I left Ella at 7am, sort of pleased not to be there anymore
Ella a town of buzzword, Yolo, bespoke, farm shop, fusion cooking 🤮. There is a tourist strip like in Siem Reap and Luang Prabang. Loud music, and restaurants serving the aforementioned fusion cooking. “Yeh I did Thailand and SEA last year” sort of talk. Not really my kind of thing. But when in Rome…. I went out to an Italian restaurant ordered a bowl of pasta, it wasn’t enough so I ordered another then some chips then banana fritters and ice cream. I have to say it was good.
100 meters out the door and the road goes up steeply. When I organise my routes the Garmin likes to put in a few short cuts, so instead of going via the main road it just cut a out sections. These short cuts are usually steep beyond belief it’s a tripple balance, keeping the bike upright, keeping the front end down and keeping my ass firmly on the seat to maintain traction on the back wheel. It’s never easy.
I eventually turned off the road, it started like this
Which I didn’t think was too bad, but then it turned to this,
Which I walked through, but it turned to this
Which I thought was a bit much. Some tea workers said it only got worse, so I turned back. Eventually finding a road 9km from Lipton’s Seat.
I had an inkling it may be up. But a solid 12% all the way was pretty taxing. I raced past a Tuktuk over some bits of rough road, then as I was ahead gunned it to the top to make sure he didn’t overtake on the smooth roads.
Some pretty spectacular views shrouded in mist.
At the ticket office a kilometre from the top everyone was turning left but my route turned right (along the jungle road I was later informed) it started ok
But then started to deteriorate
All downhill but so rough I could only travel at 6 or 7 kph.
This I’m sure you will understand plays merry he’ll with your better regions. But I wouldn’t give it up for the world. Such beautiful sights. But 20 km of rough track, phew, I wish I had my pink bike I would be flying down.
Then finally I hit a tarmac road and pedalled hard. So georgeous to be on smooth again. I nearly zoomed past thus waterfall but an extra attraction pulled me in.
Then I turned right and a straight road down and 55km to the coast.
Its at this point that my cycling shouts decided to weld themselves to my bottom and every time I moved it was like rubbing salt into the raw skin. I stopped often but this didn’t help. I tried to just ride through. Finally j got into the guesthouse at about 5.30 pm. Seven and a half hours after I started riding. Savlon it’s all I have 🤔.
Riding in the mountains is so good it sort of makes up for the pain in the ass.
Here’s hoping I can bang out a quick 100km tomorrow to get to my sea resort.
A Couple of Days Ride Outta....... 