It's Wednesday 12th and another chair-carry got me to breakfast this morning (bless 'em all) and then I managed to hobble painfully to the bus on my single crutch. The descent of the precipitous, cobbled, hair-pinned driveway was as scary in the bus as it was for the riders who had to walk it. The location here at Tranquil Nest is truly beautiful with constant jungle birdsong, and tree frogs calling. It was another tough ride today for the cyclists with plenty of short breaks on the narrow winding road as it progressed upwards through the Western Ghats. We saw typical sights of women carrying great bundles of firewood and water carriers (not at the same time!) on their heads, and men carrying huge bunches of bananas likewise, with enormous hooked blades hanging from their waists. Anne lost her Dog Dazer at one point but was relieved to find it had been picked up by a following rider, especially as Claire was actually chased by a dog later! Finding a lunch stop was a challenge as there were so few areas where you could pull off. All were rubbish strewn, but many were discounted due to piles of human faeces! We eventually found a place and were almost immediately surrounded by a troop of monkeys which had to be kept at bay, especially when one tried to get into the bus! After the picnic lunch we continued climbing quite steeply again until reaching the hill station town of Kodaikanal. A busy and chaotic metropolis, it assaulted the senses on all sides. We turned off and drove around its big lake to find the wonderful hotel that would be home for 2 nights. Good WiFi, lovely staff, amazing food, and we get a disabled room so all is good. We are at 2100m so it's like a warm summer's day in UK. In fact, it was quite chilly come evening. The wonderful nurse Erica (tandem stoker) came round and kindly poked, prodded and manipulated me before dinner and seemed reassured that there were no obvious indications of underlying tendon/ligament detachments, just a softness in the tissues in the injured side compared with the good side. This, and the fact it has not got any worse, is good news. Time to celebrate with a trip to the restaurant for beer and a fab meal.
And Anne says she rode all the 28miles quite comfortably. I should give her my Garmin to carry!
No comments:
Post a Comment