Stage 5 Kusma to Tansen

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 busy with pedestrians and motorcycles.


In the trees on the other side, there’s a troop of about 20 Macaque. They’re pretty chilled and don’t seem to mind us watching them. The babies seem quite fearless running and jumping from tree to tree. 

Bouncing around with a jeep doesn’t do my guts any good that’s for sure. Looking at the hills the guys are climbing I am damn glad I stayed in the jeep today. I just wouldn’t have the energy for it.  

Before the last climb of the day, a monster everybody except Usha, Chris and Nicolas climb aboard the  room wagon. We bid  them farewell from the bottom. It’s 1036 meter climb from here. It’s pretty relentlessly steer for the first 7k then moderates a bit. 



Of course, Usha leads to pack into the hotel at the top with Nicolas and Chris following.  When Chris comes to the finish line he goes straight past down the hill. I have left my lunch cooling on the table to take his picture. He turns around and goes past in the other direction before returning to the hotel and doing lapse of the car park just to get the 10  kilometre ride. I leave him to it and go back to my lukewarm lunch. 

As it’s mostly downhill tomorrow, I’m determined to eat enough to do the last stage. I feel a bit better this afternoon so fingers crossed. More beige food. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kathmandu to Pokhara

Image
After a late night cobbling together the Bikes and re-packing our luggage we wake up in the international guest house finally meet everybody we’re going to ride with for the next week over breakfast.  The view from the guesthouse window is splendid but the noisy cacophony of beeping horns is less so. With warnings about dysentery and other gut related ailments ringing in my ears from people who visited here 20 years ago I stick to the old staple of beans and a pancake and black tea.  The bikes are loaded and strapped onto three 4x4 pickups and are dispatched by road  to Pokhara some 200km away.  As the journey can take between 6 and 12 hours driving, we are privileged to take a short 30 minute flight so we jump in a minibus and enjoy the madness of the Kathmandu morning rush hour.  It’s curiously chaotic but it seems to work. Road markings are completely redundant, the difference between your lane and the oncoming traffic lane is very arbitrary and roundabout ...
Read more

Stage 1 Chosang to Ghami

Image
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...
Read more

Ghami to Lomantang

Image
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...
Read more