Post 01: The Mountain Bike Ride

Date: Saturday 27th March
Distance: 22km
Grade: Easy

 

Only my third full day in Kathmandu, Nepal, and I was excited at the prospect of getting out in the open air, away from the smog of the city.  Little did I know what this mountain bike ride was going to bring me...

 

I made a few lists in my red, leather bound journal, so that I could quickly type up the day's activity in the absence of a powercut!

 

Things to forget:

• My broken bike 30 minutes into the ride
• My epic fail on the man points scoring
• Holes in the road, pipes in the road, rocks in the road everywhere!
• Having to go back up the "really steep downhill section" after finding that the road ahead was now closed
• Lack of cycling shorts
• Getting back on the bike after a break
• Being told it was an "easy" ride before being told "ok, next bit is single track. and downhill"!
• Vitali's photos on the downhill section - thoughts go back to Thetford Winter Series...
• Dust. Everywhere.
• The moment a motorcyclist almost took my life away.
• And again - no cycling shorts!

Things to remember:

• The children who came to see (stare at) me when I was left with my broken bike
• The first break - sweet milk tea and a kit kat, with an entertaining posing local!
• Happy calls of "hello, what is your name, where are you from" through every village
• Our guide trying to push my bike for me up a hill (yes, I was walking!)
• Our lunch stop, and being educated on the true meaning of Hinduism
• The random piece of tarmac road - bliss!
• Being sprayed with water by a local lady as I cycled pass
• The beautiful views
• The finish!

And lastly, the things I want to forget but can't...:

•  The aching body
• The tender bottom
• The lack of cycling shorts

Sophie's amended description of the bike ride:
Distance:  Too far!
Grade:  Impossible
Worth it:  Definitely!


There is one thing that I have learnt from this trip:  do not take a bag with you, full of your weekend clothes and things!

There is a first time for everything...

It was June last year that I first set up my blog and, like all good intentions, it was soon put aside under more "pressing issues"...

Originally created to record my summer au pairing in Italia, I soon found that full-time care and education of two young girls did not leave much time for blogging - how I came to admire mothers worldwide who juggle this along with many other things!
I have now been back in the country for nearly 6 months, and plan to start and complete the blogging I "never got round to doing" before leaving for my next trip - Nepal and India.
My next entries will try to make sense of all the scribbled notes that I managed to scramble down haphazardly on any paper available, whether it be commenting on the local custom or a sudden enlightenment.  Hopefully this time I will manage to keep up my good intentions, before they slide again to the bottom of my list of things to do... Maybe that is why I never make New Year's Resolutions!