It was not raining, in fact it was sunny when we started out so a good opportunity to stop and take pictures of the Tea Plantations from the top of the mountains as I had given up due to the rain on the way up yesterday. The advice from the support team was that it was a chunk of downhill (20 miles/32 Km) followed by rolling hills. That sounded good – I like rolling hills – for every hill you get the downhill pretty soon after. None of this storing energy one day (long, long uphill) followed by a downhill where all that energy is wasted whilst hanging onto the brakes for grim death – hoping they’ll keep working. I have a lot a respect for those that race bicycles.
This is near the top of the mountain – with crags to the left and Tea Plantations to the right. The road actually started out quite flat – but pretty soon we were descending from our initial height of 1500m. Just as we all climb at different speeds – the group descends at different speeds – several factors come into play – how much you trust your brakes and bike, how much you like down hills and how often you stop for pictures. You have to move your weight around whilst descending – a bit like skiing – and it really helps to have your own bike. Having worked hard to get up the hill I make sure I get some pictures on the way down – so despite the fact I can go quite fast down hill – I get overtaken quite a lot.
The mountains seemed to go on for miles into the distance.
At each twist and turn of a hairpin there would be different views of the Tea growing on the mountain slopes – dotted by trees.
It was slightly worrying that there were quite a few clouds about – but as we dropped in height it got warmer and warmer.
In the picture you can see hairpins in action – the road zig-zags up the side of the slope – quite a feat of engineering.
Many of the roads follow the valleys and then hop from one valley to the next over mountain passes – this was our valley ahead – it is quite odd cycling downhill for such long distances – I have never experienced anything like it in my cycling years. Because of the heavy rains there was also quite a lot of rubble, sand and mud at each hairpin bend just to add a little spice to the braking and turning.
Another view of the road on the other side of the valley – on the way up they seem to have planted the Tea Trees everywhere – on this side they were not quite so profuse.
Neat rows of trees on the slopes.
As we descended and it got warmer and the forest started looking more tropical and lush with coconut trees appearing. The mountains continue to go on for ever though!
Just after passing Denise and Christine whilst trying to make up for the time taking photographs – there was a loud bang like a firecracker but with a hiss. Denise had a blowout – she stopped without drama. I went back up the hill to check – I did wonder whether her rim had split under the braking stress. Mary (Barry’s M) also stopped and we checked our wheel rims – mine were quite warm, hers were almost too hot to touch. Another reminder of the hazards of down hill cycling. Basically the brakes convert your motion into heat energy – the energy can’t just disappear. I left Denise to fix her puncture and carried on.
At one point I was behind a car that had to stop at a hairpin for a bus coming the other way. The car started to reverse towards me – I hopped to one side – not sure whether the driver had seen me. He had – he and the occupants of the car wanted a chat. What was I doing, where was I going, where was I from. In my experience Indian traffic is amongst the worst to cycle in anywhere – but Indian people are friendly and courteous. Something must happen when they press the accelerator.
Even 32Km/20miles of down hill has to come to an end. In my case after just under an hour and a half of cycling. As we reached the floor of the valleys the rivers were in full flow – a sign of the torrential rains we had been experiencing in the area. Later Bob mentioned that a dam had burst nearby.
Three rivers converged into one – all brown with the run-off soil.
Two things that mark out India as compared with Cambodia are the way in which electricity seems to reach everywhere – there may be the odd (well frequent) power cut but electricity poles are strung everywhere. I have also found the cell hone coverage to be really strong – better than I get at home. Here in the mountains Hydro Electric power is important. Here is one of the power stations. They certainly have plenty of water around.
We heard a siren go and we wondered whether this indicated it was turning on – but could not see any extra river flow.
This bridge is the point at which we crossed over the valley, just afterwards we stopped for a snack stop. It can be quite tricky for our support team to track all of us and they use the snack stops to re-group us – we are not so keen on hanging around though – especially as there were some rolling hills to cycle on. Alan is crossing the bridge in this photograph although it is hard to tell at this range.- I have just looked more closely and it is not Alan – it is a couple of India gentlemen crossing.
Here is Ben – happy that there are chocolate biscuits at our snack stop for the first time. He has a few mud dots on him but not too many. You can also see where he has had to tape up the grips on his handlebars to stop then slipping.
I let him take my picture in return for me taking his,
The view back up the road from where we had come – that is Jim probably stopping to take a photograph of the bridge.
After the snack stop and a quick top up of water supplies were carried on. Not that we needed much water cycling down hill is not very thirsty work. The direction we were heading was back up the side of another valley, Hum I wonder when we will start the downhill rolling. This was a smaller valley though – the river running through it was not so wide.
As I was taking pictures of the valley below I noticed this massive spider waiting patiently on the web for a snack to happen along. The spider was as big as my hand.
The river water has flooded over as it runs down the valley. I hope the bridge can take the force.
Here is Graham climbing up the hill – he came on this trip last year so he knows what the road is going to be like – mind you he keeps up a good steady pace.
