Sri Lanka is an Island paradise in the Indian Ocean, just over 50 km off the southeastern tip of India. It has had a turbulent history but is now a peaceful country, offering a plethora of adventures for those open enough to visit this Pearl of an Island which is not on the traditional Asian tourist route. This past January we had the trip of a lifetime there, complete with wild elephants, historic rock forts, 27 cent coconut waters and over 1000km of riding from North to South across the Island!
Back in 2014 and 2017 I was lucky to visit Sri Lanka for the Rumble in the Jungle 4 day MTB Stage race. The race took place on the backroads of the highland hill area in the centre of the country. We were given a beautiful glimpse of this special island with countless unforgettable memories. Both trips were too short, but a great connection was made with Sri Lankan Airlines and we were both were keen to organize a trip later on to explore the cycling opportunities this country has to offer. Covid 19 nixed a couple of these plans, but with the World more or less over that debacle, we revisited this idea last October via some email exchanges and decided January 2023 was the time to finally pull something off.
Originally it was going to be a smaller group of 8 pro riders doing a training camp on the Island, but as the project grew, Mountain Bike Worldwide came on board with another group of riders and soon we had 16 cyclist from 5 continents coming together for a trip of a lifetime! Sri Lanka Airlines blew our minds by setting up a great fully supported 7 day bike tour from North to South across the Island, touching many of the tourist hot spots.
The trip started in the beach resort of Negombo just north of Colombo city as us riders flew in on Sri Lankan Airlines from around the World to congregate for this project. After a few days enjoying some time on the Beach’s at Goldi Sands Resort, we headed off on a 6 hour bus ride to Jaffna, a bustling city of 90 000 inhabitants on a beautiful peninsula at the North end of the Island. Jaffna is a colonial port city off the tourist track, full of historic forts and interesting sights to visit. After a short ride around the outskirts of town to open the legs, we had a briefing on top of the JetWing Hotel to kickoff the trip with an exciting outline for the days ahead.
Stage 1 of the tour was a very flat 150 km ride heading south down the Island through some agricultural land and some interesting wetlands, often with water on both sides of the quiet and well paved roads. Traffic was minimal as the skies opened up with some heavy rain which was a nice relief from what would normally be a very hot area. Having full police escorts, and a convoy of 8 vehicles behind us, meant we were much better supported than 99% of the races or cycling trips any of us had ever done around the World. After 5 hours of riding we hit Talaimannar, the closest point between Sri Lanka and India with around 50 km of ocean separating the two nations. Here we were treated to fresh fruits on the oceanside as this was the scheduled end of the riding before a 150 km transfer inland to Anuradhapura for the night. 7 of us were keen for extra miles so we set out with the police escort to cruise some very quiet and flat roads through some interesting countryside, getting to witness the real heart of Sri Lanka with its Locals going about their daily lives. The rains were torrential for 25 minutes, and continued on through the night as we settled into the Rajarata Hotel for an evening of rest and gorging down some delicious Sri Lankan Cuisine. The local cuisine was a highlight of the trip with a plethora of fresh fruits, seafood, and different curries with local spices highlighting the menu,
Stage 2 was another fairly flat stage as we headed towards Aliya Resort near the famous Sigiriya Rock. Sigiriya Rock is the location of an ancient castle where King Kashyapa once lived for nearly twenty years, using the giant rock faces, and 2 moats, as a deterrent against his enemies. It is an amazing example of ancient urban planning and is listed as an Unesco World Heritage site. It is one of Sri Lanka’s top tourist attractions and one of the coolest structural castles i’ve seen anywhere in the World. The 140 km ride became more interesting the further we went along with the terrain starting to have some rolling hills as we crossed dense jungle areas. At some points we were cruising down small roads resembling large golf cart tracks with Jungle surrounding us on all sides. The highlight of the day was witnessing a wild elephant grazing in the ditch. My Kona adventure teammate Becca was keen to catch some of this on film so slammed on the brakes to head back with her GoPro. Being a good teammate I followed her for support but when the Elephant let out a loud call and started trampling bushes down in anger, we both fled for safety. Apparently we were taking the roles of irresponsible tourists, just like we witness with the tourists in the Canadian Rockies each year chasing around bears and elk with their cameras.
