I travelled by 13 vehicles in One Day!

Image credits to the owner

YEP!

You read that right! I did travel 508km by 13 vehicles in one day. At the time it was one of the exhausting days ever, but looking back now it was one of the best unforgettable memories I had with my family. So let me unravel how all of that happened.

Date: A Sunday somewhere back in 2016

How did it begin? Well, we (my family) live in Anuradhapura in Paradise island of Sri Lanka where it's really hot and sunny most time of the year. On the other hand, being situated in the landscapes of upcountry Nuwaraeliya is cool and rainy throughout the year. Since we were kids my family and I loved travelling to Nuwaraeliya for our vacation every now and then. Now it was the time that my dad decided he would buy a land from Nuwaraeliya to build a summer house where we could all vacation in.

Long story short, here we were, early in the morning on our way to Nuwaraeliya for land-hunting with my dad, mom, brother and the driver on a Land Rover Defender. Interesting fact about this certain defender was that it was recently put together by bits and pieces after years of casting it away as old and broken. Everyone except my dad was not so convinced to travel on this because even after repairing it, it still had minor problems, but it was my dad's call and he's not someone who listens once he set his mind on one thing. Said Defender being our first ride now all of you might have an idea of how we ended up in twelve other vehicles ;)

En route to Nuwaraeliya in Kandy was where my Aunt, Uncle and cousin live. It was discussed that they will be picked up along the way to join us. Again we were back on the road with them chitchatting and enjoying the nice scenery. While riding up the mountains the vehicle started heating up and it sure was an exhausting journey for the good old lad to be pulling up the mountains. With town of Nuwaraeliya being ten minutes away (if travelled by a vehicle) Defender decided not to move an inch anymore. We were stranded in the middle of the road almost close to the town. How fun was that?

Land-hunting was the only thing we were supposed to do but now we had to get two things done.

1. Go land-hunting

2. Fix the vehicle

Luckily since it was one of the main roads to the city, buses passed by often then not. So it was decided that me, mom, dad, aunt and uncle would get done with the initial plans while driver, my brother and cousin get the car fixed and running. We took a bus to the town where one of my father's acquaintance was ready to provide us with a van to get to our destination where we would buy the land from. Now here we were back again on the road in a van to Blackpool, where the available land was.

Once arrived we visited the land and went around for few hours and at about 4pm decided to head back to our vehicle, sadly which was not yet fixed. For that we had to travel from Blackpool to Nuwaraeliya by bus and then take another bus back to our vehicle from Nuwaraeliya town. So that bus was our 5th ride for the day.

Fast forward it's 6pm now and getting colder and darker as the time pass by and vehicle is not ready to move yet. Everyone was exhausted and fed up. Then someone told me, mom and aunt to go back to Kandy by bus to our aunt's home until they get the car fixed and come back. In truth there were no point in us ladies being there doing nothing freezing out in the cold weather, so we rode back to Kandy by bus. That was our 6th ride.

Our 7th ride was a tuk tuk from where we got out of the bus at Peradeniya to my aunt's house. Now the time was close 12am. We ate something and went back to sleep right after because next day we somehow had to return to Anuradhapura since mom had to go to school. (because she's a teacher :p) By the dawn dad, brother, uncle and cousin returned. Well, not because they got the car fixed but because they couldn't. The car couldn't be fixed and had to be towed back to Anuradhapura. They also came by another bus.

At about 5am, the Monday after the Sunday we started our journey we were dropped off at the bus station by our 8th ride, uncle's car to return back. There was a bus to Northern part of Sri Lanka-Jaffna enroute Dambulla. Since there was no direct buses to Anuradhapura early in the morning we got onto this bus which went through some far away part from Anuradhapura - that being our 9th ride within 24 hours. So somehow we were dropped off at some far away place from Anuradhapura where we had to take another bus from there to Anuradhapura.

Finally we arrived in Anuradhapura safe and sound. But the thing was from there onwards we had to take a tuk tuk back to our home. So we got into one and alas! It couldn't even go 100m when it suddenly stopped. That was our 11th ride. Then we got in another tuk where it didn't even bother to start but finally we were able to reach home by the 3rd tuk we got in that being our last and the 13th ride within 24 hours!

So that's the story of how me & my family ended up travelling 508km  by 13 rides in a day!

Phew!! This post was longer than I thought. Nevertheless thank you for reading. Have you ever faced such experiences before? Share your similar bizarre stories and experiences down below in the comments. Over & Out!