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It was bloody hot, thirty degrees plus during the day with 70 % humidity, overnight it drops only five degrees, I’ m sure you can imagine it feels like 50 degrees in full bike gear, tempting me to break the cardinal rule of ' dress for the slide, not the ride '. I put up with being hot, as the last thing I want to do is visit a local hospital!
My motivation to ride in Sri Lanka was to ride past elephants and my search in the first few days was unsuccessful, plenty of elephant poo along the roadways, however they move to the jungle seeking shade during the heat of the day, not discouraged as I still had plenty of time.
Riding from Habarana to Trincomalee was a mixture of bitumen, dirt and some single trail. It was incredible riding through the jungle amass with butterflies. Passing Kaudulla Wara reservoir where at least one hundred eagles fished the edges. I asked Nemo if we would see elephants here, his reply was he hoped not, there was no way to go round them.
So, who’ s Nemo? Nemo was my guide; he took time away from his family in the‘ off season’ to take me around the Emerald Isle. Why is
it the off season? Because of the monsoon, something that I didn’ t consider, didn’ t even hit the grey matter as a thought when I signed up to go ride Sri Lanka.
Approaching the northeast of the island we left the tropical weather behind. Here it’ s temperate: hot and dry. The breeze on the bike was good, however once stopped there was absolutely no breeze, nada, zip, zero, diddly squat!
Trincomalee is a popular spot with tourists, a lot of ocean activities here such as diving, snorkelling and whale watching and most of the tourists I spoke too, mainly from the UK, were
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