CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Nuwara Eliya it runs 550 km to Nuwara Eliya; allow about 10 h 12 of riding. On the way it passes Sinharaja Forest Reserve, Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications and back through Sinharaja Forest Reserve. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 72 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Horton Plains is a high, cool plateau in the central highlands of Sri Lanka, at around two thousand metres, and it feels a world away from the island's beaches and jungles. The ground is rolling grassland and patches of stunted cloud forest, wind-bent and covered in moss, with rhododendron and wild flowers at the edges. The air is thin and cold, and in the morning you may see breath and frost on the grass. Sambar deer graze in the open, and the park is home to many endemic birds and to rare small mammals, such as the Horton Plains slender loris.
Read the complete Horton Plains National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Horton Plains National Park is where the day begins. Next is Sinharaja Forest Reserve.
Sinharaja is the last large patch of primary lowland rainforest in Sri Lanka, a dense green world of towering trees, streams and constant dripping humidity in the south-west of the island. The name means lion king, though there are no lions; there are, however, leopards, purple-faced langurs, giant squirrels and an extraordinary number of species found nowhere else, especially birds, frogs and plants. It was listed as a World Heritage site in 1988, and ornithologists come from all over the world to see the mixed flocks that move through the canopy, with blue magpies, jungle babblers and drongos travelling together in noisy, colourful groups.
Read the complete Sinharaja Forest Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sinharaja Forest Reserve comes up about 145 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications.
Galle Fort is one of those places where a wall tells you everything. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to build here, in 1588, but the Dutch, who took the town in 1640, turned it into the formidable stone fortress you see today, with bastions facing the Indian Ocean and a street grid laid out in the European manner. The ramparts run for nearly three kilometres around a small peninsula, and you can walk the whole circuit in an hour or two, looking down on the surf on one side and the red-tiled roofs on the other. A lighthouse, a Dutch Reformed church with grave slabs on its floor, and a clock tower give the town its landmarks.
Read the complete Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 275 km into the recorded legs you reach Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications. Next is back through Sinharaja Forest Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sinharaja Forest Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sinharaja Forest Reserve, late in the day. Next is Horton Plains National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Horton Plains National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Horton Plains National Park. That is the ride.
Horton Plains National Park → Sinharaja Forest Reserve is 145 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sinharaja Forest Reserve → Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications is 130 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications → back through Sinharaja Forest Reserve is 129 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sinharaja Forest Reserve → Horton Plains National Park is 146 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.