Why this ride
A 399 km round trip from Matale - roughly 9 h 07 in the saddle. It goes by way of Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple, Sacred City of Anuradhapura and back through Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple. Long stretches are under trees.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Knuckles Conservation Forest and Sacred City of Anuradhapura
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 399 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 9 h 07
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Knuckles Conservation Forest
The Knuckles range gets its name from a row of peaks that, seen from the Kandy side, look like the knuckles of a clenched fist. It rises in the central hills of Sri Lanka, northeast of Kandy, between the dry plains and the wet highlands, and it is cloaked in forest that changes with height from dry scrub to cloud forest, wet montane woods and grassland on the tops. Matale, about twenty kilometres away, is the nearest town of size, and Kandy lies not much further.
Read the complete Knuckles Conservation Forest write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Knuckles Conservation Forest is where the day begins. Next is Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple.
2. Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple
The rock at Dambulla rises some hundred and fifty metres above the plain in the dry heart of Sri Lanka, a great bald dome of granite, and in its upper flank five caves hold one of the most extraordinary Buddhist shrines in Asia. Tradition says King Valagamba sheltered here in the first century BC when he was driven out of Anuradhapura, and that after regaining his throne he turned the caves into a temple in gratitude. Monks had been using them long before that, and kings went on adding to them for centuries.
Read the complete Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple comes up about 129 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sacred City of Anuradhapura.
3. Sacred City of Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura was the capital of Sri Lanka for well over a thousand years, and it still feels like a capital of a certain kind, one made of brick, water and devotion. Standing in the dry zone, in the flat north-central plains, it grew from a settlement of the fourth century BC into the heart of a Buddhist kingdom that built huge dome-shaped dagobas, monasteries and reservoirs. The great tanks, or artificial lakes, were the engineering marvel that made rice farming possible in an area with scarce rainfall, and you can see several of them from the road, wide mirrors of water ringed with palms.
Read the complete Sacred City of Anuradhapura write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 200 km into the recorded legs you reach Sacred City of Anuradhapura. Next is back through Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple.
4. back through Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple, late in the day. Next is Knuckles Conservation Forest.
5. Knuckles Conservation Forest
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Knuckles Conservation Forest write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Knuckles Conservation Forest. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Knuckles Conservation Forest to Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple
Knuckles Conservation Forest → Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple is 129 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple to Sacred City of Anuradhapura
Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple → Sacred City of Anuradhapura is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sacred City of Anuradhapura to back through Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple
Sacred City of Anuradhapura → back through Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple to Knuckles Conservation Forest
back through Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple → Knuckles Conservation Forest is 129 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.