Escape from Jeori

Ok, I'd better make this quick 'cause the power is somewhat unreliable up here ...!

 

Yesterday morning, I left Narkanda nice and early - a nice sunny day, and what a way to start with a 2000m vertical downhill into the Sutlej river valley.  The descent went nicely - stopping every 200 vertical meters to let my wheel rims cool, then putting on the sunscreen, then putting on the insect repellent as I descended down into the malarial zone.  Finally, "hit" the valley bottom at 800m where it was very, very hot. 

 

I had about 30km to do along the valley to Rampur.  Slowly the heat sucked the energy right out of me, and my water bottles were drained quickly.  I pulled into Rampur - a neat little town clinging to the valley edge above the river.  I pushed my bike down into the bazaar - a maze of shops and services - looking for a hotel.  Unfortunately, the one I was looking for was full, and the alternative didn't look too appealing, so back up to the road, and back the way I came a short distance to the nice Himachal Tourist Department's hotel.

 

Another cyclist (!) was also staying at the hotel, although we didn't meet up until this morning.  He was lamenting the weight of his load - it turns out that he was carrying, among other things, a laptop and a big SLR camera (and I had a serious debate with myself as to whether I would take my ipod).  But, his bigger issue was that he tore the sidewall of his tire on his second day out.  He had a spare, but of a much lower quality.  This was a bit of a concern for me, 'cause in the interest of saving weight, I decided not to bring a spare tire!  Oh well, I guess I'll need to be careful ...

 

Today's plan was to cycle a short 22km to Jeori.  A nice, short day, considering the heat from yesterday.  However, I wasn't really looking forward to the hotel in Jeori, which was described in one of my books as "fetid".  Now, there is an alternative to staying in Jeori, and that would be to cycle an additional 17km ... and 700m vertical, up to the village of Sarahan, where there is a popular hindu temple.  Obviously, I wasn't keen to do that in the heat.

 

I pulled into Jeori, and found that the hotel was even worse than I could imagine!  Now, I've stayed in some bad places in Pakistan & Tibet, but this place was bad - comically so.  The fellow showed me the room - there was an empty whiskey bottle on the floor, along with the cigarette butts and other trash.  Don't ask what the bed looked like.  The view across the river valley was brilliant, at least.  I tried to "make the most of it", but then slowly realized that the only thing separating me from a decent hotel was a short bus ride.  So, I grabbed the next bus, and 45 absolutely terrifying minutes later, I was in Sarahan and in a much, much better hotel.  (the bus ride up was scary - the road was narrow and with a huge precipitous drop down to the valley - I remembered again why I chose to cycle over here - it's safer!)

 

So, I'm in Sarahan now.  It's pouring outside - a monsoonal day.  If all goes according to plan tomorrow, I'll cycle back down to Jeori (all downhill!), then 74km to Recong Peo.  It'll be a long day, but should be cooler as the road in the valley goes from about 1500m up to ~2200m in Recong Peo).

 

Final notes - the people are super friendly, virtually every car/truck/bus that goes by honks merrily and people wave.  Scenery is spectacular.  Big hydro projects under development.  Clouds still obscuring the highest peaks.  Stomach is holding together nicely.  Kickstand on bike has broken, and I lost my cycling gloves in Rampur!

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