e2e.bike

Cycling adventures across Britain and beyond

Menu
  • End to Ends
    • Britain
    • Ireland
    • France
    • Belgium
    • Spain
    • Austria
    • Liechtenstein
    • Poland
    • Slovakia
    • Isle of Man
    • Faroes
    • Cuba
    • Sri Lanka
    • Taiwan
  • Coast to Coasts
  • Yorkshire Ridings
  • Others
  • Writings
Menu
← PreviousNext →

Sri Lanka 16: Anuradhapura

Posted on 29 January 20152 April 2021 by Rob Ainsley


A pleasant, easy day on the bike, exploring Anuradhapura’s extensive ancient ruined sacred city, dagobas and stupas. I wasn’t sure what a dagoba was, but here is one (pic). When this was built, about 1200 years ago, only two Egyptian pyramids were bigger. I’m still not entirely sure what it is, but it’s solid, and made of an awful lot of bricks. Enough, it’s calculated, to build a wall ten feet high from London to Edinburgh, which would make the A1 even more difficult for pedestrians to cross.


Lots of monkeys live around the dagobas, and like to climb up the steep walls. It all looks very precarious (pic).


The ruins are spread out over several square miles, with living villages in between, making a bike the best way to explore them (pic). I was glad not to be in a tour coach, or a motor-trike taxi, constantly stopping at handicraft stalls. I was more interested in fruit juice.


I was rather taken with this pair of swimming pools, built around 800 and used by monks. The deep end is 17 feet, so they must have had a pretty high diving board.


And I liked this frieze of elephants guarding yet another dagoba. But by lunchtime I was dagoba’d and stupa’d out (and had seen the Famous Two Thousand Year Old Sacred Bodhi Tree, which looked like, well, a tree). It was time to go back to town for a cheap and delicious curry, eaten with fingers, in a local restaurant, and some more fruit juice. (No pic – my fingers were too sticky to use the camera.)

Miles today: 15
Total miles: 385
Miles since Dondra Head: 347

Previous
←   Sri Lanka 15: Sigiriya to Anuradhapura
Next
Sri Lanka 17: Anuradhapura to Vavuniya →

You are here

e2e.bike > End to Ends > Sri Lanka > Sri Lanka 16: Anuradhapura

Recent Posts

  • Helmsley: Star line-ups 2 February 2023
  • Ripon: Up secret valleys, down Cathedral rabbit holes 23 January 2023
  • Castle Howard: Bridleway Revisited 20 January 2023

Random Posts

  • Thirsk: Thoroughly vetted8 July 2021
    Both the 1980s and 2020s TV settings of All Creatures Great and …
  • Wales 3: Llandrindod Wells to Hafren Forest23 September 2020
    I had a quick morning spin around Llandrindod Wells’s lake (pic). Locals …
  • Skipsea: Till the coast crumbles22 September 2016
    Yorkshire’s Holderness coast is one of the strangest places to cycle in …

Search e2e.bike

Find me

        
Facebook • Twitter • Linked In • Email
© 2023 e2e.bike | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme