I just finished a three week supported tour in Sri Lanka. My trip report is posted here- https://mvermeulen.org/bike-trips/sri-lanka/

Overall, an interesting place to ride. Warm and humid but I found it easier than India. Friendly and curious people along the way.

Wonderful write up. Great pics. Seems like an interesting place to visit.

The only thing that I know about Sri Lanka is that I like their Lion Stout beer.

Nice writeup & photos. I toured there independently 20 years ago and posted the following: Sri Lanka touring notes

When I was there, some roads were excellent, but some were in bad condition. I don't recall any problems at all with dogs, but I did have issues with maniacal bus drivers in one region, the west-central part of the island. People were friendly, the food was delicious,and there were some interesting sights. There was still significant damage from the big tsunami (which happened about 13 months before my visit) that was visible along some parts of the south coast.

Wow. I bought my ticket to Sri Lanka yesterday ($460 return 🥳 from my home in Bali). Headed there to tour too (unsupported and solo) in a couple of weeks. I may have questions for you...

You rode Rt. A14 to Mannar and Rt. A32 to Jaffna? Is Mannar worth the detour?

Yes, we rode A14 to Mannar. In our particular case we stayed at a hotel 10km beyond the town of Mannar and hence didn't see much of the town beyond passing through it twice. So it was more about cycling the countryside including past marshes and hence that by itself wouldn't be worth a detour. We also took A32 to Jaffna. What we saw of Jaffna I would definitely put it on the list. Both A32 and A14 were reasonable roads without too much traffic. Our largest amounts of traffic in Sri Lanka overall was on the east coast and when we intersected with A02 along the south. The routes plotted by TDA generally avoided both those busier roads where they could.

Thanks. The most traffic was on the east coast? You mean Trincomalee, Batticaloa, etc.? I would have thought the south-west, points south of Negombo and from Galle, the most densely populated area in the island, would have had the most traffic.

Aye, Jaffna and the Tamil north is on the agenda.

Oops, sorry meant West Coast. Eastern sections down to Trinco were lighter traffic. After that we went inland so not sure but when we picked things up in the south it was a lot busier.