The upward rolling carried on – it looked suspiciously like we were going to have to get near the top of our mountain before transitioning into the next valley towards our destination.
As I take the photos Graham cycles past – it was quite a slope – it felt harder than it looks.
I took quite a few shots of this outcrop of rock. I met the support team here – they check that we are alright and whether we need water or food. It is a man looking out over the valley.
Down below us in the valley there were rice paddies – normally they are neatly partitioned, this one looks as if it has been flooded out.
A close-up shows that it has – I hope that this will not affect the harvest too much.
We finally stopped for lunch when the first rolling hill went down again. Although the up bit of the roll was around 400m higher and the down bit only went down by 60m.
Although it did not look sunny Christine noticed my arms looked a little red from the sun so I slopped on plenty of sunscreen. We also heard later that Denise had a second tyre blow out whilst eating her lunch. She and Christine were vying for Alan’s puncture record it seems.
I find the first few miles after lunch quite hard – my legs stiffen slightly and it is difficult to get the enthusiasm for hills – which we started to suspect we had in front of us. I had to stop to take a picture of this sign though. It actually warns motorists that there is a school nearby. Personally I think it is really a warning to the pedestrians that they had better run across the road.
As we climbed yet again the skies got darker and darker – there were still lots of mountains around and dotted in the middle of this picture is a church. I have been surprised to see so many churches here in India as the predominant religion is Hindu.
By the time I got to the top of the rolling hill, which happened to be at 1100m it started raining – hard. This means that my desire to take pictures stops, In fact it was just after Graham mentioned to me he thought that he felt a few drops of rain that the heavens opened.
The remainder of the journey was dowhill-ish. The problem I had was whether to wear my sunglasses or not – with them on I could barely see because they were misted and wet – with them off I had the problem of raining and grit spraying up from my front wheel – I do not have any mudguards on my bike. There was loads of mud on the road – a sign that the bad weather had been around for a while.
Here is the trace from my GPS showing the first drop through to the climb We started at 1600m dropped to 250m only to climb back to 1100m before reaching our hotel at 900m. The problem was not the hills but knowing what the route was like in order to be able to pace oneself.
I passed Jim right at the second top – he had been struggling with lack of sleep and stomach problems over the last few days and had nothing left in his tank. The rain was the final straw so he hopped into one of the vans. There are times like that when you really appreciate having the support team around.
The final trip though the town was also a little tricky – it turned out. My first instruction was that one of the team was on the left where the hotel was – actually that person was then pointing out that I actually had to turn right – no mean feat in Indian traffic and not the sort of manoeuvre helped by starting from the far left.
Then there was a left turn and a muddy short down hill to our next hotel. There is always some trepidation when checking into a new hotel. Has all my baggage made it? Will there be a hot shower. Does the room have any form of cooling?
This hotel did not have hot water – but by this time of the trip I am getting used to washing one limb at a time. Before the end I think that I’ll start using the bucket and scoop approach favoured by Indian people. Lots of mud came off. I also had to do some washing. All the rain and mud is taking its toll on my clothes supply. The problem is that there is not enough time to dry it. The room did have a fan so I left the damp wet clothes on a towel on my bed under the fan rotating at maximum speed. I did not have a TV and there was a large gap to the outside under my “balcony” door so I sprayed a generous helping of mossie spray around the room.
The shower/toilet room was to date the worst of the trip – mouldy and dirty.
I then start prioritising my charging needs – GPS first, then camera batteries, phone and laptop. Having gotten clean and done the chores it is time for a cold beer – just the thing after a gritty, wet sandy ride. (Despite closing my mouth I always end up with a gritty mouth when cycling long distances in these conditions.
I wandered downstairs and find there is a bar – an exotic bar hum, not what I want – the manager took me down to it. We have to go out of the front door down through to the back of the hotel on a muddy road. I enter a gloomy, but quite large bar to find Ben in a little cubicle reading a book. (Note for my wife – there was nothing exotic about the bar whatever – no dancing girls etc – I am not leading Ben astray, or for that matter he is not leading me astray – he was there first)
Apart from being gloomy the beer is cold and the service fairly prompt – along with the inevitable half conversations about who we are and what are we doing. This hotel does not normally see western tourists. More members of the group turned up – Graham is also normally one of the first – after the British contingent!
The bar does get quite busy at one one point – must be happy hour. Only men are to be found in the bar though. Apart from the female members of our group that is.
After the pre-prandial “cocktail” it was time for dinner – which was the high spot of the hotel and pretty good. Bob also mentioned that tomorrow we could have eggs for breakfast – a fried egg is called a bullseye here in India apparently.
I had also ricked my back a little in the morning – what was I doing – brushing my teeth hunched over a wash basin that was too low. I always use bottled water for my teeth – not all of the group do. I guess the last few days climbing must have taken its toll – it is not too bad – but a nuisance – the cycling is not too bad – getting off and standing straight is a little more unpleasant. I hope that a good night’s rest will help – mind you a hot bath would have been better!
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