Today we cycled late in the day as the morning was taken up learning about all things related to herbs and spices with a lovely tour of a spice garden. The guide was really knowledgeable and a qualified herbalist (whatever one of those is) and clearly very compelling as my fellow cyclists seemed to buy up large in the shop at the end (although I never did establish if anyone bought his much recommended aphrodisiac).

The qualified herbalist explaining his wares

Control those emissions with this alleged aphrodisiac

We also all got a back, neck and shoulders massage, or at least, as much of these things that could be accessed with your clothes still on. This had to have been the most pummelling massage I’ve ever experienced and very welcome, although if I’m picky it would have been all the more so at the end of a cycling day rather than in advance.

This was followed by the much heralded coconut scraping competition. Who would have imagined it could be so difficult and I came a clear last with my basket only sporting a very meagre offering of the white stuff? The prizes were tea towels and nowhere near as cute as the tea cosies from the tea picking contest so I was pleased not to have to bulk out my luggage any further.

The meagre results of my ineffectual coconut scraping, as evidenced by my coconut still sporting most of its flesh

The winners of the coconut scraping contest – clearly people with more muscle than me!

We had a brief demonstration of things that can be made with a coconut, including the ubiquitous coconut sambal and these strange deep-fried snacks made out of coconut milk and rice flour. They were crispy, but otherwise fairly tasteless, but I do feel bad confessing this opinion as they were quite labour-intense.

After yet another buffet, this one of higher calibre than some others we’ve experienced, we all thought we’d be off cycling. Alas no! Now we were off to some rock temples. This involved us all buying sarongs on the way. I’m not sure why as some of us already had our arms and legs covered but it was decided we should get matching ones for the photo opps and I must say, they did seem to add a certain je ne sais quoi, even if we improvised with a few metres of the very cheapest pink fabric cut into seven pieces. I had a slight and unjustified grumpiness about climbing 500 steps in the heat of the day without having been forewarned but the temples were impressive and I was pleased I pulled myself together.

The cycling at last commenced on back roads along the side of a river and we saw many children bathing in the river, one girl even attempting to run across water from the other side the get to us to say hello. There were also animals including monitor lizards and it was generally very pleasant until the rain set in. And by rain, I mean an absolute deluge. The conditions became ever more difficult and us ever more soaked through and then group separation occurred with the quickest cyclists trying to get to the hotel faster only to become separated yet further such that when our slow group turned up, only one of the other cyclists had made it. Cue much agitation about the missing cyclists and frantic setting off back down the road by the cycle guide and driver-guide but all was eventually fine and we were all reunited. This hotel was also the best of the trip – lovely big rooms set in lush gardens in the countryside – except that this buffet was so huge it was all very coach trip-holiday camp-esque and not terribly authentic. Still, the wine choice was extensive and the beer cold – just what was needed after such an eventful day.

I like a good city tour as much as the next person but I don’t tend to buy into the obligatory shopping that most tourists get subjected to on arrival in a new country. I’ve lost count of the number of “interesting” tours I have completed in my time that end in a shop where “you can buy something if you like”. Papyrus factories in Egypt; strange liqueur breweries in Cambodia; demonstrations of tapa cloth art in Fiji and so the list goes on. And so it was when we ended up at a gem factory in Kandy during our only day off during the cycling. The mining technique was certainly fascinating. The exhibition of gems likewise and many I had not seen before. I don’t really know much about jewellery and don’t have many valuable or genuine items as I tend to go for more chunky costume items. The benefit of being indecisive is that costume jewellery is cheap and you can therefore replace it when you tire of it or fashions change. But I had no idea that Sri Lanka was the largest source of sapphires in the world and when we were steered up the stairs after a tour of the modest museum, I was totally unprepared for what laid ahead of me. A quick 5 minute round of the things of sale would suffice and then we’d be out of there, credit card intact and then we’d be off to the next stop on the tour, where no doubt there would also be things for sale. But no, my very quick walk around the gem display led to my eye being well and truly caught by a chunky white gold ring containing red sapphires (rubies to you and me) and I just had to have it. Expensive? Yes. Looked great? Yes. Would I wear it? Yes. Would it remind me of the trip? Of course. Did I deserve it? Hell, yes. And that was that. I exited this particular stop of the tourist trail with my credit card gently sighing in my purse but my purchase pleases me immensely. I don’t have any rings. No-one else is going to buy one for me, I love it and let’s just leave it at that. At least they gave me a free cup of tea for my troubles…

After the gems, it was off to a batik factory. The ladies’ work was impressive and I enjoyed the explanation. The stuff on sale was not so great and was eschewed by all of us; even the lovely things in the shop left untouched due to crazily inflated costs.

