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 745 km to Nuwara Eliya; allow about 16 h 13 of riding. The stops in between: Peak Wilderness Protected Area, 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. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 Peak Wilderness Protected Area.
At the heart of Sri Lanka's hill country rises a sharp cone of rock that Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians all hold sacred. Sri Pada, known to many as Adam's Peak, stands at 2,243 metres, and on its summit is a large depression in the rock shaped like a footprint. For Buddhists it is the footprint of the Buddha; for Hindus, of Shiva; for Muslims and some Christians, of Adam. The mountain lies within the Peak Wilderness Protected Area, a large expanse of montane forest that is part of the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka World Heritage site, listed in 2010.
Read the complete Peak Wilderness Protected Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peak Wilderness Protected Area comes up about 94 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 243 km into the recorded legs you reach Sinharaja Forest Reserve. 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.
Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications, about halfway. 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 sits at 237 km, about halfway. Next is back through Peak Wilderness Protected Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Peak Wilderness Protected Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Peak Wilderness Protected Area comes up about 644 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Horton Plains National Park closes the day.
Horton Plains National Park → Peak Wilderness Protected Area is 94 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Peak Wilderness Protected Area → Sinharaja Forest Reserve is 149 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → back through Peak Wilderness Protected Area is 142 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Peak Wilderness Protected Area → Horton Plains National Park is 101 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.