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.
608 km from Dambulla to Dambulla, about 14 h 18 of riding. It goes by way of Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, Horton Plains National Park and back through Central Highlands of Sri Lanka. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple is where the day begins. Next is Central Highlands of Sri Lanka.
North of Kandy the hills rise into a jagged massif that British surveyors thought looked like the knuckles of a clenched fist, and the name stuck: the Knuckles Range. It is one of the three parts of the Central Highlands World Heritage site, together with the Peak Wilderness and Horton Plains, and it is the wildest and least visited. The mountains are covered with montane forest, cloud forest at the highest points, grasslands and steep valleys with rivers and waterfalls. The weather changes fast; mist can sweep in over a ridge in minutes, and the air is noticeably cooler than in the plains. Many plants, frogs and lizards here exist nowhere else on Earth.
Read the complete Central Highlands of Sri Lanka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central Highlands of Sri Lanka comes up about 130 km into the recorded legs. Next is Horton Plains National Park.
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.
about 303 km into the recorded legs you reach Horton Plains National Park. Next is back through Central Highlands of Sri Lanka.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Central Highlands of Sri Lanka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, late in the day. Next is Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple. That is the ride.
Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple → Central Highlands of Sri Lanka is 130 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Central Highlands of Sri Lanka → Horton Plains National Park is 173 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Horton Plains National Park → back through Central Highlands of Sri Lanka is 175 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Central Highlands of Sri Lanka → Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple is 130 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.