Rode to Samari

[Eric Apt-Dudfield]

Pictures

02 Nepal (Selected pics) - https://plus.google.com/photos/107217323667214807000/albums/5927506065270562609?hl=en_US

02 Nepal (All pics) - https://plus.google.com/photos/107217323667214807000/albums/5927494551479691553?hl=en_US

Journal

After a short flight from Delhi, we arrive in Kathmandu. Our home base hotel is in the Thamel neighborhood - which is most likely the Nepali word for tourist. The streets are narrow and densely packed with hotels and shops selling all manner of trekking gear and collectables. Signboards fight for space like branches in a forest canopy. The streets are filled with people, and motorcycles weave through honking their horns.

In the hotel room the bikes come together in about 4 hours. The first hour gets us 'almost done' and the next three are spent struggling with the fiddly parts - getting the derailleurs to shift properly, the brakes in that fine line between 'my wheel won't move' and 'I can't stop!', and the lights wired up to run off the hub generator. Eventually, we tighten the last bolt and pronounce the bikes ready to ride.

Our first ride around Kathmandu requires maximum focus. Like Delhi, the roads are crowded and the lanes a polite suggestion. After a few hours of riding, I start to see the patterns - the buses that will cut us off, the motorcycles that pass right close, the way traffic weaves itself together in intersections. The constant use of the horn, an annoyance when we are walking, becomes something I depend when riding. Like a friendly sonar greeting - 'Hello, I'm 10 feet back, 5 feet back, passing!'. Although the dust and crowds of the main roads will always be stressful, they become less an object of fear and more a technical challenge.

We leave out of Kathmandu at dawn. We're headed for Pokhara, via the secondary route to avoid the busy main highway. It's uphill all the way with many switchbacks through humid jungle. Insects make a buzzing sound like a badly tuned car engine that cycles on and off. We pause for breakfast at a small cafe/army checkpoint. Nepali mountain bikers stop in for a moment and then zoom uphill into the jungle.

The rest of the day is a steep, hot uphill climb that only gets steeper and hotter as we approach noon. Kate loses steam on the final 2 mile stretch and starts to break down. She rages against the mapmaker who promised her a solid yellow line on the map when this road is actually  a doted line (mix of paved and bumpy dirt). She begins to push her bike and slowly, slowly moves herself and the loaded bike up the hill. It's been over 5 hours and only 16 miles, but 2100 feet of elevation gain. Kate's first ride with a fully loaded bike.

Eventually, team Stormfield reaches the top of the pass. We find a joint UN/Nepali army base at the entrance to the quaint village of Kakani and check into a surprisingly homey, clean hotel. The window looks out over the foothills of the Himalaya - mountains in their own right. We watch the clouds swirl around the peaks. For a time we are on an island hill above an ocean of cloud. Later, the sun sets and the sky appears to catch fire. The soothing sound of Taps plays in the distance and lulls us to sleep.

At dawn the next day everything is packed and ready to go. Suddenly, 'Oh no!'. Why 'Oh no!'? Well, let me tell you about the three rules of carrying a fuel bottle of kerosene for your camping stove: 1) Don't pack it in your bike bag 2) Don't put the bike bag with a bottle of kerosene in it on top of the bed 3) And make sure the bottle of kerosene in the bike bag you put on the bed has a safety cap. Having violated all three rules, Eric (with Kate's wonderful help) spends the next day cleaning and recleaning one of the hotel's blankets and one of his bike bags. Fortunately, clothing, sleeping bag and mattress escape unharmed. By evening we manage to get everything to an acceptably unsmelly state. We leave a big tip and spend the next day grateful for the glorious mountain air, free of the smell of kerosene.

We see prayer flags in every small town we pass through. Nearby ridge peaks each have small temples with strings of hundreds of prayer flags that stretch out in all directions.

From Kakani, we head downhill for 20 miles. Through breaks in the hills and clouds, we catch our first views of the majestic himalayas. Soon, we find ourselves in the valley floor, and the temperature has risen from pleasant to hot and humid! We are well below the elevation of Kathmandu.

