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Highs & lows of touring. It's the highest of highs being almost 6,000mtr up on a glaciated volcano all the way to being low, following a river through the Amazonas region for 300+km. It's also a mental & physical game of highs & lows. Today being a stark contrast to yesterday. Yesterday I set off in the cool shade that enveloped me in a huge gorge that had stretched for an untold amount of kilometres. Surrounded by huge limestone chossy rock walls, fantastic morning All of a sudden I rounded a bend & was struck by the beautiful morning sunshine. There were tiny hummingbirds native to the area flying around. Bright orange, yellow & fluorescent blue butterflies almost in swarms.  The tiny village that appeared sat just metres off the waters edge glistening in the morning dew. There was even a smattering of palm trees around. It was pure joy to be in this place. A place that few other gringos had even set eyes upon let alone bike tourers. I was tempted to stop right there for the day, but conSidering I had only done 7km I thought it best I keep going. I continued on toward my goal of Chachapoyas a town that was supposed to be quite beautiful & surrounded by some archeological artefacts some 1400 years old.  My legs put up a protest as the day wore on & I promised them a day of relaxation tomorrow. Trust me when you cycle solo you tend to talk to yourself & your legs a lot :) The final climb was 15km completely out of my way & would bring me around 10,000mtr of vertical climbing in the last 5 days. That's a lot of climbing with a loaded steel touring bike. I finally arrived in the town. To say it was oversold was an understatement. Also it was the first time I had seen gringos in 5 days. Along with gringos comes " gringo troubles " overpriced accom & food mostly. As soon as I got to the Central Park I was asked for money & my drink. Of course I said no I had just ridden 100km in 35 degree heat & of course this person cursed me & carried on. I even noticed the gringo near by staring at me. I'm sure they were in disbelief as I said no to giving away a drink that had literally cost me 60c  I found myself some cheap accom thankfully. All of $5 with a nice hot shower, wifi & a kitchen. There were some other travellers there but I found myself feeling like I didn't belong. One person put some very loud trance music on the computer whilst others mused about how difficult bus transportation was. One young guy of 23 spoke about how he had come away & was hoping to find himself, & how he felt that travel had been very underwhelming for him. ........ I listened, told him to stop looking for himself he has plenty of time HAHAHA. I then went to bed around 10 which brings me to today. So far I have ridden 40km away from this town. Not an easy task when you have legs under protest. Today I feel flat, frustrated & just not thrilled. I feel a little annoyed with myself after promising a rest day. I've had another dog bite a hole in my other pannier, been ripped off at breakfast & struggled along in the heat. I'm still travelling upstream & am aiming for another 30km before camping somewhere. Excellent I got a flat tyre. Then whilst cooking dinner in one of the best camp spots ever aside from the bugs early on, I knocked over my pasta losing half of it on the ground. The button broke off my pants in the dark so now that's gone, but hey the stars are shining & I can see the southern cross.  Solo travel is great but sometimes I wonder, is it putting me out of touch?? At this stage I am just happy to be away from those pesky gringos in an amazing camp spot...... Tomorrow will be a better day. I know it. I'm going up to Revash Mausolsum then a short 30km where I plan on finding a place to stay. 
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I left the boys behind in Riobamba fairly late in the day. I made 60km before setting up camp in a nice pine forest. Once again I was solo. It was a lot easier this time :) after a great nights sleep I headed out into a light drizzle. Aiming somewhere around the 130km mark.  It was straight into it CLIMBING. I would climb for 5-10-15km think I was at the top, but nope a short down hill then climbing again. Really glad I have this 1x11 group set I rolled along with the intention of getting all the way to El Tambo 136km. I flew down a few great descents but was met with just as great climbs. I finally got to take my rain gear off a few hours after I started. The sun burst out & it was a magnificent day. The climbs seemed to be going on & on. Man I am unfit. I finally rolled into Chunchi right on time for lunch & a water restock. It had taken me 4.5 hours to do 70km. I had 65 to go.  After filling up on lunch & 3.5litrrs of water I was off. I got a nice little descent out of town then it was. Climbing. I caught up to an older guy who was walking said hi & kept on pedalling. A few seconds later he passed me running. This was a reasonable climb & over 2200mtr. He continued to run as I struggled to keep up. I finally passed him again as he slowed a little. He was running in dress shoes with no socks & undone laces. He was schooling me jahah. I rode on & again he caught me. This must of been over 1.5km by now. I sat next to him on the bike but was having to put serious effort in. This continued for probably 4km. Then he stopped at his patch of dirt. I stopped had the usual chat & he gave me his address & wanted to know all about Australia. I left with his details & continued the climb.  