We’d slept at 3500m and the day began with a 1700m nearly 40km unsealed road downhill ride to 1800m in the bottom of the valley. What was incredible was that from the top of the hill, you could see your day laid out in front of you with the down hill switch-backing to the bottom and then the road climbing up the other side of the valley to Abancay.
From the bottom of the valley it was a 15km climb to Abancay. I stopped at a car wash and used it at a bike wash. It was nice to de-mud my bike, ready for a service this arvo. Today was a short day, so we didn’t have a lunch stop, just soup and salad waiting for us at the hotel. I’m happy that our room is at the back, not facing the street. At 3pm, I went to the basement to do three things to my bike –
1) Change the tyres from off-road to road tyres
2) Clean the chain and sprockets and
3) Fit a new bottle holder.
All up the jobs should have taken no more than an hour. I was still there at 6pm in the dingy dungeon long after the last person had gone. Why? On pumping up the second tyre I could hear hissing air and sure enough, the tyre went flat. I took the tube out but could not find the hole, so put it back in the tyre, but it went flat again. I eventually found the hole, patched it but when I pumped up the tyre the patch leaked.
Malcolm
foto: janin
(to be continued)