Night of 7th April 2012. I was waiting for the Poththuvil bus at Kaduwela junction. The bus was expected in Kaduwela at 9.45p.m. The bus arrived on time. Since we had spoken to the bus crew in advance they had seats reserved for me and Priyanjan. With extra loud music on, the bus sped along deserted roads at night.

We wanted to leave as early as possible but we also wanted to make sure that we see the sunrise from the eastern most point. With what we experienced in the previous day we were determined to ride as much as possible before noon. So we loaded everything in bicycles first and then went to the beach to see the sunrise.

It dawned to the second day of our cycle tour across the country. By 6.00 a.m. we were on the road leaving Uhana, heading towards Polwatta Junction. The Himidurawa road to Polwatta was great cycling route with lots of scenery and diversity.

Dawn of our third day of the tour was a very colorful one. As usual we were on the road by 6.00 a.m. We had to track back about 1km from the temple to find the gravel road through Nilgala forest towards Komana.

The night under stars in Maduruoya National Park was incident free. The first task of the day following morning was to pay an early morning visit to the Ulhitiya reservoir to see the Sunrise. It was just few hundred meters away from the wildlife office. We came back to the main irrigation canal and took the gravel road that ran parallel to the canal.

After a good night sleep we woke up to witness a beautiful morning in the middle of Knuckles range. Plan for the day was to cross over to the A9 highway at Naula, riding through some remote roads winding through knuckles range. As usual the departure time was 6.00 a.m. We thanked ශාන්ත අය්යා for the great help and hospitality and wished them all a happy new year. Then we started our journey towards Puwakpitiya from Illukkumbura via the Sera Ella road.

The 7th day of the tour started early as usual. We paddled along the A9 towards Naula from Nalanda enjoying the beauty of the world around us still waking up.

When we woke up in the morning, rain had stopped completely. The sky was cloudy but it was not all gloomy. It is under these conditions that we set off for the 8th consecutive day on bikes. From Makulpotha-Thalwehera we turned right towards Hakwetuna Oya reservoir with the objective of cutting across the country side to reach Galtenwewa Junction.

Remaining distance to Kandhakuli from our unplanned night park yesterday was 80km. Even though 80km was a bit of stretch to cycle in a single day, we decided that there is no point in breaking the journey for another day. So we were determined to do the full stretch in a day.

It was 5.10 in the morning when I left my home in Colombo. I exited Colombo using the bridge connecting to Handala and went along the Uswetakeiyawa road towards Negambo. For the most part the road was in very good shape and was able to reach Negambo by 8am.