Day 37 - Feb 14

Day 37 - Feb 14

Had a little rain overnight.  Just a sprinkle, it was refreshing.  We haven't seen rain in a month. Just hope it holds off doing it while we are riding.  

To give you an idea of how the day starts off...  Wake up about 6 am and start packing up my portable home:  sleeping bag, foam pad (so glad I did this one or I would have a perpetual stiff back), air mattress (2 inch thick not much cushion), plastic pad to keep puncture from air mattress, tent and all that has to do with that.  Then we have a riders meeting and then breakfast.  Breakfast is perpetual grool (not sure the spelling but quite sure of the taste) and possibly some fruit.  If grool runs out then muesling, oh boy even better than grool.  :(

On the bike and riding before 7:30.

The mornings are very smoky.  The locals are all up and have started cooking fires to cook bread and a meal.  There is so much wood smoke if we are near a village that it would put Los Angeles smog to shame.  This morning we started off riding into a town.  You would have thought we were riding into a fog bank.  The women have a large fire and they put a concave iron pot onto it.  They put it so the dome part is up away from the fire.  In this they are baking a type of bread.  

Today's ride was a tough one.  It started off nicely with a couple of long downhills.  Then...  you guessed it, climbing.  We climbed over 1,800 meters today.  I got to the point where I did not want to see a downhill because it meant another climb.  You know the saying...  whatever goes up must come down. Wait a minute that's not what I wanted...  Whatever goes down must come up.  That's more like it.  Ok, I know that isn't the saying but it works for me.  :)    Anyway,  every time we give up some elevation with a downhill it means we have to reclaim it and more.  :(

Climb, climb, climb, climb, climb....  is there no top to this country??!!

Well on to the good stuff...  On one climb about 20 yards ahead of my bike 4 monkeys ran across the road. One stopped in the middle of the road looked at me and I think laughed.  Could have been my imagination or he knew what was ahead of me.   Climb, climb,  okay you already know the rest.   But that wasn't something you see everyday. How many times have you seen monkeys cross the road in front of you?  Pretty cool....

The downside to the day was the kids.  Got stoned (not in a good sense) by one of the little blighters.  Brought the bike to a quick stop and the cowardly little #%^*~£¥ took off running.  I yelled a couple of instructions as to where they could put the rocks and to the general lack of character that it takes to do that.   Also a couple of gestures that I do not believe required any type of translation, and then pedaled on.  The scenery of this country is beautiful but I do not think I would recommend anyone come here because of the kids.  They are so obnoxious with their constant "you, you, you, you, you" and "where are you go" (I don't think they even know they are asking a question, just parroting) and "what you name, what you name" (again I don't think they know what they are saying) and the ever popular "you give me money" or the shortened version "money, money, money".  And of course the rocks and sticks if they do not like the response or even if they do.  :(

You can see the smoke in the air.  And the winding road.

A couple of the fine soon to be major league pitchers if they can graduate from rocks to balls.  :(

A river, the lifeblood of the area.  You will see women walking along the road barefoot caring 5 gallon jugs to fetch water from this or some other water source.  They balance one jug on their head and another they strap to their back.

The top of the hill where we had a lunch stop.