Today wasn’t a holiday it was an adventure.
Oli and I split for a couple of days so ‘scooter Safari’ was ‘solo scooter safari’ today. My destination was Galle in the South and none of the on-line route suggestions took the direct route across the mountains and National Park so I ignored them and headed off directly south. I knew it would take most of the day what I hadn’t accounted for was 11 hours ridding without a break (I stopped for petrol and food which I ate whilst ridding), it must be due to the ridiculous miles I’ve ridden lately but I was ok with it.
Only 5 – 10% of the journey was on straight flat roads the rest was up & down with many hundreds of corners, it was a fantastic day ridding up the highest mountain roads on the island through dozens of tea plantation estates, the men keeping everything from the grass on the side of the roads to the paths between the tea bushes and trees cut back and the hundred or so women working in the fields picking the new tea leaves all smiled, waved and said hello as I passed, I didn’t see one tourist bus or tourist all day:)
It’s all about the people.
The landscape was beautiful with the bright green leaves on the tea bushes, pine and eucalyptus forests, waterfalls, rivers and lush crops.
‘Solo scooter safari’ excelled today even though the scooter must now have a few lose bolts as it wasn’t designed for off road conditions which it coped well with when asked. 95% of the roads were small local roads, there wasn’t a petrol station when I needed one so I had to buy petrol by the side of a road in an old coca-cola bottle which I haven’t done since Pakistan, it all adds to the experience.
Sri Lanka is a great country to travel in.
