Breakfast at 6:30am to get an early start on the bikes before the heat and the traffic.  Bright sunshine and already 26c.  Cycled past young Hindu girls heading for the temple, dressed so smarty in bright yellow saffron sari’s.  Sad that we  ran out of time and didn’t get to explore more of the village, the dolomite quarry and the craft workers. We hope to come back, great place.

 

 

 

Our group, plus Marcus, our main guide and Dinesh, Tata driver and Mr T lookalike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cycling on the roads is fun, exhilarating  and a challenge. You have to keep listening and watching, both in front and behind you. Blue private buses are crazy, fast and on a mission: to get to wherever they need to by… a few minutes ago. Roads mainly tarmac, but quite a lot of mud at times. Sadly a dog met his end by the side of a road today.

 

Cycling through busy villages, and workers in paddy fields. They don’t know it’s Sunday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually rather relaxing. Saw loads of spices growing, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, cocoa, coffee and an interesting plant called cocaine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home of the highest Buddha in Sri Lanka.

And great caves with loads of Buddas, dating back over 500 years. Some of the caves are over 2,000 years old, each one filled with various Buddahs, created by kings to show their spirituality. Not so sure. Buddha isn’t a God, but seems to be treated like one by some.

 

This recumbent Buddha is carved out of the rock itself. Still some of the gold leaf can be seen. Impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely end to the day.

Now to food.