Batik work

Batik work

An hour of free time in Kandy town centre was spent shopping by most people but my finances were still re-adjusting and I spent most of the time people-watching and taking photographs. After this we were on to possibly our worst lunch stop of the trip, another tourist buffet, this time with too many people stuffed into an insufferably hot room and plentiful but poor quality food. I usually find that the volume of food on offer at a buffet to be inversely proportional to its quality and this was a case that most definitely proved my point.

Next, it was quick trip up a viewpoint over the town which was nice enough but not spectacular and then on to tour of the Temple of the Tooth Relic, the main temple in Kandy. It was a lovely temple with a lot of colour but so many visitors with it being the weekend and getting around was tricky enough, let alone with a guide whose English was very difficult to follow (at least, I think he was speaking in English but the jury is still out on this one). The next itinerary stop of a display of traditional Kandyan dancing and music was not to everyone’s taste and probably double the length of time it needed to be but I enjoyed it. The colours, dancing, acrobatics were impressive; the repetitive beat of the drum and tuneless flute music less so.

View of Kandy

Souvenir stalls at the lookout over Kandy

Flower offerings at the temple in Kandy

Kandyan dancers

Back at the hotel, it was Happy Hour and so it was on to the mojitos. The chef kept reappearing at the bar to ensure we would be going for the usual buffet dinner in the soulless dining room. Today, he promised, he would have wine available at the table, unlike the previous day when we had had this huge rigmarole of purchasing it in the bar and struggling to pay as that seems to involve multiple overly complex processes which cannot be simplified or hastened. He also promised some very special food, namely egg hoppers, a traditional Sri Lankan culinary offering we had surprisingly not encountered before (and never saw again, as it happens), along with live music with a DJ. The meal the night before had been a very average dining experience and we were not convinced. But actually, he delivered and, as it turned out, the owner of the hotel also happened to be dining in the restaurant that night…

So, all in all, it was lovely to have a day off and the events gave us a taste of Kandy without being overly stressful. The dancing into the small hours certainly limbered us up to continue on our way on the bikes the following morning.

And, with the benefit of the passage of a little time, do I regret spending so much money on my bling? Not at all.

Having never really cycled before, the prospect of 55 kms all steeply downhill from 2400 metres above sea level to just 400 metres, was a little daunting to say the least, not helped by a misunderstanding meaning that the first 16 kms were cycled with us wearing our normal clothes and not cycling gear.

But I soon got the hang of it and it was truly a-maz-ing to the extent that the middle 10 kms where we cycled two quite long uphill stretches and otherwise remained on the flat, I felt positively cheated! I actually managed to overtake people on the downhills and did not finish last for a change.

The cycling was interspersed by a visit to a tea plantation where we picked tea leaves, aided and abetted by some local women who were more than happy to be paid to help us in our quests to collect the most leaves in 15 minutes.

The winners of the tea picking contest stand in their Olympic positions

The countryside today was just spectacular – beautiful lime green tea plantations that stretched as far as the eye could see, garden supply stores overhanging the steep mountains, rocky outcrops and lovely little mountain villages with the requisite colourful temples and local roadside cafes serving delicious snacks.

On arrival in Kandy, we were treated to a wonderful picnic lunch in the Paredeniya Botanical Gardens and were then relieved to find that the facilities at our hotel were a step up from Fawlty Towers the night before.

There was not only a pool but a bar with happy hour cocktails, plug sockets that worked, showers that did not flood the bathroom and a balcony with a view from every room overlooking a river from where we could see the sun setting.

And – the following day was going to be a rest day. So overall, another really great day and what a relief to now be half way through the cycling.

Day 3 started with a lovely trip to an elephant orphanage to see baby elephants being bottle fed. The most impressive observation was the sheer number of school children visiting the orphanage, many of whom were delighted to see us and talk with us.

Friendly children at the elephant orphanage

“I’m not sure about the strange lady with the camera”

After making a donation to fund some milk for the elephants, we were off on the bikes. It was a day of gradual climbing but nothing too strenuous and a welcome relief from the difficult terrain of the day before.

We made more stops for refreshments and ended our journey with coconut rotis before boarding our bus to climb more steeply towards our lunch stop at Ella, taking in a waterfall with a resident monkey population on the way.

Lovely friendly locals at a fruit and coconut stop en route

Hotel at Ella built into the steep hillside

Monkey at a picturesque waterfall stop near Ella

Then it was time for an ayurvedic spa treatment, “prescribed” for us by an ayurvedic “doctor”. Not only were we placed communally into a giant pizza oven to steam, pummelled and massaged with oils (literally all over) then placed in a coffin-like steam bath for yet more heat, but this whole process appeared to turn me orange.