The deluge of rain started around 1 & would not let up all afternoon. All I was doing was climbing & climbing. My legs were knackered but the climbing & rain continued. I knew at this point there was no way I was making it to El Tambo. It was still 24 km away & I think it had taken Me over an hour to do 7. I stopped & put my sleeves on, buff & gloves, it was getting cold. No real surprise as I was over 3000 mtr. I listened to a podcast & kept on climbing. I would get a short down then a looooooong up. Just as I was absolutely soaked through & beginning to shiver I arrived in Zhud. I rolled through the tiny town, passed the police station & a further 800mtr to the service station. I was hoping this may offer a place to camp. I quickly went into the bathroom to get changed. I was freezing. I warmed up & bought a coffee. As I sat there sipping my coffee trying to stop shivering I surveyed my surroundings. Absolutely no grass or protected space. No chance to camp here at all. My only option was to ride the 800mtr back up hill in the rain to the police station. I finished my weak as coffee, paid the exorbitant .65c & left. Making a run for it as the rain has eased. My main concern was getting my dry clothes wet. I went to the police station & spoke to the officer who barely looked away from his FB on his phone. Telling me that it was only 20min down the road to some accom. I once again explained I was on my bicycle. I gestured across to a small car park shelter & asked if I can camp in there. He shrugged told me I would be cold but whatever. I took my bike & ran the 30mtr quickly in the rain to my new found respite area. I quickly set up my tent & a clothes line to hang out all my wet stuff. My back was killing me but I still needed to make dinner. I had a few chats with inquisitive locals which was great. I cooked pasta & tuna & prepared myself for what would be a long night.  As soon as I got into bed it was so loud. The highway was literally 50mtr away. To make it worse was there was a stop light & construction going on. As well as being the Sunday of a long weekend. So everyone was travelling home. Wverytime a truck would come grinding to a holt it would hit the road works & it would sound like it lost its entire load. At 11pm someone decided to crank the music up right next to me. I do believe it was the night shift police. 30-5-16 Zhud- Biblian 60km 1860mtr Feeling pretty flat & tired after my restless sleep I made my way to Biblian. Of course it was loooong climbs with short descents until 15km out of town. Them BOOM finally a mammoth descent. 15km of downhill woooop with a top speed of 79km/hr. The loaded bike gets pretty loose after 77 haha but man it was fun, zipping between cars & trucks woooo i was was stoked to arrive just before the rain as well. A beautiful little town with some tasty salchipapa ( chips with a small Frankfurt sausage ). It it was early & only 30km to Cuenca but no point in paying for accomodation if I don't have too. I checked out the sites & on dusk went & camped in another police station. This time a nice quiet one.  I was up early & on the move. I cycled the 30 some odd km into the city. A pretty nice place overall. Found myself a hostel & had one of the nicest hottest showers this trip. I spent 2 days in Cuenca just checking it out & resting my tired legs hahaha. Finally I'm starting to hit the REAL mountains. Some stats : 5 days riding 538km 10,284 mtr gained 3 dead dogs All cycling was above 2,200mtr above sea level.  What an epic week it has been. The week basically revolves around my attempt to climb Volcano Chimborazo 6310mtr tall. We arrived in Riobamba on Sunday & quickly found the company we wanted to climb with. After a brief meeting with John the owner of Andean Adventures it was decided we would try climb on wed night. We left John & went to the supermarket to stock up on food as we were unsure what to expect at the refugio. After a quick shop we hightailed it out of Riobamba at 3pm headed for the Volcano. As you would expect it was all uphill. We camped in a small hut on the side of the road after 4 hours of climbing. It was at least protected from the wind & rain. We rolled out at a leisurely time of 8am content with just cruising the remaining 16 ish km to the refugio at 4,800mtr. John drove past us & let us know he would be waiting at the cafeteria to take our panniers the remaining 8km so we could ride the dirt without any problems. Bloody brilliant it turned out as there was a fairly hefty headwind/crosswind blowing us all over the place. Another magnificent day though, you could see the summit & my thoughts drifted to thinking if anyone was coming down. Chimborazo continued to grow as we got closer. The summit seemed to get further away but was also tantalisingly close. The glacier on top gleamed in the morning sun just as pretty as a picture.  