After just over a year and bit over 40,000km we got back home September 2007- back to the desk job and grateful to all the people that supported and kept in touch and the generous and friendly people along the way.
And we owe a lot to the bike that managed to do the distance, most of it on poor quality fuel, without any servicing apart from the oil and filter changes. If you are wondering, we did have total of 3 punchers.

Rode 2,500km from Sevilla to The Hague in Holland before taking the ferry from H. van Holland to Harwich, England.

Spent nearly four weeks in beautiful ancient city of Sevilla waiting for the bike to arrive. Things get very hot in the summer months in Sevilla.

After a 5weeks in Sri Lanka it was time to leave Asia and head back to Europe. The bike had already arrived in Barcelona. The bike was meant to be delivered to Sevilla but likelihood of that happening not good, after a lengthy delay and endless excuses by the Spanish shipping agent we decided to go to Barcelona to collect the bike ourselves. The bike had arrived in one piece and needed a rear tyre replacement quite badly before riding down to Sevilla.

Galle, fourth largest city/town (pop 91,000), 119 km south of Colombo was our next destination before arriving back in Colombo. Located on the south western end of the island, Galle has been an important ancient seaport of Tarshish, from which King Solomon drew ivory, peacocks and other valuables. Certainly, cinnamon was exported from Sri Lanka as early as 1400 BC and the root of the word itself is Hebrew, so Galle may have been the main entrepot of the island for the spice.
Images 1-3 External parameter walls of the portSince then, Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Malays and Indians were doing business through Galle port. The "modern" history of Galle starts in 1505, when the first Portuguese ship, under Lourenço de Almeida was driven there by a storm. However, the people of the city refused to let the Portuguese enter it, so the Portuguese took it by force.

Images 4-14 fort interiorIn 1640, the Portuguese had to surrender to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch built the present Fort in the year 1663. The fortified wall were built using solid granite from the hinterland and corals form the shore. The quality of the original construction is reflected in its excellent current state. After the construction of the fort, Galle was the main port of Sri lanka for the next 200 years and was an important stop for ships sailing between Europe and East Asia. When British forced Dutch out of SL in the 1796, the commercial interest was turning to Colombo but they preserved the Fort unchanged, and used it as the administrative centre of Galle. Today the fort has been recognised as a World Heritage Site and has survived the 2004 tsunami.The interior of the fort remains a working community, with administrative offices, courts, shops and populated with regular folk. However the its attractions as a one of the best tourist spots in the island means (excellent) boutiques, hotels and and some of the vintage property being bought by foreigners.
Images 15-19 local traders The New town surrounding the fort is quite modern and large part of of which back on to the fort wall was either damaged or destroyed by the Tsunami but most of the town is now back to pre tsunami levels and its bustling with traders and traffic.

After arriving in Hambanthota, We were now following the coastal route down to Galle. These southern were hard hit but the 2004 Tsunami and the effects of hat is still all around.

South Coast

Heading down to the South coast of SL through the hill country with a breathtaking view of the south of the island. The towns such Haputale that we drove through are makes a good base for visiting tea plantations and walking in the cool mountain air. The train tracks and the roads follow some of the most winding paths in this part of the country. The traffic is thing, we just wish we could have spent more time here on the Colombo-Kandy-Badulla route stop at Haputale - it's about 2hrs from Nanu Oya (Nuwara Eliya).

Nuwara Eliya (3 hrs south of Kandy)Sri Lanka's highest town (nearly 2000m) was once the favourite hill station of the British and still retains some distinctive colonial features. We were quite looking forward to getting there but it was quite wet when we got there and it was cold at night. And the place felt so similar to being in the UK. misty morning, dairy cows, vegetable gardens but the exception was the tea plantations. So our time was limited to just one night and we headed south.

Kandy, the last royal capital of Sri Lanka is our next destination. ( 115kM from Colombo at 465 meters above sea level). The city established in the 15th century was the last royal capital where 2500 years of royal rule ended, Kandy was the capital of a Sinhalese kingdom from 1592 to 1815,. And as the second largest city in SL, has retained it historical importance, as Colombo is considered by most as a colonial capital city.The geographical, cultural and religious heart of Sri Lanka and the last stronghold of the Sinhalese kings, falling to the British in 1815. The main attraction of the city and also the most sacred Buddhist establishment in Sri Lanka is where one of Buddha's tooth is being kept, Dalada Maligava (the Temple of the Tooth), Built in the 16th century but improvements and additions have been done to this structure until the fall of the Kandy kingdom. A golden canopy was added recently. Daily rituals are being carried out at various offering times to the shrine. This is certainly the most touristic site/city that we so far have been to and the whole atmosphere was quite nice, the hills the lake and the temples. on the down side the traffic was quite bad.