We climbed yet further to Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka’s highest town and checked in to the local equivalent of Fawlty Towers only with several Basils and Manuels. What more can you do when faced with a hotel lacking the basics (including a bar!) than bring your own supplies and interact with the other guests? We made friends with the Indian tour group checking in at the same time only to discover the following day that some of them were actually Sri Lankan government officials! As is often the case, triumph arises out of adversity and this was probably one of the most fun nights on the entire trip!

Do enjoy the video which explains the day! xx

Day 2 of cycling began well. The ladies were all looking pretty in pink, we had a lovely view of the beach from our hotel and a drive down the coast.

Initially cycling was great with several colourful temples en route, plenty of friendly locals waving to us and some interesting stops for fruit and coconuts.

But it was a day of gradual climbing and it became hotter and more humid all the time. Eventually it became evident that there was a slow group and a faster group. In order to stay with the slow group, the guide sent the faster group down an alternate route to the hotel along the main road as this meant they were not likely to become lost. The slower group went cross country down increasingly scenic tracks with rice paddies, banana and coconut plantations, all alongside a river. But the heat and humidity took their toll and a couple of us became exhausted, probably to the point of heatstroke. We reluctantly gave in a took a tuk tuk for the last 3 kilometres, topped off by jumping in the pool at the hotel fully clothed in order to get some relief.

Fortunately recovery was quick and the afternoon was spent elephant watching in the Ude Walawe national park.

The first day of cycling was complicated by all sorts of things – a late start due to landing so late the previous night (actually, the same day!), a visit from Variety for which we had been given an earlier time and a prolonged boat cruise to a temple which was a Sri Lankan hour, ie 2 hours.

Then we had a very strange fish curry for lunch. This was followed by being measured for the bikes, changing into cycling gear and all that entails and actually starting.

It was near enough 50 kms during which I was pleasantly surprised that I can actually cycle, albeit slower than anyone else.

However, we then arrived late to Galle so did not get the promised city tour and we arrived to our hotel on the beach at Ahangama too late to enjoy it. Nonetheless, the gins and tonics were much appreciated, even if they were, by their own admission, a bit cheap! In this video, I explain all. Enjoy!

Day 1 in Sri Lanka: arrival at 3am. Blogging has been hampered by dodgy wifi. Apologies to those who may have already seen this on Facebook…

Today was a rubbish day on the cycling front. Part of me feels I’m hideously under-prepared; the other part that I’m over-thinking the whole thing and it will be fine. The realist in me knows that the problem is lack of fitness but the lack of cycling savvy just makes it seem even worse. It’s too late now but I really wish I’d taken some sort of cycling lessons. After a terrible hour on the bike where I felt almost hopeless, I returned to the car in search of the water I’d accidentally left behind and, to add insult to injury, it started raining. I sank back into the car seat and made a sad video where perhaps I could be labelled as a cross between a catastrophist and a drama queen.

After running some chores, I returned home and by now the sun was back out and it was a glorious late afternoon. I remembered how much I love living where I do. The sun was coming through the trees, the cicadas were singing and I could the neighbours’ children playing and laughing in the distance. I am so lucky. I have just the best neighbours. In my previous few houses I didn’t really know the neighbours. In fact, I haven’t really had much to do with neighbours since I lived with my parents in our childhood home. Now I have neighbours who bail me out when I lose my handbag and resort to sleeping in the garden; neighbours who help push my car when I get it stuck on the driveway in a cyclone; neighbours who repair my car when I have my latest crash; neighbours who invite me in for wine and my fabulous next door neighbours who take out my bins, help me with my bike, feed my cats when I’m away and generally take care of me. In return, I give nothing – except I am generous with the trick or treaters at Hallowe’en. I don’t know what I have done to deserve to live down the same driveway as these amazing folk but I’m very grateful that I do. My next door neighbours have had their own sadness recently and yet this week, they have made me feel like a princess. So I sat in my garden and made another video. Here they both are, chalk and cheese and yet both are me just a few short hours apart!

Enjoy!

It’s been a trying week and the cycle challenge of a lifetime is now just a few days away. In readiness, I have been dealing with my difficult feet… This has led to what I shall simply call Footgate. The video says it all really. In response to overwhelming feedback from the delicate amongst you, I have purposely not included any photos or video of the trotters themselves.

Other gems in this video include:

• Mention of some other inspirational fundraisers – the Starship Troopers
• Tales of other cyclists’ nether regions
• Confusion about the term “pedalling softly”
• The best little drink yet
• A final plea to help me get to 50 bikes to donate to underprivileged Kiwi kids. We can do it!

Until next time xx

The cycle trek begins in only just over a week and I’m ramping up the fretting… I think the video for this one says it all.

Do enjoy – it’s a goodie. For good measure I’ve included a gratuitous photo of my cat ASBO for no other reason than he was looking quite cute.

Until the next time x