Day 10.. Eat my Dirt

 

I knew today was going to be a grind. From the research I had done, although the mileage wasn't much, I knew the amount of climb within that was almost stratospheric.

Firsty though, a couple of parish notices...

My kit that I sent with a driver from Besisahar to a hotel in Pokhara has arrived safely. Bonus.

My shorts may be on their last legs but I decided I could get at least one more day out of them... they have been through so much with me, its hard to part with them.

Finally my big toe on my left foot did not look on good shaape this morning but I didn't take the tape off. and investigate. That tape is staying there until I finish the circuit!!

So breakfast... today chapati and omelette, carbs and protein and as a bonus it was all quite salty and im sure I have lost a gallon of that in the last few days. 

I had managed to get my arse out of bed, kit packed and breakfast done by 0730 which was quite a feat and was on the road 5 monutes later.

Immediately out of the gate the road went straight up on a 15% incline.... and the hike a bike had started. Following that rude awakening it was ok... not rideable mainly but I trudged on upwards, mountains towering all around me. Still no view of the really high ones, just the slightly high ones. It was on a different scale... the faces of rock loomed larger, looked more forboding and just generally made other mountain ranges I'd walked/hike a biked through seem like a childs toy in comparison.

The river to my right boiled through narrow rock formations, glacial blue flecked with white tips. The road wound up alongside, a constant companion. To start with, in places. it was eminently cyclable, the surface a reasonable one and the gradient, aside from the beginning bit, doable... but this was to lull me into a false sense of security. Almost immediately that I had had that thought, the surface changed to its usual mix of rocky, sandy mess, with the usual up and down gradients that sap the strength of your entire body.

Apart from the odd downhill, it became one looong uphill slog in keeping with my expectations of the day. Because my expectations were being matched to reality, I was ok about it, cheerful even. I had figured that today would be a hike a bike day. I had the time as I'd set off early and actually after the first 2 hours, I was pleasantly surprised by the milage I had done... about 3 miles. If that was the case with so much relentless uphill, I would be done around 3pm as the actual amount of miles was fairly small.

So I took my time, stopped to admire the rock walls and the waterfalls that came pounding down. I went up seemingly towards a bowl surrounded by mountains... it felt like the ampitheatre of the gods it was so majestic. Of course I had to climb up out of the bowl and in due course I came to an alpine style climb, swichbacks and everything that allowed me to escape the ampitheatre. Also not rideable.... too steep and the road condition too poor.

One thing in my favour today was the weather. Today was the first overcast day, no sun blazing at all. Shade everywhere. It was just as well as I think I would have shrivelled up if the sun had been out as I was fully exposed on these roads. I was kept warm enough from the amount of strenuous exercise I was being obliged to do. Pushing a bike up steep gradients is a whole body exercise, especially when you are also navigating over boulders and steps.

One Challenge Weight loss plan... 

Step 1... Buy a bike

Step 2.. Load it up

Step 3.. Take it to Nepal

Step 4... push it up a mountain

Steps 5 to 10... Repeat step 4

With all the up, you would think there was a down or 2... not so... or if there was it was so short as to make it pointless and more time consuming to get back on the bike. Instead it was one foot followed by the other ad infinitum.

I know I'm not selling this well... yes it was bloody hard work but the scenery was stupendous and made my struggle seem unimportant in the grand order of things. Plus I felt like I had enough time today to get to Plan A, a little village called Karte. If when I got there I still felt ok another mile or so up the road was another town that I could perhaps push on to.

On one of the short steep downhills a group of kids accosted me and asked for money in exchange for a flower (some kind of festival thing) I gave them a few pennies and the flower now sits on my handlebar bag!

There seemed to be very little traffic on the roads. I bumped into a few hikers who had decided that the hiking paths were too challenging and were sticking to the road and in places the hikers were directed along the road for a little bit so I had a chat with a few of them... but for the most part it was motorbikes and jeeps. The motorbikes seemed to be carrying hikers packs up the mountain and wierdly the jeeps were mainly coming down with hikers. Whether they had gone through the pass the other way or up and back down the same way I wasn't sure.

