There’s a bit of quiet concern around the group this morning. The rumour is that today will be a massive climbing day. The trip notes say “mainly flat with two challenging hills” but the word is that there are steep ups and downs as soon as we leave the hotel.

Wrong!

The road is delightful straight from the hotel gates. Ever so slightly undulating, fairly low traffic, and with gorgeous views over bright green fields to rocky mountains.

We all keep our eyes peeled for elephants. Though I was told yesterday that the elephants only cross the roads at dusk and dawn, there’s always a chance. But no. There’s plenty of sign of elephants, in the huge bowling ball sized droppings at the side of the road, but no sign of the beasts themselves.

You can’t always trust your trip notes; today we are supposed to pass the Sigiriya rock fortress, at a cross roads where left is for Sigiriya, we turn right. I keep hoping we will swing around somehow and get a glimpse, but no such luck. Instead we wind our way through quiet, lush country roads, and cross a lake over a dam wall.

With the views, the weather (not too hot, thank goodness) this is turning out to be one of those days when it is just great to be on a bike.

The only thing that destroys this feeling are the paparazzi. They have learned a new trick, and it is becoming old already. They sit at the side of the road and wait for us to come near – very close – then they swing out onto the road and drive along in front, slowly, so slowly that we almost bump into the back of the van. If we try to pass they speed away. Alex complains that she is getting lungfuls of diesel fumes, and I’m just sick of it. Next time I see the Nigel, the guy in charge of the cycle part of this trip, I ask him to tell them to back off. Later they seem to be keeping more of a distance, just lurking at the side of the road and leaping out of grass to get yet another shot of a cyclist riding by.

Our lunch stop is beside a river that we have been following for some seven or eight kilometres. An elderly lady who lives in a little mud house nearby comes out, with her tiny kitten to see what’s going on. We use some of her chairs while eating lunch, and offer some food, which she takes gratefully. Deb empties her pack of toiletries that she has been stockpiling from hotels, and I see some of the boys from our support crew giving her water.

Our other lunch companions are monkeys, who leap around in the trees over the river and eye us suspiciously. We’ve been warned that they will sneak in and steal things. One does grab a plastic bag and scurry back up a tree, but when it finds toilet paper in the bag, it drops the roll down onto one of the bikes.

The afternoon is the big ride. We have around 26km to go, and according to the notes there are a couple of big hills. The notes were wrong about Sigiriya , but absolutely right about these hills – a couple of ten-percenters as a heart starter before some beautifully undulating winding road where the grade was no more than five or so, max. Our group spreads out a lot, everybody riding at their own pace. I catch up with Ray – hill gun – shortly before the finish, and pass him on a hill. That spurs him into action (he doesn’t like to be beaten) and powers past me on the downhill. Before the next uphill our guides step out into the road – we are done for the day.

t is a long crawl to Kandy on the bus. We are held up by traffic, and assume this is just normal, but after not moving for some time, and seeing a couple of ambulances pass by, we figure it is more than just regular traffic. Ajith finally tells us that the hold up is due to a Hindu festival going on in the town.

When the traffic finally clears and we start moving again, we pass a brightly coloured Hindu temple that is just seething with people. What an experience it would be to get off the bus and join the crowd. But no, we continue on, arriving at our hotel in Kandy at around 7.
 There’s just time for a quick scrub in the shower before joining the group for a drink in the bar before dinner.

We eat in the hotel restaurant, as we have done for every dinner on this trip. This hotel seems to be a fair way away from Kandy town proper, perched up high on a hill so there’s probably few other options around.
The hotel buffet is pretty wonderful, though, with so much to choose from. I pile up a salad, eat some Indian vegetable pakoras, lotus root curry, and many other dishes. Then I hit the dessert bar for ice cream and lots of little cakes. By the end I’m stuffed, These buffets are dangerous. Too many options equals too much food in me, and despite the hard work today, I’m not sure I’ve earned quite this much.

Stats for the day:

• Distance travelled: 78.2km
• Climb: 584m
• Moving time: 4:01:27
• Average speed: 18.9km/h
• Average temperature: 30C
• See our ride on Strava

Along the way today