We had a 7am start in order to try to avoid too much rain – it seems as it it has rained ever since we left the Wild Palms as Sea in Trivandrum.
We also had to pack for an overnight stay on a houseboat to avoid having to transfer all out luggage onto the ships.
Once again I got into slightly damp cycling gear and packed a lot of clean-ish but wet washing and went for some chocolate biscuits. Ben had about six. He was taking no chances on running out of energy.
Here is one of the bedroom satellites – it had two floors with 6 bedrooms per floor.
For once the weather looked pretty good – blue skies.
A view from the Atrium was a little less promising – but a nice view all the same.
With the “threat” steep descent and 7 very steep hairpins most of us checked their brakes. I tightened mine and Ben’s brakes and we oiled the chains and in Ben’s case the bottom bracket. Ben’s brake blocks had worn away and when he braked it was metal on metal. It is bad for the rim – it wears it away and generates a lot of heat and is much less effective so Ben needed to plan ahead when cycling down steep bits.
The team shot – by this stage we have gotten much better at being together on time. The spectre of another wet day has also helped. Raj took this photograph so Bob is also in it.
You don’t need me to list people’s names anymore do you?
The way out – through the gates and up the rise to the downhill – sounds good to me.
Unfortunately the promised downhill was actually 5km of climbing back the way we had come in. I find it tough first thing in the morning but Ben shot off up the hill. A Jeep stampeded a cow up the hill and it looked as if it were going to chase Ben – but it turned off into a field pulling a telephone cable behind it. Ben was none the wiser.
One real bonus – the weather was promising and we were heading in the directions of the blue skies with a few white and wispy clouds.
After the climb it was downhill again and through the Tea Plantation – here are the pickers on their way to work, walking up to where the tea needs picking, carrying their baskets behind them.
It looks as if they live in the cottages just behind so they have not come far.
As I said when you keep stopping to take pictures everyone goes by, except the other picture takers. There is Ben down below having passed through a town already.
These Tea Plantations looked very well cared for in the early morning light.
At this point Barry was behind me – taking pictures –but Mary looked keen to crack on and get some miles under her belt.
Every now and then amongst the trees would be one with red flowers in contrast to the various shades of green. The patterns made by the tea bushes look like contour lines on a map.
Behind us were the mountains we had come down from with the sun rising above them and still blue skies!
The road was rolling – but if you look at the trace below – it was a more gentle and pleasant undulation. Once again Graham passes when I am taking a picture. As we had set off early we got to see people going to work and children going to school. Once again I got the serious look as I took this girl’s picture. They seem to enforce their school dress codes around here though.
This is what I stopped to photograph when the girl happened by.
That is the road we came from – the hills reminded me a bit of the moors in the Lake District in England, although without the heather.
We stopped for breakfast at around 20Km/12.5 miles. Omelette toast sandwich, super sweet jam and coca-cola. I need some energy after the unexpected pre-breakfast climb.
We were now at the top of our last long descent. We would drop 1000m in 20Km/12.5miles (down to sea level). It does not sound much – but with the roads covered in silt and rubble from the floods, hairpin bends and oncoming buses you needed you wits about you. I started to get comfortable with my brakes and overtook Alan – a much faster ascender, but more cautious descender on his road bike. Here he is swooping down a straight further back up the mountain.
At this point Ben and I caught up with Mary (G) who makes relentless progress up and down hills and we started to roll along quite smoothly. It is quite tiring on the arms going down hill all the time and it is easier to maintain a higher average pace on the flat.
We now started to cycle though some busy towns and we sometimes got there before our support team – this meant waiting for them to reach us to point out the way. We waited here for around 30 minutes and the chap in white stopped to inspect us for the entire time. Another guy came along and counted the cogs on Ben’s back wheel – just in case they were the next thing to break perhaps. He then elbowed Ben out of the way when Mary took his picture – he did not want any foreigners detracting from his good looks. He was delighted when Mary showed him the picture she had taken.
We were next to a fruit stall – I am not quite sure what either of these fruits are?
The view in the direction we were to head – it looks chaotic and it is chaotic – but by this time we were used to it. The Support Team finally caught up with us and we set off again.
We had another moment where we had to wait. Three of our group had taken a wrong turn and one of the Support Team went off on an Auto to hunt them down and bring them back. This time we did not mutiny – it was now quite warm back at sea level and so rather than be too cold we were a little too warm. (I know never satisfied). Eventually Christine, Alan and finally Graham appeared after their little excursion. Anyway at this point we only had 5Km to go on the flat so it was not an issue. Although when have the distances ever been right – we were just too trusting.
After the towns were started using country roads again. This area has a lot of water – the Lagoons are salt half the year and then fresh half the year. These palms reflecting in the river caught my eye.
We also passed lots of rice growing in the fields . After 85Km / 50miles we turned onto a very bumpy rutted road – ah well this must be where the houseboats are moored. The road went on and on – I was on a good mountain bike with front suspension and easily kept up with one of our vans that was leading the way. Some of the others found it harder – Ben’s bike had no suspension and Alan, Graham and Bob were on thinner tyred road bikes.
At just over 90Km/56miles we reached a more reasonable road again – to find that at “maximum” there were only 10Km/6 miles left to cycle. At this point you begin to wonder – do they know where they are going. The answer turned out to be maybe. We reached the Houseboat mooring point at 102Km/64miles. The Houseboats have to have a certain depth of water to moor up in and they had to move from the original rendezvous point and find another place for us to meet up. Quite a reasonable explanation – but we did not find this out until the evening.
One of the houseboats.
Children on their way to school – perhaps after lunch?
Here is the trace – from mountains to sea level.
Mary (G) was invited onto one of the boats, but Ben was told to get off. He assumed this was yet more age-ism, where young people (him) are discriminated against. It turned out that the group was split over three boats and Ben and I had a boat to ourselves (with crew of course). Things were beginning to look up. Ben went out to retrieve our bags and we then were able to shower. Bob had asked that we be frugal with the hot water because the latecomers also wanted to shower. Well it was a good job I have gotten used to cold showers because we did not have any hot water from the start. The shower was most welcome though. It was now time to sit back on deck and relax.
No comments:
Post a Comment