Following this run in with he Elephant, we soon hit the lone piece of gravel road on our tour, cruising to a nice feed zone set up just under Sigiriya Rock. For the first time this trip we witnessed hoards of tourists who had come to check out the historic sight. From here we rolled a bit further to check into Aliya resort, one of the nicest resorts on the Island. What a treat it was to stay in such a luxurious setting complete with a pool in the jungle, and a beautiful deck to enjoy our dinner on overlooking the jungle below. With limited time on our hands, we had a late afternoon expedition to hike up to Sigiriya rock to go into full tourist mode for a few hours. This was a walk to remember climbing up steep ladders, through ancient ruins, and eventually to the top of the rock, around 190 vertical meters above the jungle below. It was an amazing 360 view from the top with rolling hills and the ocean in the distance. After returning to the hotel we had another Sri Lankan feast at the open buffet full of fresh fish, veggies, fruits and local tastes such as Egg Hoppers. None of us wanted to leave this resort behind but we had another solid day ahead, so it was early to bed so we could awake at 6am to prepare for a 140 km, 3000 vertical meter ride into the central Hills of Sri Lanka!
Stage 3 started off on a rolling road through the forest before hitting the first feed zone of the day at the 50 km mark. The feed zones the Sri Lankan support team set up for us were unreal, often taking in the local options such as Coconut stands, or fruit markets. The fresh fruits and coconuts in Sri Lanka are second to none and made for some ideal fuel to get through these big days. This day we were in for a surprise as they organized fresh tea, and head/shoulder massages for us at the first stop. None of us wanted to leave this relaxing oasis! We had a big day on deck so we eventually got the wheels rolling again, heading towards Kandy, the 2nd biggest city in the country. Kandy is a scenic city surrounded by hills with tea plantations, a diverse rainforest, and a nice lake right in the middle of everything. Riding through the town with a police escort was exciting. The police would essentially part the sea of cars and people for us to ride through, the trick was to stick close to the police motorbikes as the sea of chaos would quickly flow back into the streets as soon as they passed. As we got closer to them, the more they sped up and pretty soon we were ripping through town. It was interesting to see the reactions from the different riders we had as the ones from Africa and Asia seemed right at home with this excitement while those coming from pretty regulated countries like Australia, USA and Canada were a bit overwhelmed!
Stopping for a feed zone break after Kandy gave everyone a chance to collect and calm their nerves before hitting the big climb to finish the day at a Tea resort half way into the mountains. Here we had a pit stop at one of Sri Lanka’s stunning tea gardens, complete with local Sri Lankan ladies to greet us in their colourful dresses, with fresh tea in hand. The tea plantations in Sri Lanka are amazing, whole mountain sides will be manicured into these amazing gardens, producing some of the best tea leaves in the World. At this stop we also had a large buffet lunch on hand, about half of us wanted to keep riding the last 30 km uphill to our hotel for the night in Near Eliya so we tried to control ourselves. We knew from previous buffets it is pretty much impossible to self regulate, so we opted for the lighter option of fresh tea and coffee before the last climb. On this section we were treated to an awesome switchback road climb up through the tea gardens to the cooler climates up around 2000 meters. After some steady long days in the saddle, we opted to open it up into a small race to test the systems out as many of us were preparing for big races in the year ahead. It was great to get up into the Sri Lankan highlands with the fresh air, friendly locals and green jungle surrounding the area.
Stage 4 was a bit of a recovery day as we were all starting to feel the effects from the previous big days. This ride was a rolling 60km through the highland hills, passing some interesting ridge top towns and again an endless sea of Tea gardens. The finish was a pretty wild twisty decent into the tourist town of Ella, where we set up in a jungle camp for the night. After lunch we all headed off on a short half hour hike to the historic 9 Arches bridge to witness a train cross at 4pm. We waited and waited and waited as we quickly learned trains don’t run on Swiss time in Sri Lanka. There were nearly 100 tourists at the train bridge hanging out, when we got to witness another spectacle, a dog fight between the north and south side gangs. One sad thing in Sri Lanka is the number of street dogs. Here at the 9 Arch bridge, there was a dog pack patrolling either side of the bridge. At one point a couple dogs invaded from the North side, ending up in a massive brawl between the two packs. It was pretty wild, with the locals eventually stepping in to break it up as the dogs retreated to their respected sides of the bridge. Finally a train even came through, which was cool, but after the dog fight battle royale it was a bit anti-climatic!
