Tour of Sri Lanka 2025 | Day 22 | Jaffna – Colombo | 457 kms

My alarm woke me at 5 am, and I began packing for my 450km ride to Colombo, my last day in Sri Lanka before flying to India tomorrow. The weather forecast showed cloudy skies and drizzle, confirming the overnight rain. After a quick coffee, I left the hostel around 6:30 am.

The city is still asleep. The roads are quiet and wet. The traffic lights are OFF. I cruise through the empty roads towards the highway. The drizzle is light but manageable. I stop at the ‘Sangupiddi’ bridge for a quick photo. The road to the bridge has water on both sides to it’s level. It looks like the road is floating on water. Up ahead, I have to wait to let the train pass. Cruising ahead, the intensity of the rain increases and I am forced to take shelter and wear my gear and also cover up my stuff.

I don’t want it to get wet and damaged. I am traveling to Mannar first as I need to visit the ‘Ram Setu’ bridge which in the bygone age connected Sri Lanka to India and also has been mentioned in the Ramayana scriptures. To see the bridge, I need to make a detour of almost 65kms from the main highway. The weather clears by the time I reach Mannar around 9am covering 110kms.

I remove my rain gear and proceed towards the Iconic point. I visit both, the ‘Adam’s Bridge’ as well as the ‘Pier’ from which ferry services were available between India and Sri Lanka in the 1990’s before it was damaged due to cyclone and partially also because of the terrorist activities.

Both these viewpoints located 6km apart. Once, I am done seeing both the places, I leave to rejoin the main highway around 10am and once back in Mannar town, stop for a breakfast as I am super hungry. I continue to push forward and pass though back country roads surrounded by greenery. The roads are wet due to constant drizzle. The traffic is little to none.

Just before reaching Puttalam town, I have sliced mangoes tossed with salt and chili in on of the villages which I am passing by. Upon reaching the ‘Puttalam’ town, I stop to have something hot as the cold has really gone into my bones. I have 2 cups of Tea with some cake to get the much needed warmth.

I again wear my rain gear as the drizzling still continues and if I don’t wear one, then sooner or later, I might be completely wet. I continue to push further. The traffic has increased considerably and the roads slightly bad. I move very slowly dodging the city traffic every now and then.

30kms before Negombo town, the sky clears out. I can see sun now which I have missed to see since the morning. I remove the rain gear so that I can dry out my riding gear in the warm dry air. In Negombo, I visit the beach as told to me by my friends. The beach is beautiful and crowded at the same time because of it being a weekend.

I pay the parking fee and explore the beach area for 15-20mins walking along the shores before returning to the bike and making my last push towards my pre booked hostel. I reach around 6:30pm. The trip finally comes to an end. Today, I almost covered 500kms, 4 times my daily running average. I lay the bike to rest and get myself freshened up.

Spend the evening in the hostel cafe sipping tea, writing my diary and chatting with new friends. Later in the evening, I go out to have some dinner following which I return back to the room for a relaxed sleep in Sri Lanka for the very last time.