Jan. 29 - Hetauda, Nepal

Sunday, January 29 :: Hetauda, Nepal :: 130km today / 3114km total

After last night's forced feeding I started my ride this morning feeling... good! Steadily, carefully eating and drinking I racked up 100km. Monkeys, monkeys all over the place today - different kinds, too. Plenty of forest, I could have imagined I was in Northern Ontario or B.C., except the road here is way flatter. Past the army roadblocks, past the occasional road washout, I kept pushing along, massaging my bruised ego from yesterday's bashing.

With 26km to go the road turned North, and it all went to hell. The road went up and over my first big Himalayan range, a 16km climb with a 10km descent down the other side. I was very weak at this point, having long exhausted last night's food, and slowly, pathetically, forced my way skywards, ticking off the km's of the climb. After my nth rest a truck SLOWLY rolled by and I marked it, following, letting it pace me. Finally we crested, and it was a screaming descent into Hetauda. Again, I was completely played out and had to force myself to eat copious amounts of food, in preparation for tomorrow's ride. At the hotel I was staying at was a book of comments for and by... cyclists! Yes, I picked that hotel for that reason. It was a fantastic read, kind of you-had-to-be-there kind of stuff.