Tuesday January 21, 2014, 103 km (64 miles) – Total so far: 1,311 km (815 miles)
We didn´t sleep very good, as dogs kept on barking all night long, and the mattress gave you that “hammock-feeling”. We were up before the alarm was even ringing. At 6.45 a.m. we already were on our way to the city of Balangoda. The road was narrow and small but so beautiful.
It winded up to a 900m height through tea plantations and lovely mountain scenery. The views were spectacular.
On the back side of the mountain a nice, long downhill was waiting for us, but we couldn´t go too fast because of the narrow curves and the bad pavement. Still we enjoyed it a lot after climbing up for about 40kms.
Then we we cycled quite comfortable in small ups and downs of the road.
About 20kms before Balangoda climbing started again, quite steep. After 80kms of cycling we had to get ourselfs together to go for it. We were really tired and it was just about getting dark, when we arrived in Balangoda, finally.
There are not too much options of guesthouses in Balangoda, and the one in town was fully booked. Again. Like yesterday. This time the reason was not a huge crowed of tourists that suddenly discovered the hidden charm of the town, but an indian bank, that had opened just that very day and the guesthouse was hosting all their managers. Bad luck.
But sri lankan people are nice people, and the guesthouse owner tried to find a solution for us. After some phone calls she offered to sleep in her sister´s private house which was close, only some 50 meters.
We didn´t want to continue the search for a room-it was already dark now, and we were both tired. So, here you go: we slept in the sister´s home (we got the son´s room, who lives in Japan for ten years already) – it was not what we had expected, but anyway o.k. for us.
