I took a short walk to the beach over the railway tracks. The sunshine felt good and I took a stroll along the beach.  I had to shrug off a ‘beach boy’ tout. We had an interesting chat but it went unsaid that I knew his ‘game’.  I refused to share a drink at a nearby cafe and made it clear that I was not there to engage in any business.  Mount Lavinia hotel, the former residence of the British  governor, has a prominent position next to the sea. The surrounding district is quite pleasant and has a colonial atmosphere with matching architecture.

It is extraordinary that I had such good accommodation in Mount Lavinia at a reasonable price. I had to recover from the long flight and get used to the time difference but my focus was on preparing my bike and panniers for the journey ahead. The hostel owner; Priyani allowed me to store some things at the house and lighten the load on my bike. The  nearby Galle Road was always heavy with traffic and the air was horrible. I took a walk late that evening along the  busy main road and in the darkness managed to fall into a deep hole. Ouch. There is little in the way of pavements and where there are paving stones they are uneven and often missing. I was lucky not to really hurt myself.

The next day I headed South along the coast and then turned off the Galle Road  inland on the A8 towards Ratnapura. It was bloody hot and the fumes from the traffic were suffocating.

An excellent start. Sri Lankan airways took good care of my bike. I had removed the handlebar, rear mech and pedals. The frame was padded with pipe liners and the whole thing was popped into a CTC plastic bag. I was a little overweight on my luggage and paid an extra £20. Interestingly and on the advice on my brother I had taken my NewYork bike lock in my carry on bag. But the officials would not have it and called it a blunt heavy object. So I had to go back through to the check in and submit it as luggage. The Sri Lankan check in staff would not take it alone even in a stuff pack. But suggested I put it in my hand luggage and they would take that as baggage with no extra charge. That worked out fine although I did miss having a few items with me on the plane.

The flight was great. A little cramped in economy which was not helped by my largish neighbour who spilled over into my seat space. This made eating the in flight meals a little difficult as my arms were somewhat pinned to my sides. I guess this is one of the joys of flying cheaply.
Colombo airport was relatively small and a few hundred metre walk took me to the immigration desk. Everyone needs to fill in a small form to present with their passport. It asks for the address to stay. Since all my extra documents went with my checked luggage I had to rely on my accommodation confirmation email. At this point O2 decided I was out of data allowance. Oh dear… I simply wrote down the address as I could remember it although I got the house number wrong. But it was fine to get through passport control.
At baggage reclaim my bike had been placed by the conveyer belt before I got there so I think it had been specially carried there. Everything looked fine. Once I had got out of that area with my bags and changed some Sterling to Sri Lankan Rupees I set about reconstructing my bike. I drew a small audience and felt like I was doing some kind of product demonstration. I noted the rear cantilever brakes had taken a little pressure but were still intact. Everything was fine and my fear that the wheels and spokes might have taken a beating quickly evaporated. I bought and swopped in a new nano sim from Etisalat on my phone from a stand in the arrival lounge.
Traffic along the main road leading into Colombo was busy. I quickly got used to the slightly anarchic way everyone drives. Everyone is surprisingly careful but you do need to have your wits about you. Tuk tuks, lorries, buses and scooters all mingle well. Nothing moves too quickly which allows for careful judgement. This in turn allows people to engage in all kinds of manoeuvres which would be frowned upon back in the UK. In some respects I felt safer than in London traffic where everyone hurtles with abandon providing they are driving to the rules and often over the speed limit.
I went through to the centre of Colombo and the Main St. stopping only for a bottle of  7up and to speak to some motorcycle cops. The police were quite friendly and had stopped me out of curiosity. It was humid and rained a little. It felt like monsoon weather.
Once past the Galle Face Walk and where I got my first view of the Indian Ocean, I found the Galle Road heading South. It is a nasty busy commercial road with little to recommend it. As the light faded I walked my bike the last mile or two into the  coastal suburb of Mount Lavinia.

The home stay accommodation I had booked is basic but very good and quite private. I have a ground floor double room with en suite shower room. It is next to a large kitchen. All is for guests but aside from the delightful proprietor I did not see anyone else. Quiet and comfortable. A great way to end an exciting first day.

Finally and very happily I have decided to take a steel touring bike to India. Specifically I am looking at touring Sri Lanka, Nepal and Kashmir. The first stage would be to arrive at Colombo in Sri Lanka and cycle through to the centre of the Island. This would take in Kandy and the ‘cultural triangle’. My initial thoughts are to find the East coast and then travel North to Jaffna. Northern Sri Lanka has been off limits since the early 80’s owing to the conflict between the Government and Tamil separatists. Only recently have travel restrictions been lifted and a fair number of  curious visitors or ‘war tourists’ from other parts of Sri Lanka have visited the area for the first time.

It has been sometime since I have used or updated this blog. Humble apologies to friends and colleagues that followed my touring adventures with interest. It remains an unfinished travelogue partially from laziness and partially from a personal indifference to processing my thoughts into words (must do better).

I did not finish detailing my bike ride from the Channel to The Mediterranean. Much was left in note form on my iPad. When I found the time to write those notes it was often very late after a long tiring day having cycled for up to 8 hours. Power was a major problem too. Electronic gadgets are great… and so very useful but without power they become a dead weight. I found that I had to write things up once I had returned home. I guess a pencil and notebook would have been handy on the road. But motivation to write is probably the most important factor and by the time I am back home I have already moved on.

This year (2012) I moved on to Scandinavia. I took my Dawes Galaxy on the ferry to the Hague and then cycled through North Holland into Germany. From there I found my way via Lubeck to Denmark. I hopped from the islands of Lolland, Langeland and Aero to the North West coast of Fyn. Then East via Odense to Vestsjaelland tracking along the North coast to the port of Helsingor. A quick ferry across to Sweden and up the West coast to Goteborg. Then back to the Northern tip of Jutland in Denmark cycling across to the West coast down to Esjberg. A brief trip back to the German border before taking the Esjberg ferry back to Harwich in the UK. All in all it took me the best part of a month during which I missed the entire Olympic games in London. The bike handled very well and the weather was a bit crap. The most memorable experience is attempting to cycle against a gale force wind South along the beach from Blokhus in Northern Jutland. I hope that I never, ever, have to do something like that again.

I tend to to do stuff rather than process or capture it for review. ‘Capture’ seems all the rage nowadays. I would argue,as a general observation, that people experience less of life now but observe so much more via media. Information has become a modern god that is worshipped at every opportunity. Life is increasingly experienced through a lens, TV, smartphone or computer etc. People have never been more connected with each other and yet more disconnected at a personal level. Reminds me of EM Forster’s short story; The Machine Stops in which people are reduced to observers with little capacity for humanity.  But on the other hand the liberation of communication for the masses  is pretty cool eh?

That said I do wish I had more records of my past experiences. So much gets lost with the passage of time. Life has been brilliant. From a rural upbringing, excellent schools, beautiful girls and wonderful family life; it has been a roller-coaster ride with few regrets.  I played in some cool bands, toured, recorded, met some great people along the way and had some amazing friends. After graduation and marriage I put my shoulder to the yoke of the NHS and then saw over 20 years of my life disappear in the blink of an eyelid.  My life, although less exciting as it once was, still remains an experience in the here and now. Having dropped a fairly subversive ‘rock n roll’ London lifestyle of my youth for family life in Cambridge I am now in the fortunate position to spend a little more time following my own path.

I have been busy planning a big trip to the Indian Subcontinent.