanted to be asleep, the “hosts” started up some karaoke/hand drumming with their neighbours till the small hours. Probably explains why they weren’t keen to provide an early breakfast for us…but after the rather underrated evening meal we weren’t too bothered and planned to be out early.

Day 17- some steep up…and a lot of down

400m of elevation before coffee is a bit of an ask for me…but we managed it with the help of a stale samosa from a roadside stall along the way. Then found a lovely spot for breakfast with amazing views. And dahl that was up there amongst the best so far…

Today’s ride was hard going at times but oh my, the landscape was spectacular as we wended our way down (and then up again for bits) the mountainside.

Found somewhere rather posh to stay tonight for $35AU…not much more than it cost us for last night’s stay which has our worst rating of the trip so far. Today’s is a grand hotel, not a westerner in sight and all very classy. So we rocked up just before the rain came pelting down, looking hot, grubby, tired and really not the sort of clientele I expect they are used to at this establishment! Nevertheless we received a very gracious welcome and the room…well let’s just say you’d pay a bit more than $35 for this in Oz…

And tomorrow we continue toward Galle… with another big hill to start the day. Sigh. I am reliably (?) informed that this will be the last big ascent for Sri Lanka. Yay! My legs need a rest…