We arrived at the refugio & were cooked a great lunch before headin out for a little more climbing to acclimatise. Up to 5,100mtr. We spent the next 2 days being fed watered & doing a few treks up to 5,300mtr for acclimatisation. It was pretty boring stuff until the afternoon before the climb. Click here for a 360 degree pic, just so you can feel like you are there!  We were tossed a set of crampons & told to put them on. James & I with no experience at all had no clue. All I knew was the pointy bits went down. After some stuffing around & grunts & groans we thought we had it sorted. So we sorted the rest of our gear & most importantly the snacks ( mostly lollies ) before turning in at 4pm for a nap. We were woken at 10pm & got our gear on Leaving the refugio slightly after 11pm on a perfect night. The sky was clear, the moon shone so bright you could make out the glacier on the volcano & most importantly, there was no wind.  We Had all the gear, jacket, pants,harness, ice axe , crampons & a helmet. We left from the comfort of our warm refugio sitting quite contently at 4800mtr. After 1km we reached the second refugio. We stopped to take a drink and I took off my under jacket I was cooking. Thanks to my io/merino thermals. We hiked up somewhat clumsily through the rocks & a 30-40 degree slope until we hit the ice & frozen ground. We put our crampons on & were told we needed to move fast through the next section as it was the rockfall section. This was somewhat funny to James & I as we had never used crampons & new there was nothing fast about the way we were moving. My climb was hindered by the fact that my ice axe had no loop in it, meaning if I let go it will drop all the way back to the bottom some probably 800mtrs away. Hard to tell in the dark. We moved up a 45-50 ish degree slope of frozen ground & ice. We were not tied in or instructed on how to use the crampons so it made for slow going. It was also pretty scary at this point because I knew if I fell it was a long way down. I was a little unsure of how much I could trust my crampons & it took a lot of will power to stop the wheels from spinning in my head & keep control. It's what I love about this kind of challenge. Overcoming your mind. I got through that section & began to feel a bit sick & a headache. We had a break behind a huge boulder out of the slight breeze that had begun to pick up. It was a perfect night, still & warm. The reflection of the ice was so cool. Glimmering bits of volcanic rock in the moonlight was something I will never forget. We finally roped up to climb a small 4-5mtr rocky outcrop. Harder than it sounds with an ice axe in one hand and wearing crampons. I got over that & we continued up another few hundred metres before resting again. I was at this point feeling really sick & my head was seriously pounding. I stood up & nearly fell over but managed to keep on hiking. We finally hit the glacier where I had to sit down again. I was feeling really bad & all I could think of was " how the hell do I get down " Dave & James pushed on ahead a bit & told me the hike was a little easier as the snow was soft. I told them I was stating to feel really bad & probably won't go on. I told my guide I was not doing great and he gave me some time. I tried to walk two more times, the words I had learnt earlier " poco mas " ( a little more ) came in handy. Unfortunately I was tripping on my own feet & trying not to vomit. After some deliberation & being told it was another 3 hours to the summit ( only 400mtr vertically ) I decided it was over for me.  Want to feel like you are there with me? Click here to see the full 360 degree interactive version of this pic! Super stoked to get to around 5800-5900mtr & to experience using ice axes & crampons. We began the trudge back the way we came. When we hit the rock climb then the steep ice section I knew I had made the right decision. I was crushed & it was a serious challenge to get back down. My crampons both came very loose & fell off just before the end of the ice section. I was glad to be off that. All the way down I was having to stop & cradle my head & still trying not to Vomit. I was back to the refugio at 5am feeling absolutely horrible :) After some water & Powerade I laid down with a head I was sure was going to explode & got an hours sleep. I was up at 7 still feeling rubbish but determined not to miss the boys coming down & to get a few pictures of them. They rolled in at 10am totally exhausted but also elated to have reached the summit. I am incredibly proud of making it to where I did & in no way regret my decision to come down. It was a serious baptism into the world of mountaineering & I feel I have gained some great knowledge. I am super excited to have another crack at another mountain soon. I am also extremely stoked for the boys. Dave & James killed it. Well done on as far as I can tell a pretty bloody hard climb boys. Hats off.  A huge thanks to John from Andean Adventures. We were looked after supremely.
