Cycling far from the madding crowd
“On the backroads-- no buses hooray,” says Pat who has been captured by Pete on camera “somewhere in Ratnapura”
Morning’s peak traffic time at Kaduwela junction! Cars, buses, lorries, trishaws, motorcycles and even bicycles, literally nudging each other, horns honking to get ahead and speed away the moment the lights changed colour.
How would they ever get across this busy intersection, with “rows and rows of traffic”, to get to Malabe, coming from the direction of Avissawella?
Suddenly, the buzz ceases and they are waved on, no jockeying or road hogging……and it is not a bicycle meant for two but two bicycles which sail past, with the second rider raising a hand in a wave of thank you.
It was a “good ending” for a memorable trip on two wheels in this island-nation for husband-and-wife duo, Pete Jarvis (72) and Pat Knowles (70).
Throughout their biking holiday, huge buses in a race to pick up passengers would stop short, with the drivers signalling others to do the same, with tuk-tuks which swerve in and out of traffic causing a nightmare on the roads never being a problem for them.
Pat and Pete after returning to Battaramulla
It is just the day before they fly out of Colombo to their home in the little village of Themines near Figeac in southwest France that we catch up with them to get a kilometre-by-kilometre account of their 29-day holiday from January 29 to February 26, spending a week with family and friends.
It is also not the first time for them, having visited Sri Lanka two years ago for six weeks, exploring the centre and the south on cycles.
For Pete and Pat, the forays on two wheels sometimes have been interspersed with short train and boat rides where they have jumped into these modes of conveyance along with their bikes.
Travelling the long road, on-the-beaten and off-the-beaten track they have stopped and shared meals with humble folk and been given an escort by uniformed children on their own bicycles on their way to school.
Pat and Pete map out their journey, starting from Colombo onto Puttalam by train (as they have done this section by cycle in 2017), disembarking at the Railway Station there; cycling up to the Wilpattu National Park and resting the night and then hitching a ride along with their cycles in a truck, enjoying the solitude and pristine beauty of this wilderness. Once out of the National Park, it was a ride of 56km on their bikes to Mannar.
Resting at the Doric bungalow of British Governor Frederick in Mannar
Having brought their bicycles all the way from France, Pat smilingly reveals that they cycled a distance of 1,181kms during their holiday, ascending heights of 5,389 metres. The maximum distance travelled in a single day was 1,260, with the “peak” being reached just before Beragala at an altitude of 1,036 metres.
Yes, they carried all their clothes with them, along with a few tools as well as their water. Their meals they grabbed on the way and many are the tales they regale the Sunday Times with.
“We bought our food from small boutiques,” says Pete, who loves spicy rice and curry which they could get for Rs. 100 per plate, while stopping over at little guest houses or enjoying home-stays which Pat describes as “wonderful”.
Experiences are repeated with relish and nostalgia……but the rides have not been without their share of challenges. In hindsight, they laugh over the “worst bits” being the 121-km Mannar-Jaffna stretch, attempting to overcome strong headwinds. “It was a very hot day and we had not got acclimatized,” says Pete, adding that their “bottoms hadn’t hardened yet” for the arduous journey.
Spending several nights in the hot and arid Jaffna peninsula, they had taken a long sightseeing tour in a tuk-tuk, sallying down every little alley, most probably putting to shame the hordes of locals who converge on Jaffna from various parts of the country.
Capturing the ‘odd pic’ while on the road
There were also the simple pleasures of being on the beautiful Kokilai lagoon in a fishing boat, going south, with hunger pangs gripping them and being invited with warm smiles and welcoming gestures into “a big, very dark black hole” which turned out to be a fishermen’s canteen and being fed with steaming rottis off the hearth.
Another time, they were hungry and looking for breakfast, when suddenly they came across a little kiosk, with a lot of people seated in the garden, “somewhere” between Wadinagala in Ampara and Siyambalanduwa in Moneragala. To their query, “Are you open?” there had been vigorous nods and Pat and Pete could find chairs but no tables to be served with “a delicious fish curry with all the trimmings”.
It was after they had had their fill that they were told by a woman speaking fluent English that it was not a food stall but a funeral house, where the mother had died the previous night, after which she had introduced them to all the mourners. “We cheered them up,” says Pat.
And the words they have picked up in their sojourns include “isthuthei” (thank you), “inguru te” (ginger tea) and “eka-deka” (one-two), while once when they stopped to buy pineapple, the tables were turned when surprisingly the seller spoke to them in French.
For them, what is “really lovely” is when they travel the tiny unbeaten tracks such as in Kahawa which opened up vistas or the peace and quiet away from the loud buses in Ratnapura, the spectacular eastern coast and interior places such as Maruthamunai where white tourists are a rarity.
They have been fascinated by Batticaloa’s “working fort” with a young man showing them around and taking them into the court canteen for the yummy rottis “stuffed with fish or vegetables and folded into flat rolls or triangles”.
Gal Oya is beautiful with the “most wonderful lighting” as the sun goes down and it is amazing to go on a ‘safari’ without other vehicles and people everywhere, says Pat, adding that the birdlife all over the north as they cycled was “fantastic”.
Add to those “the Jaffna temples and so many of them, crossing the lagoon at Kokilai and most of the two-day ride from Point Pedro to Nilaveli along little roads”, Pat and Pete are sure that Sri Lanka will keep beckoning them back.