RACING » SRI LANKA
AROUND THE ISLAND
On Monday morning, we set off to
explore the countryside. Even though the
island isn’t big, driving takes up a lot of
time in Sri Lanka. Roads are narrow and
windy, so its best to factor this into your
planning and slot into the chilled local
timelines on the roads. You don’t go to an
island to rush anywhere aft er all.
The fi rst leg of our trip took us from
the capital on the southwest coast, to
the centre of the round island. Habarana,
where we’d be based for the next two
nights, was our destination. It’s a central
village from where you can explore
Abré and triathlon journalist Kevin
Mackinnon (left ) were part of a
group that explored the highways
and byways of the tropical island.
historical Buddhist shrines and stupas.
On our way to Habarana, we visited
Ruwanweliseya Stupa, built from the
funds of a rich vein of silver found on
the island by King Dutugamunu. Our
guide treated us to coconut rotis with
local spreads, fruit and tea for lunch. He
told us that the modern house on the
grounds of this Stupa can be booked
for only a donation within your means –
defi nitely something to look into if you’re
on a shoestring budget.
We jumped onto a safari truck for a
late-aft ernoon game drive at Minneriya
National Park before checking in at
Cinnamon Lodge in the village. As a
South African, I wouldn’t recommend
this safari. It was overcrowded with
vehicles that signifi cantly outnumbered
elephants. When asking our trusty tour
guide Malik about this, he suggested the
safaris down south. Apparently these
are much better and off er a variety of
unique Sri Lankan animals, along with
Asian elephants.
We rose early the next morning
for our trip to Sigiriya’s mystical rock
fortress, but it was totally worth it. We
could hardly see the giant ‘Lion Rock’
hidden in the mist as we arrived and
started walking through the Jumanji-
like forest with animal sculptures and
rock paintings. As we arrived at the top
and explored the ‘castle in the sky’, the
sun broke through to highlight a special
experience. We hit crowds of tourists
on our way down, so an early outing is
defi nitely the way to go.
We were fortunate to have ex-pro
“IT’S BEST TO
SLOT INTO THE
CHILLED LOCAL
TIMELINES ON
THE ROADS”
PHOTOGRAPHS: KEVIN
much slower than this and aft er a
technical glitch with my watch on the
run, I had no idea I was on track for a PB.
I thought I was bitterly slow by my usual
standards. But I’ll take it and bag a PB!
Staying on the beachfront right next
to race start and transition was ideal. It
made walking to registration, transition,
the race and the aft er party very
convenient. If you’re staying further away,
there are ample tuk-tuk taxis available.
They require good negotiation skills but
are very convenient and help you to soak
up the local experience. Alternatively, the
city also has Uber.