Tuesday, April 12th, 2022 – Battaciloa
Apr 17th, 2022 by rallyadmin
18 Bend Road, thunderstorm, petrol stopThe fun starts today. We get all the fuel and gear loaded and head out of the hotel into the morning Kandy rush hour traffic. Frankly, I think that Kandy has a round the clock rush hour but I’m just guessing there.
Around the lake and then a turn to the right and the beginning of the climb up into the mountains. There’s really no break in the traffic. This road is the main route east to the coast.
The road slowly starts developing more and more turns and as we gain elevation, most of the turns become switchbacks. That leads to cars, trucks and buses trying to overtake the slower traffic (think tuktuks and foreigners in rental cars) in all but the shortest straight sections. That doesn’t prevent the occasional blind turn banzai charge of some local driver pushing the envelope. (Especially those truly committed to Article I of the Driving Code. See previous post.)
Of course the real problem is that our traffic is going uphill so the slow vehicles are even slower than they would be on the flat or downhill sections. And the buses going in either direction just barge their way through the slower traffic at what seems like lethal speeds, horns blaring. Again, see Article I.
We finally reach the top of the mountain ridge that makes the spine of the island and start down. This why we came this way, the 18 Bend Road, named for the 18 marked switchbacks on the east side of the mountains.
We promptly rename it the Stelvio after a famous road through the Stelvio pass in northern Italy. The Stelvio in Italy, made famous by the Italian national bicycle race, the Gyro, which climbs this road almost every race. The difference with the Italian Stelvio is that the Italian version has 36 switchbacks and they race UP that Stelvio.
We descend the 18 Bend quite a bit qquicker the we ascended it. A stop about halfway down for some photos and soon we are back on the flat for the rest of the run to our destination for the day, Baattaciloa.
We make good time for about half of the run and then the thunders torn comes. With a vengeance. At first the rain is the odd raindrop. Then the wind picks up. Then the rain picks up.
At first, I try riding without setting up the rain skirts on the tuktuk but the rain intensity picks up and and the wind changes direction. By the time I give in and set jup the skirts, I’m pretty much soaked. I should know better.
The driving really isn’t too bad considering how much rain is on the road and how subject the tuktuk is to side winds. Slowing down helps and the windshield wiper helps visibility more than I thought it would. And slowing down helped the most.
Not long and the rain slows and the storm starts to pass. It’s still overcast but the rain stops and the road starts to dry out. And then the sun re-emerges as we leave the storm behind.
We finally have to deal with the fuel question, as in we need fuel. We aren’t far from our destination but we won’t make it without the fuel stop and we need fuel for tomorrow’s run to nAragum Bay. We come upon a petrol station that is open and has fuel and a very long queue. We get on to the end of the tuktuk queue. (There arev separate queues for cars and tuktuks, motorbikes and diesel trucks, buses and cars.) And wait.
Every few minutes the line inches closer to the fuel pumps and we push the tuktuks a few feet closer. Then the word comes down that the station has closed. All of the tuktuks and cars depart and we are left in a line.
Clemo goes up to the station manager and asks if he will fill the tourists, all 11 of us. And our extra fuel jugs. Now that the rest of the locals have departed, he lets us in and gives us the fuel we need. He’s not being just nice. The Sri Lankan government policy is to fuel the tourists BEFORE the locals. This makes sense as it generates a lot of positive PR when almost everything else at the moment is generating bad PR and is scaring away tourists when they most need them. That would be sensible tourists which we obviously are not.
Fueled, it’s back on the road to Aragum Bay just a few kilometers down the road. It’s been an easy ride and the next day is a rest day. A very welcome rest day at the beach.
Obi
