I tried and failed to convince Ant we needed a rest day, but managed to agree (by stubbornly refusing to get up) that we at least needed a lie in (I will come to regret this later).
A quick hotel (read crappy) breakfast, and enforced (by me... over provisioning Stew... that Ant will come to be thankful for later) visit to the pandanerie to get pastries of 3 varieties: chicken, cheese and apple; and the obligatory bag of stale bread... And along with the crisps and yoghurt we bought yesterday we were armed to tackle the hills.
Unlike yesterday the first 5km were fairly tough... At least for Ant and his "I don't like cities" head, so for once I was the stronger one... On the front and carrying him along... Perhaps also due to the oxygen rich air, back down at just below 3000m (but thankfully still above sandfly territory!).
So we plugged on up and before long had done nearly a fifth of the climb and were ready to make our first major decision... Turn off the main road and visit the touristy "lago" with the opportunity to cycle off the beaten track, but then suffer a gruelling near 2000m ascent on dirt roads... Or keep going on the quiet main road and have another 1000m to do... This was a much mire difficult decision than perhaps it sounds in hindsight... Massive FOMO attack! So much so that we stopped at the turning to deliberate...
... This was one of the beat things we did... A group of Quechan women came out their house to talk to us and offer us drinks... They were so lovely and super cute, but fascinated with our trip (or whatever we communicated was our trip in our pigeon Spanish!). They wanted us to take photos... Of course we obliged...but what a lovely experience. People in the mountains are fascinated by our maps...they love seeing where they are and giggle lots... Given the terrible mapping of Peru I'm not surprised that they've never seen a map before.
Then a pick up pulled up and offered us a lift... Why does this only happen at the start of a day when you're still feeling strong! Ant was tempted though!
So decision made, we carried on up and up and up along the main road.
This was a very similar, but much tougher version of yesterday...partly due to the tired legs and mind, but mostly due to the bloody steep bits of hill!!
Nevertheless we were now both climbing happily, chatting and enjoying the scenery and challenge and feeling pleasantly and surprisingly strong. After a quick first pastry stop to top up our fuel, we continued having done about 10km and 700m climbing... Then we saw the orange bike, that could only mean one thing... We'd caught up with Jan. Another quick stop to say hi and rearrange my saddle position (bum hurts now)... We, all three, set off to tackle the next 10km of the climb... Though Jan and all his GPS and mapping knew better... "Only 19km to go now" he said... WHAT!!! I thought we had 10km... Furious, my head dropped and my fragile mind plummeted into doom. Poor Ant then spent the next 20km trying to lift a tired and angry Stew, almost literally up the hill.
Whilst I plugged along with Ant trying to motivate me, Jan disappeared up into the mountain. We took another pastry stop and were greeted by K9 nimrod... The cutest little shy and scared dog, who just came and sat by us for protection from the scary neighbourhood dogs. As I fed him a few bits of chewy chicken we soon realised he was super hungry... And very skinny. At this point we were thankful that Jemima wasn't with us as we'd have probably watched all our supplies disappear into the depths of the pup! Instead we gave him a little of what we thought we could spare then made our way onwards, and of course, upwards.
After what seemed like an age of plugging our way up the mountain we came to the supposedly flatter section, which of course was steep ups followed by steep downs... Enough to make any fragile mind go crazy... I might have told the mountain that it was unfair to give me downs then make me go up... But in slightly more angry words.
Eventually at around 4pm we reached the top...took a few quick photos, had a bite to eat and wrapped up warm to prepare for the descent...
...but turning the corner we saw the road continue to rise...up and up... And bloody up!
Somehow we gritted our teeth and churned the pedals in the hope that sometime the end would come... And of course it did... Feeling less "on top od the world" and more "right lets get down this bloody thing before dark" we whizzed down the freezing other side of the oversized hill for a good few km and flew passed Jan... Hey Jan... And a few trucks...
Then... We went up... WHAT!! then down then UP!! Then down some more the UP!! Seriously mountain dude you're messing with my mind! I might have told him he was being unfair and that we hadn't bargained for this... Again in slightly more angry words!
At this point Jan (unsurprisingly) chose to leave the angry Stew and calming Ant behind and pedalled off whilst Ant and I had a last bit of chocolate to help us find a home before sunset.
We got to the next tiny mountain dwelling at around 5.20pm with all the promise of a hotel... But no actual hotel... And less friendly people who simply told us that of course there was a hotel, then pointed us in the direction of not a hotel repeatedly. By 5.30, darkness was threatening so we grabbed some water and crisps from the shop and set off to find a camping spot away from people to the safety and beauty of being away from the town.
Amazing Ant strikes again and just when I'd given up hope of finding a camp site on the side of the equivalent of a mountain version of the A34, he found us the most glorious pitch in a green alcove overlooking the mountains... The only catch was it was a very steep 50m climb away from the road...no mean feat with loaded touring bikes. But I managed to heave the bikes up the hill, Ant grabbed the bags and set up the tent and soon we had the most glorious home and the sun had set... Just in the nick of time... We heated some water for a quick wash (using what we later realised was the last of our good fuel), then wrapped up warm and settled down to cook our feast of choco bear porridge (that surprisingly we were really looking forward to!) at 3700m. But little did we know our new fuel had been tampered with and was no longer pure alcohol, but instead had been watered down so much in the shop that it refused to light. So our dinner became pastries (see if there are ever pastries buy them... Always buy the pastries!!), yoghurt, crisps, bananas and the obligatory piece of stale bread.
Feeling almost repeat we tucked up warm in our new and glorious home overlooking the Andes and before long we were asleep.
We woke up the next day to realise just how beautiful our spot was... Absolutely stunning. And very ready for a breakfast... So onwards to the village 5km around the corner in the hope that they might give us breakfast...
No comments:
Post a Comment