The jeeps when they passed me on the dusty road always kicked up a load of dust and after one particularly bad bit where the jeeps wheels had been spinning to gain traction, I shouted after them 'Eat my dust'... paused and then said to myself... oh no that's me! From then on that became a thing.... well it kept me amused.

The other thing was my habit of standing staring at the scenery whilst trying to work out how far I had to go and the time it would take... every now. and again I would have to kick myself up the arse and say to myself  'not going anywhere just standing here'.  Its funny the little things you say and do to keep yourself moving forward. 

The miles had actually beem passing pretty well but I could see where the road went and what was in store for me next. Ahead was a large lump of rock and near the top of it I could see the road carved around the side of it. I knew that I would go down a little to cross a river/waterfall before then having to climb all the way up there. As I got closer I gave myself of reaching the top road in under an hour and set off with renewed purpose...

It wasn't actually that bad and within 30 minutes I was standing at the top bit looking at the road I had pushed my bike up stretch all the way down as far as the eye could see.

At the top, I even had a bit of flattish nice road that I could actually put my arse on the seat and pedal for a bit. 

I had been caught up by a couple of hikers and one of them motioned to take a photo so I stepped over to take her camera and she said no... a photo of you! It was funny that she wanted a photo of me at the top but I obliged and then took a couple of them as well.

I would like to say it was all downhill from there but that would be lying... I got a smidge of downhill before once again the pushing up began.

The miles tick by slowly and surely and I was on my general schedule. Lunch was a nice fried potato with cheese thing and then onwards and upwards. As the day went on, my body became so tired that even fkr the downhill bits, if they were short, I didn't bother as the effort of climbing on my bike wasn't worth it. Keep on plodding.

Finally, I was near enough to Karte to believe I was going to make my proposed plan A today.... but was waiting for the sting in the tail. Actually there were several stings..

the first another switchback climb so steep a jeep struggled to get up there.

It had also begun to rain so I put on my jacket. It wasn't heavy rain and actually was quite a refreshing change. 

The final bit of fun today was a steep climb of mud and rocks. I went up slowly catching my breath every so often. Motorbikes came up behind me, overtook. and then got stuck, wheels spinning. The passengers had to get off and help push the bikes which then took off without them leaving them walking up. On that climb I saw three or four bikes go up and all got stuck. If the bikes were struggling, it was no wonder that I was too. 

Then I bumped down a fun downhill and reached Karte. But Plan B had swung into action by now. Not far down the road was Dharapani, a slightly bigger village. (We are still talking a few houses and hotels only) 

So I pushed on and as a reward got some reasonably flat decent road on which I could cycle the last few Km. 

I pulled up alongside a guesthouse and a woman asked me if I wanted a bed. I had intended to go to the one a few houses down but it didn't really matter. As long as there was a bed and wifi, I was set. 

She gave me a room to lock  my bike in and a room on the upstairs floor for me. The stairs up were steep but I positively bounded up them. The rooms. were very basic. Wooden floors, a bed, a socket and a light. Thats its. The bathroom. was down the walkway which was also wooden and had gaps between the boards. I did wonder how this place would stay up if there was an earthquake. 

It was getting cold, so I shoved on my jacket and went for a wee, only to find that toilet paper was not provided so I went to the shop to buy a roll and discovered peanut butter! I bought a jar of that and then went and huddled under a duvet until dinner time. 

Dinner was more garlic soup. and some chips as I wasn't feeling that hungry, just cold. I went back to my room and put the duvet from the other bed onto mine... tried to finish the blog but was too tired, so tried to sleep. But the throbbing from my big toe kept me awake. I tentively took off the tape I had applied 2 days ago in case I had put it on a bit tight and that was the problem. The toe nail stayed on as I took off the tape and although a bit bruised and red, it wasnt too bad. So I left the tape off to air it out and snuggled down again, hoping that tomorrow would be a slightly easier day!