Skidmarks

  We’re done with the Bikes at least for now. Time to pack up and head home to the wet soggy ground of Surrey. I wonder how I’ll feel when I jump on a bike again and climb one of the Surrey ‘alps’…will they feel like molehills for a while? The early morning is misty but smells of woodsmoke.  Last night Phil and Chris tested the depth of the Long Island iced tea barrel and are paying the price today.  Neither of them are looking too sparkly.  I’m feeling a little more chipper but definitely not out of the woods yet. Black tea and more beige food. Meh. We pack up the trucks with our luggage and bikes.  It’s always a mix of joy to finish an event coupled with some sadness to split the group up when it’s time to go home. We take a few group photos, say our goodbyes and that’s it…sort of. I thank Anup our doctor for looking after me so well over the past few days. He has been very kind. The support crew get the joy of the 8-9 hour road trip back whilst we jump on a s...

I wake up feeling slightly better and have an appetite at long last so proceed to do the BRAT diet at breakfast. Anything beige without fibre or taste it seems. I’m still not able to muster of a solid turd so I know riding today is a risky thing but hey it’s all downhill….literally. It’s the last day of this ride and it would be a real shame to miss it.  We take the obligatory team photos in the race kit and we drop off the mountain on this windy road through villages and small towns. We are warned the traffic is dangerous on this road and that is the case. Trouble is we’re faster than almost everything down this hill so we have to overtake.  Chris  has some choice manoeuvers. He’s leading from the front and squeezing into gaps that make me have 2nd thoughts. I’m almost taken out twice by a scooter joining the road from the side with absolutely no look over the shoulder to check if there’s any traffic coming. They just barge on.  We play chicken with buses ...

Today I abandon the stage.  My guts are just not up to it. I have no energy and the thought of a very lumpy ride with a big climb at the end is just too much. I’m relegated to the ancient Mahindra Jeep, the one with no seatbelts in the back and no suspension on the wheels.We leave behind the tourists at Kushma Gorge and bungee jumping. We walk the bikes across the gorge to the other side passing the bungee station and the clouds of the gorge  below.  There is yet another gorge to cross just after the start and the riders can go straight across this on a suspension bridge. Sadly we motor vehicles have to descend the gorge on a  small twisty road and then back up the other side. Hard to believe this is one of the main roads in the area. We meet up with the riders a little bit further down the road and yet another suspension bridge take some snaps and rather than drive another 30 minutes down and up this gorge we opt to walk across the suspension bridge. It’s relatively...

  I wake up in the night with the alarm bells ringing down below something just isn’t right. I’ve been very conservative with my food and drink all this time and yesterday evening was the first time I ate some meat and it looks like that might have backfired…. literally. Over breakfast, I limit myself to some toast in the hope that this is a temporary situation. We jump on the bikes and head off down the valley but not before Chris left his mark on the lovely Stone paving a nice big WD-40 stain right outside the hotel entrance.  We descend in a deep gorge following the the river that we’ve been following for two days now.  In places the gravel track  is one truck width wide with overhanging rock above. They come up belching fumes and dust engines screaming in low gear.  The road improves and now we have mostly sealed surface and we fly down. We come across a suspension bridge and ride out into the middle. It’s the highest and longest so far.  It is exhilara...

A breakfast with the same thing I’ve had for days now,   t oast and two fried eggs. I don’t know why but it tastes fantastic. Today looks like being one of the best days. We climb about 600 m and we descend 2500 meters and best of all we’re going to finish at a posh hotel next to a hot spring. Result.   We follow the Kali Gandaki river southwards. The views in the early morning light as usual are spectacular as we climb the to the top point for today. Now it’s all downhill except for a few little wrinkles along the way. Thankfully Chris is on much better form today and although he is not back to 100%, he is much more with it.   Suddenly, the constant rubble road ends and we’re on tarmac again. It’s like night and day. Riding is so much easier on the smooth surface. Of course it doesn’t last long and we’re back on rubble before long but we’re getting more tarmac than gravel now. We stop for coffee in Jomsom, the local big town and it is surprisingly good. This of cour...

 TBC

We leave Lomantang in the 4x4s and drive up the valley to the nearest point we can get to the Chinese border. Before we leave, our hostess blesses us all with white scarves. At Chosang, you can see some Chinese buildings on the mountain top  in the distance but non Nepalese are not permitted to get any closer.   We prep the bikes, take a last pee and the Trans bit of Transnepal finally starts. It feels like I have been on this trip for ages just to get to the start point. It has been nearly a week and we have already pedalled uphill for 3 days.  We line up across the road, take one last pic and we are off! Or some of us are at least….Chris and I wait for the organizer of this event go go back to the truck to take off his down jacket.  Downhill and with a following wind, we set off under clear blue skies. We soon catch the early starters and pull ahead as we get near Lomantang and the first hill of the day bites. It’s not big but it reminds you that you need to respec...

Today we are trying to get to Lomantang early so we can see the town and visit some ancient cave houses. It will be a short ride after we take the sting out of the trail in the 4x4s as we continue acclimatisation.   We head off up the valley to some amazing sights. The giant cliffs are scarred with canyons and fluted gullies everywhere. This area gets very little precipitation but when it comes, the water washes everything away including the roads.  The road for the past 2 days has been nothing but rocky gravel and yet this is a main route to china from Nepal. It’s incredible to see trucks and busses creating clouds of dust as they blast past.  We get to the jumping off point for cycling at the oldest Buddhist monastery in Nepal. It’s no longer occupied by monks but the caretaker lets us in. We have to take off our shoes to enter the temple a there are sandals provided. A chunk of ice falls out of one as we don them. Oddly serene atmosphere inside the temple. Very peac...

  We are told that we shouldn’t try to ride the whole route today as the first climb is ‘brutal’. That was enough to put the willies up us all so we jump into the wagons for the first section which will drop us about 3/4 of the way up the bad-ass climb. Seeing it from the comfort of the back seat of the Hilux, that was some very sound advice.  The Mahindra suffers a rear wheel puncture part way up and the support crew change in a few minutes. I get a look at the gash in the threadbare tyre and it looks terminal to me. But they will patch it up and run it again.   We cross the final checkpoint into upper mustang at Chhusang where our permits are checked. It cost us as tourists $500 for a 10 day entry to this area though I believe this is now reduced to 50 per day. We are promised ‘rough roads’ from here on. God help us.  The scenery gets even more stunning which is a pretty big ask. Seems that all the mountains in this area a made of compacted gravel and the stones ...

We breakfast at 730 and get the bags down to the lobby for 8 to be loaded on to the 3 pickups which will be with us for the remainder of the trip. There are two Toyota Hilux and one ancient   tiny Mahindra   thing. We begin to wonder who will get the short straw and have to travel in that. Luckily it is not us and we set off in moderate comfort.   The roads are in a shocking state in places. Don’t talk about rough roads and potholes till you have driven here. We see new asphalt being laid before our eyes and then some that was laid 2 years ago and it is falling apart. Probably a combination of the skin deep layer of tar and the extremes of climate, rain and landslides.  We get pulled over by the police and our driver is ticketed for having the wrong type of number plate. Apparently you need a green one if you are ferrying tourists around. The other two 4x4s didn’t bother to stop so the police were determined to get us. There was a kind of karma later when we all ha...