Today was a longer day riding as we passed reminders of the civil war.

This first dozen kilometers were still busy as we left Jaffna. The bread trucks are converted tuk tuks and each plays a familiar tune. This morning one came by playing “it’s a small world after all”. Somehow it seemed fitting, though then the earworm tune was in my head for a while.

In 1983, an insurgency sprung up in the north with the Tamil Region fighting for independence from the Sinhalese dominated areas further south. This civil war lasted until 2009 when the rebels were defeated. Sadly with a loss of ~50,000 soldiers and ~100,000 civilians. The red areas were claimed by the insurgency. Today our route brought us through such regions and included war memorials for the victorious Sri Lankan army.

The area has some narrow regions with water on both sides which also played into the battles.

I leapfrogged this truck a few times. It was leading a large bus of people to visit religious sites. Each time they would pass, we would exchange waves.

Today continued with many greetings. See a group of schoolchildren dressed in white uniforms and a “Good Morning” gets a reflective chant in unison of “Good Morning” in return. Afternoons are more mixed as “Good Afternoon” might get “hi”, “bye bye” or once “good night”. But still waves and smiles traded through the day.

Yet another marked bike path. Only for ~200m. It looks like when they widened a new bridge they put in complete markings with a bike lane.

Around 55km was Elephant Pass, site of a significant battle. There is a narrowed spot causeway here that the Sri Lankan army put a military base. With this base they could control the route to northern part. The battle is described here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Elephant_Pass

Victory monument at Elephant Pass.

This was one of two heavily armored bulldozers that tried to break through to the Sri Lankan base and go after outnumbered soldiers there…

There is a monument to a soldier who used grenades to disable the bulldozer, at loss of his life – but protecting the camp.

Monument

Inscription at the monument

Our lunch stop was just across the way. I like the fruit salad though it looks like the staff was having fun. It wasn’t as hot, so I decided to continue riding the afternoon.

Lord Shiva

In the afternoon this truck came the other way along with a dozen or so people walking with similar flags

Other riders were able to figure out the flag.

A few sites like this one where land mines are still being cleared. We were cautioned to be careful not to stray too far from the road for a pee stop …

The road became quieter which led it being used to dry grains. Here they were scooping it up again.

Packed back into bags.

About 13km from the hotel was another victory monument . Last few kilometers and then into our hotel.