The day started off well when the bike that was supposed to be delivered at 8 o’clock turned up at 8 o’clock. Looked fine. Old, but fine.
We went to the bird sanctuary to see flamingos, and quite soon we could see flamingos, or at least we thought they were flamingos. It was a bit hard to be sure because they were so far away. Also, they didn’t look very pink. All in all it was a bit disappointing. Oh well you can’t win ’em all.
We headed north, to go to Adam’s Bridge, that place we’d heard about from an American at Delft Village Stay, who told us Buddha himself had crossed from India to Sri Lanka on foot, using a bridge that has since decayed, and is now no more than a string of tiny islands between the two. You can actually see them on the map if you zoom in close enough.
Anyway, we got up there, pausing en route to take photos of a baby horse – a baby horse! – and although there wasn’t much to see it was very peaceful and we enjoyed watching the birds swooping around and doing their thing.
A little way down the coast was a beach, so we went there, and I went for a swim in the rolling surf which was great. A couple of cheerful young boys joined us, asking the usual ‘Where are you from?’ and etcs. The older one gestured, do you have any water? Charmed by their straightforward and matter of fact way of asking, I said yes, and got the bottle from the bag. They both took a swig, not too much, and returned the bottle with a nod of thanks.
Coming back from the beach, we pulled over at a little restaurant with the catchy name hashtag pizza which despite it sold all sorts of food, local and international, and we ended up getting a salad, which proved to be really very tasty. So nice to have the crunch of fresh vegetables after weeks of noodles, rice and kottu. Not that we aren’t very fond of noodles rice and kottu, especially cooked Sri Lankan style with plenty of heat, but sometimes there’s nothing like a nice big plate of crunchy vegetables.
And then it all started to go wrong. Halfway back I braked for a goat in the road, and the bike stuttered to a halt. I started it again, but I could immediately tell something was wrong. The throttle was completely loose for the first half turn or so. Immediately I thought ‘cable’. We contacted Yvonne back at the hotel, as we had no other contact details, and long story short, half an hour later a couple of young blokes turned up and we used one of their bikes to return to the hotel.
Where, to my amazement not to say anger, Yvonne said the woman who rents the bikes had been on the phone and said it was all down to running out of petrol, and she would be demanding lots more money for the rescue. I said I was having none of it: when the guy picked up the bike, I had him check and he agreed there was petrol in the tank. You could see it sloshing around. Not to mention I’d put two litres in to be on the safe side, which would have covered the distance we’d done today twice over. Fortunately I had video’d the actual culprit – the manifestly dodgy throttle. No way in hell she was getting any more money from us. The worst thing was that nice Yvonne got caught in the middle.
Anyway, they were supposed to pick the bike up at six, and we were there as per, but they didn’t appear. Six-thirty, we left to get my overdue haircut, leaving the hire fee with a guy at the hotel. When we returned, the bike was gone. The barber, meantime, had done a belter of a job. Took a good long while over it, getting the segue from short sides to longer top just perfect, with some very fancy scissor-work, as well as sorting out all the bits that grow where they didn’t oughta when you’re ancient. Honestly can’t remember ever looking so well groomed in my life.
Oh, one last thing: it’s been a real baby day. In addition to the baby horse, we also saw baby goats, baby donkeys, adorable puppies and – get this – as we were coming down the road from Adam’s Bridge, what should cross the road right in front of us but a peahen and three peachicks (I guess they’re called). I thought I’d heard peacock cries earlier, and here was the proof, large (if small) as life.