Wow what a day... We thought it couldn't get any better when we got a hot shower last night, but it appears it can.
We set out early for a breakfast of kings (apple pastries by the dozen!), so we were on the road fully fueled by 9am. I'd had a day now to mentally prepare for the day ahead and had gone through all sorts of horrible scenarios, so was feeling positive (mind games... It can't possibly be as bad as i think it will be!). With cloud above us to offer some protection from the Sun we quickly found our (very slow paced!) rhythm. At 5-6km/h we knew we had at least 4hours ahead of us to cover the 20km of shear uphill.
The first 5km came and went fairly quickly, we were strong enough to manage conversations and rode side by side on a fairly quiet road. It was super interesting to see the town change to suburban sprawl, then to mud huts, and the road traffic change from tuk tuks and cars; to cows, sheep and people. (this offered more than the pleasant sensation of riding along smooth tarmac passing one car every 10minutes or so... But also allowed us to realise that even at this speed we could beat humans and all manner of slow moving livestock... Excellent our lives are now complete!).
For the first time in a while we came across petrol stations (that I now associate with cornettos) but also discovered that this type of petrol station only serves food for cars :-(
So we plodded and watched the landscape turn from patches of green to cactus trees and dry yellow grassy fields, every so often you'd find one on fire to provide fertiliser (either that or the farmers are very clumsy smokers in these parts!). And once in a while a small village would spring out of nowhere...the first at around 3km was the self proclaimed "home of the trout" celebrated by a statue that I shall name "larger than life man holding giant trout on slab of rock in centre of square"...interesting because as far as I can see there is no water let alone streams for miles... Don't they know they live in a mountain dessert?!! Oh well a very pleasant village with lovely people cheering us along with the standard casual racism we're now accustomed to (hey gringos... Mamma gringos... Gringita... Gringo... Vamos...).
The next village appeared below us as few km later giving us a birds eye plan view of the school and surrounding buildings... Surprisingly modern.
Soon 7km had passed, as had the villages and signs of habitation and it started to feel very deserted and beautiful. Our only company seemed to be the sloping fields and precariously balanced tractors... Ant and I were both in our element absolutely loving the journey and feeling strong after our almost rest day yesterday.
Then at 10km (and over half way up the climb) we approached 3700m and my head went down... A blue fabricated new building appeared out of nowhere, set upon the perfect concrete slab for the remains of our breakfast pastries and lie down... I literally felt like I'd sank into a beautiful feather bed, and it took some encouragement from Ant to get me moving again.
Afraid that my headache, down spirit and shortness of breath were remnants of my passed ailments we took it easy (later realising they were the affects of altitude when Ant was struck with similar sensations at 4100m) and the next 5km went incredibly slowly (though we were still traveling at the same speed when your head drops minutes seem like hours).
Ant was doing his best to convince me not to take a break every 100m or so as he has one eye on the time (we wanted to get back down the other side of this rocky lump before dark), but at 15km and about 3900m I won and we stopped to take photos and have a cereal bar on the promise it would just be a 2minute pit stop... At this point I would like to thank the Italian cyclist who drove passed with his family in a car... Stopped the car... Ran to us and excitedly demanded photos of us, with us... Then chatted enthusiastically about our adventure... He was in awe as he is just a road race cyclist at home... After about 5minutes his wife (probably bored...) Shouted out the window in feisty Italian and he was reluctantly dragged back into the car... And I was reluctantly dragged bag up the mountain.
" Just another two hair pins Stew and it gets flatter" said the cycle touring optimist.
The cycle touring sceptic of course knew better... Just as we hit what we thought was the summit, we realised that the "flatter" section was actually only averagely flat... Steep down followed by steep up... More mentally than physically sapping at this point... And Ant had reached his 4000m altitude limit so neither of us was in a motivational state...
... And then it came... The top of the world... What a view!!! The expanse of mountains for miles and miles and miles, and we'd got to the top of the pass... Wow just wow! Spectacular. That's invigorating enough to fuel the rest of the day's cycling.
Time for a photo or two, then wrap up warm for the 45km descent...
200m into the descent and i started singing in a lack of altitude breathy fashion... After all I was "on top of the world looking down on creation and the only explanation I could find, was the love that I've found ever since you've been around, your love's put me at the top of the world"...
Then whoosh whoosh whoosh down the other side, and feeling the frozen air (stark contrast to the equatorial midday sun you feel when standing still)... Man we felt alive by the time we reached the bottom.
What a day... And then it came... The inevitable suburban sprawl, dust, pollution, traffic and mean 7km trudge uphill to the centre of the city... It was my turn to get on front wheel and drag Ant through this (if there one thing that gets him down its cities)... So we trudged onwards and upwards and after asking some very shocked women for directions to the centre of the city, we found a hotel and the central plaza.
With the promise of hot water (I refer you to my next post for more on this) a yummy dinner (man oh man chicken and steak never tasted so good) and an early bedtime... We were ready to psych ourselves up for a similar (if not slightly harder) day tomorrow...
No comments:
Post a Comment