Asking around in a nearby village for "hotel?, room?" we are greeted by two men on a motor bike. Lal and Iman are from the next village up the way, and we are invited to stay with Lal's family for the night. Somewhat skeptically, we follow them down the road. As it turns out, Lal is a great host with a very friendly family. He insists that hosting people is in Nepali blood, something his ancestors have done for centuries (Nepal being on the trade route between India and China), and scoffs when we ask how much he'd like us to pay for room and board.

That evening, we enjoy a lovely home-cooked meal of curried potatoes and "buff" (buffalo) with rice. We sleep in their simple, but neat and clean guest room and are even offered a fan for our comfort.

The next morning we leave for the town of Samari. The saddle where it sits is just in view. We figure we'll make it there by late morning. Soon after heading out, the intermittently paved road ends completely. It progresses from dirt with sparse rocks, to something that feels like a dried up rocky river bed. And then it starts to get steep.

[Kate] So it's my third day of fully loaded touring and my first day of true mountain biking...not what I'd expected. I don't know what I thought the yellow dotted road on the map meant (especially after seeing what a "main highway" looked like), but I guess I was envisioning the nicely graded forest service roads of North Idaho...oh wait, we're in Nepal. Not only is the terrain rough, but the road gets steep, and then steeper. I thought the route to Kakani was hard! About 3 miles in, and having had to stop and push my bike up a few sections of road already, I severely begin to question my ability to make this ride. Eric, on the other hand, seems to be handling it fine, even delighting in the physical challenge. Exhausted after a particularly steep strech, where Eric awaits me, I cry as I tell him I think I have to quit. His brief cloud of disappointment lifts as his mood transitions to encouragement, "you're doing really well, I think we can make it to the ridge, it's not that far. I'll help". Eric proceeds to ride up ahead, as I follow painstakingly slowly behind, pedaling where I can, and pushing uphill where I can't, mustering all the energy I have. Eric's smiling face greets me at the next curve, he's walked down the steep stretch to push my bike up for me! I walk while Eric rides/pushes my bike up the steepest stretches, then he and I both hop on our bikes again, with him grinding quickly ahead and me following slowly behind to repeat the leap frog again... And the road just gets steeper and steeper (it can't get any more rocky), and the we both begin to melt into tired pools of sweat. Eric continues his chilavrous double duty until we reach the top at noon- it takes 6 hours to go just 6 miles. This may have been my greatest physical challenge ever... But we both made it!

In Samari, we find a single hotel. Exhausted, we happily take a room. After a rest we look around. Geckos and spiders climb the walls and dragonflies enter through unscreened windows. Kate is disgruntled by the dark, gross squat toilet that doesn't have a large enough bucket to effectively flush and the enormous spider hovering overhead. We decide to camp on the roof of the hotel to avoid the mosquitos and questionably clean beds. From there, we enjoy the evening breeze, and a beautiful sunset.

After the trek to Samari and some serious reflection on what this trip is about, our plans change. We decide to head back to Kathmandu. The next day, we negotiate the road back down from Samari. It's a bumpy, technical challenge but also exhilarating and fun, and we survive unscathed. Before returning to Kathmandu, we detour up another hill to the town of Nuwakot. Though steep, the road is paved with good switchbacks, a welcome change from our ride the day before. We stop for a rest day at the magical "Famous Farm".

The FF is the opposite of Samari - cutely decorated rooms in a rebuilt village house, big delicious meals all included, with views of the valley and a 17th century fort and palace from its gardens. Hell, they even bring the newspaper to us when we are eating breakfast! It costs 10x the miserable hotel and really, it is 10x better. You couldn't choose a better spot for a well-deserved rest day.

Now we're back in Kathmandu to regroup. Eric really enjoyed the chance to explore some of the hills around Kathmandu. Worth it, even with the pain! Although Kate wasn't happy with the constant broken down feeling of pushing a loaded touring bikes uphill, she found biking an engaging way of traveling. She wants to ride! Because maps and guide books are uncertain in this area, we decide to take a more conventional approach to tourism in Nepal. Our plan is to head out tomorrow to Pokhara via a short plane ride. From there we will start our much anticipated trek around the Annapurna Mountain Sanctuary. The hike takes roughly 21 days and is relatively remote and free of Internet. We'll check back in when we return. It should be an awesome experience, and will also give us time to ponder where to take our bikes next.

We do plan to continue riding in SE Asia after our non-biking adventures in Nepal. That's a future post.

Thanks for reading,

Kate and Eric