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.
A 389 km round trip from Anuradhapura - roughly 7 h 53 in the saddle. It goes by way of Ancient City of Sigiriya, Ancient City of Polonnaruwa, back through Ancient City of Polonnaruwa and back through Ancient City of Sigiriya. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sacred City of Anuradhapura is where the day begins. Next is Ancient City of Sigiriya.
Sigiriya is a rock that looks like a fortress built by giants: a column of red granite rising some two hundred metres above the jungle of central Sri Lanka. In the late fifth century, King Kashyapa, who had seized the throne after killing his father, built a palace on its summit, with gardens, pools and fortifications around its base. The entrance was through the paws of a giant lion carved in the rock, of which only the paws remain. After Kashyapa's death, the palace was abandoned and became a Buddhist monastery. The Ancient City of Sigiriya was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1982.
Read the complete Ancient City of Sigiriya write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancient City of Sigiriya comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ancient City of Polonnaruwa.
Polonnaruwa was the capital of Sri Lanka from the late tenth to the early thirteenth century, after the older capital at Anuradhapura was sacked, and its ruins are spread across a wide area of parkland beside a vast artificial lake. That lake, the Parakrama Samudra, was built by King Parakramabahu I in the twelfth century, and it is a testament to the ambition of the man who famously declared that not a single drop of rain should flow to the sea without serving people first. It still irrigates the paddy fields around the town today.
Read the complete Ancient City of Polonnaruwa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 136 km into the recorded legs you reach Ancient City of Polonnaruwa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient City of Sigiriya write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancient City of Sigiriya, about halfway. Next is back through Ancient City of Polonnaruwa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient City of Polonnaruwa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ancient City of Polonnaruwa sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ancient City of Sigiriya.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient City of Sigiriya write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ancient City of Sigiriya comes up about 311 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sacred City of Anuradhapura.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sacred City of Anuradhapura write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sacred City of Anuradhapura closes the day.
Sacred City of Anuradhapura → Ancient City of Sigiriya is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Ancient City of Sigiriya → Ancient City of Polonnaruwa is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancient City of Polonnaruwa → Ancient City of Sigiriya is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancient City of Sigiriya → back through Ancient City of Polonnaruwa is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ancient City of Polonnaruwa → back through Ancient City of Sigiriya is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ancient City of Sigiriya → Sacred City of Anuradhapura is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.