I/o Merino for my amazing thermals keeping me super toasty. La Sportiva for the new Akasha's. Great for trekking around volcanos. Bogong Equipment for most of my gear. The boys for hanging out. Dave & James congrats again on a huge effort. Check them out on FB @Southwardbound. Second week back. What an epic week it has been. The week basically revolves around my attempt to climb Volcano Chimborazo 6310mtr tall. We arrived in Riobamba on Sunday & quickly found the company we wanted to climb with. After a brief meeting with John the owner of Andean Adventures it was decided we would try climb on wed night. We left John & went to the supermarket to stock up on food as we were unsure what to expect at the refugio. After a quick shop we hightailed it out of Riobamba at 3pm headed for the Volcano. As you would expect it was all uphill. We camped in a small hut on the side of the road after 4 hours of climbing. It was at least protected from the wind & rain. We rolled out at a leisurely time of 8am content with just cruising the remaining 16 ish km to the refugio at 4,800mtr. John drove past us & let us know he would be waiting at the cafeteria to take our panniers the remaining 8km so we could ride the dirt without any problems. Bloody brilliant it turned out as there was a fairly hefty headwind/crosswind blowing us all over the place. Another magnificent day though, you could see the summit & my thoughts drifted to thinking if anyone was coming down. Chimborazo continued to grow as we got closer. The summit seemed to get further away but was also tantalisingly close. The glacier on top gleamed in the morning sun just as pretty as a picture.  We arrived at the refugio & were cooked a great lunch before headin out for a little more climbing to acclimatise. Up to 5,100mtr. We spent the next 2 days being fed watered & doing a few treks up to 5,300mtr for acclimatisation. It was pretty boring stuff until the afternoon before the climb.  We were tossed a set of crampons & fold to put them on. James & I with no experience at all had no clue. All I knew was the pointy bits went down. After some stuffing around & grunts & groans we thought we had it sorted. So we sorted the rest of our gear & most importantly the snacks ( mostly lollies ) before turning in at 4pm for a nap. We were woken at 10pm & got our gear on Leaving the refugio slightly after 11pm on a perfect night. The sky was clear, the moon shone so bright you could make out the glacier on the volcano & most importantly, there was no wind.  We Had all the gear, jacket, pants,harness, ice axe , crampons & a helmet. We left from the comfort of our warm refugio sitting quite contently at 4800mtr. After 1km we reached the second refugio. We stopped to take a drink and I took off my under jacket I was cooking. Thanks to my io/merino thermals. We hiked up somewhat clumsily through the rocks & a 30-40 degree slope until we hit the ice & frozen ground. We put our crampons on & were told we needed to move fast through the next section as it was the rockfall section. This was somewhat funny to James & I as we had never used crampons & new there was nothing fast about the way we were moving. My climb was hindered by the fact that my ice axe had no loop in it, meaning if I let go it will drop all the way back to the bottom some probably 800mtrs away. Hard to tell in the dark. We moved up a 45-50 ish degree slope of frozen ground & ice. We were not tied in or instructed on how to use the crampons so it made for slow going. It was also pretty scary at this point because I knew if I fell it was a long way down. I was a little unsure of how much I could trust my crampons & it took a lot of will power to stop the wheels from spinning in my head & keep control. It's what I love about this kind of challenge. Overcoming your mind. I got through that section & began to feel a bit sick & a headache. We had a break behind a huge boulder out of the slight breeze that had begun to pick up. It was a perfect night, still & warm. The reflection of the ice was so cool. Glimmering bits of volcanic rock in the moonlight was something I will never forget. We finally roped up to climb a small 4-5mtr rocky outcrop. Harder than it sounds with an ice axe in one hand and wearing crampons. I got over that & we continued up another few hundred metres before resting again. I was at this point feeling really sick & my head was seriously pounding. I stood up & nearly fell over but managed to keep on hiking. We finally hit the glacier where I had to sit down again. I was feeling really bad & all I could think of was " how the hell do I get down " Dave & James pushed on ahead a bit & told me the hike was a little easier as the snow was soft. I told them I was stating to feel really bad & probably won't go on. I told my guide I was not doing great and he gave me some time. I tried to walk two more times, the words I had learnt earlier " poco mas " ( a little more ) came in handy. Unfortunately I was tripping on my own feet & trying not to vomit. After some deliberation & being told it was another 3 hours to the summit ( only 400mtr vertically ) I decided it was over for me.  Super stoked to get to around 5800-5900mtr & to experience using ice axes & crampons. We began the trudge back the way we came. When we hit the rock climb then the steep ice section I knew I had made the right decision. I was crushed & it was a serious challenge to get back down. My crampons both came very loose & fell off just before the end of the ice section. I was glad to be off that. All the way down I was having to stop & cradle my head & still trying not to Vomit. I was back to the refugio at 5am feeling absolutely horrible :) After some water & Powerade I laid down with a head I was sure was going to explode & got an hours sleep. I was up at 7 still feeling rubbish but determined not to miss the boys coming down & to get a few pictures of them. They rolled in at 10am totally exhausted but also elated to have reached the summit. I am incredibly proud of making it to where I did & in no way regret my decision to come down. It was a serious baptism into the world of mountaineering & I feel I have gained some great knowledge. I am super excited to have another crack at another mountain soon. I am also extremely stoked for the boys. Dave & James killed it. Well done on as far as I can tell a pretty bloody hard climb boys. Hats off.  |
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