After this most riders headed back to chill at the pool side bar in camp while Jason English, Usha and myself hired a TukTuk to take us on a snack hunt. The street food in Sri Lanka is some of the best in the World, highlighted by bowl shaped dosas made out of rice flour called Hoppers. The Tuk Tuk driver took us to a local restaurant where we ate as many egg Hoppers, rice dumplings and coconut treats as we could, all for $3, before cruising back to Camp. At camp we had a nice evening chilling by the pool with the other riders and Airline staff before retreating to our jungle retreat for the night. It was a nice experience sleeping in large canvas tents with the sounds of the surrounding nature filling the night.
Stage 5 started with an epic descent as we headed from the hills back to the flatlands below on a curvy road through the jungle with Monkeys and waterfalls around every corner. Once on the lowlands we regrouped at a feed station while waiting for a couple park rangers to arrive. We had a 40km section of riding coming up through a dense forested national park and needed protection from the wild elephants. On this section we were cruising at 40 + km/hr on the flat road with a generous tailwind. Unfortunately we didn’t see any Elephants but did witness a few herds of deer. Pretty soon we were cruising into the Ella Flower garden resort for the night. With the nice roads we witnessed this day, 6 of us opted for another 40 km with our police escorts to explore more of this Sri Lankan wonderland. The police escorts and us riders became pretty good friends over the course of the week, it was pretty rad to have their guidance clearing the roads for us and they seemed to really enjoying escorting us around. The afternoon was spent relaxing around the hotel pool and again eating copious amounts of delicious Sri Lankan cuisine.
Stage 6 was our final day, a 150 km cruise along the south coastline to the historic Galle Fort. This was the first day the heat really hit us with the sun out and the full heat effects of the this tropical Island blasting down. Ride wise it was a bit busier then other days with weekend traffic as we cruised along some gorgeous beaches and ocean side villages. By the time we hit Galle Fort, many of us had hit over 1000 km on the tour and were ready for a break! The airline support staff saw our slightly heat exhausted states and ordered an ice cream truck to come in. This lucky ice cream man was out of ice cream by the time us 16 riders finished with him and he could go home early! Post ride we changed in the park to get ready for an ocean side lunch, then transferred back up the coast 10 km to a beach resort to watch the sunset from the beach and enjoy a few cocktails. Afterwards we had a bit of a late night transfer to Colombo, where we would stay in the Cinnamon lakeside resort the final 3 nights.
Stage 7 We all woke up pretty tired for one last ride, an early morning cruise around the city to see the sites of Colombo while there was no traffic on the roads. It was a unique experience to get to ride around the city without traffic, enjoying all the monuments and ocean side viewpoints it had to offer. It was a nice cap to what had been a busy week on the bikes. We were all excited to head back to the hotel for a few days of relaxing, refuelling the bodies, and some shopping around the city.
I knew Sri Lanka was a special place but after this tour it felt like we have only touched the tip of the iceberg for what this country has to offer. Somehow this pearl of an Island has stayed off the tourists radar for many years but I suspect it will be found out soon as the word gets out. My suggestion is to come enjoy this paradise right now while it is still calm and authentic as it is truly a hidden gem in this World. Whether it’s a beach holiday to relax, a surfing mission, a safari, or overland adventures such as hiking, biking or photography, there is a lot to do on this relatively small island. Travel is easy to get there, traffic is generally low, and there is also a great train system across the Island. I can’t wait to come back and explore around some more as every corner seems to have a surprise around it. Not to mention one of the best cuisines in the World and it is all very affordable with the generous exchange rates for most currencies. The best part of Sri Lanka though are its friendly locals. Thank you Sri Lankan Airlines for showing us your paradise in the Indian Ocean. We were all blown away and given some amazing memories for a lifetime!
