Deniyaya to Haputale

Little tea plantation outside Deniyaya.

One of the many waterfalls.

After our horrible sleep last night, combined with dogs barking, kids crying and general Buddhist temple noise going on this morning, we hit the road pretty early. We backtracked to Kotapola, 10km south of Deniyaya, and had a look at Kiruwananaganga Falls. Let's just say that they were so impressive we drove right past them without realising it. We also walked up a whole bunch of stairs to see a rock temple. Turns out it too was unimpressive and resembled many other temples we have seen so far except that it was alive with monkeys. They were everywhere! One was even game enough to throw something at me! Temples are everywhere over here. Even the dingiest, dirtiest towns seems to have at least one shrine which is immaculately clean and new-looking. Priorities I guess.

After we returned to our guest house and gathered our things we were back aboard our bike for what we thought would be an easy day's riding. Haha. Oh how we were wrong.

Breakfast

To begin with we headed out and found a beautiful spot overlooking the valley to have our morning vegetable roti. We continued, relaxed, only to realise we had been riding in the complete wrong direction for 10km and therefore had to retrace our tracks back to Deniyaya to start again. While 20km might not sound very far, when you're on pot-holed, gravel roads it can take an hour or so. Back in Deniyaya we headed onto the A17 road that we had heard such great things about. While it was truly spectacular in its beauty, the road itself left a lot to be desired and the 67km of it from Deniyaya to Madampe took forever!! It did however have waterfalls on every second corner, some of which put the official falls we saw this morning to shame.

View from the A17 between Deniyaya and Rakwana.

Lauren inspecting a road side tree.

We decided to take today one stop at a time after the tiring A17. We made it to Pelmadulla, only getting a bit wet as we rode into town and the skies opened as they had yesterday. We then figured that because the roads had improved so substantially and we were now moving at speeds faster than 25km/hr, we'd push on as far as we could. Through Balangoda (for some lunch by the roadside), then Belihul Oya, Kalupahana and onto our destination of Haputale.

Road into Haputale.

At 1400m above sea level, the road into Haputale had some stunning views. The climate here is dramatically different to that of the coast, and even to Deniyaya from where we came today. Here, after a shower to scrub the black diesel fumes off our bodies and out of our hair, we climbed into jeans and jumpers rather than swimmers and singlets to head out for dinner. A far cry from the sticky, heavy humidity of Unawatuna. We ate the first thali of our trip. It consisted of rice and three vegetarian dishes that had been sitting there for god knows how long. We were even lucky enough to score some papadams which the helpful owner brought over and dumped on our plates with his dirty bare hands. We also loaded up on roti and samosas to take with us on our early morning hike tomorrow morning and all up, including drinks, it cost us the equivalent of about $3 AUD.

Pit stop on the A17 between Deniyaya and Rakwana.

Over the 213km we rode today, we saw the scenery change endlessly. From rice paddies to rolling hills of tea plantations, to rainforest, to open plains and back again. It seemed that around every corner there was another photo opportunity. For this reason among many we were pleased today with our decision to ride our way around Sri Lanka rather than rely on public transport. We can stop and start as we like, move at our own pace and really breathe in the sights and sounds of rural Sri Lanka. It hasn't yet ceased to amaze me how friendly everybody has been. From the countless locals from whom we asked directions, to our helpful guesthouse owners to the men serving us dinner from their tiny street 'restaurants.'

 

Fog crossing Temple Road, Haputale.

Sri Lankan kilometres accumulated on bike to date: 425km