Happy Days

The riding for day 6 is over, and I'm feeling fantastic. I suppose I
should try to recall some of the negative feelings I've been having
since you last heard from me, in order to give an accurate picture of
the trip so far. Oh. Oh god it hurts so bad. I literally want to die.
I'll just lie here with my head in the road, and whatever happens,
happens (true story).
Phew! Now that that's done, I can talk about some of the interesting
stuff we've been doing. First though, let me apologise to those of you
who did actually stay tuned, as I suggested at the end of my last
post. We have been having trouble getting on the net, and haven't been
able to update as often as we'd like.
The most hideouly painful part of our journey so far was definitely
the morning of the third day. It doesn't look like much on the map,
but riding it felt like being an ant, riding over corrugated iron. The
heat was unbearable, and whatever joy each of us took from the
downhills was poisoned by the knowledge that we'd have to pay for it
tenfold at the next up.
But bear it we did, and after a long and relaxing lunch, we made good
time in the afternoon. Top Cat was way out in front, and I was a fair
way behind Two Beat, but managed to catch him up when he stopped for a
break. We asked Mas Bari how far it was to Cianjur, where we were
stopping the ride for the day, and he said Top Cat was only 1
kilometer ahead. Based on our standard rule of "All distance estimates
are 3km short", we jokingly said we'd see each other again in four
kilometers. We stopped again about 12 kms later, for another chat re
distance. Mas Hiru said "a long way". Then Mas Yudi said "5 kms", then
after a phone call, corrected to 1 km. We didn't know what to think,
but we were rewarded when we caught up with Top Cat about 1 km later.
With the cycling done, we drove up to Cipanas, and stayed in the villa
with Intan's dad (or perhaps I should say with Top Cat's future father-
in-law). I think the villa deserves a post all to itself, so let me
just say that it is beyond anything I could have imagined, and really
needs to be seen to be believed.
The next day was a "rest day", involving getting up at an hour even
more hideously early than usual and going to climb two mountains,
Gunung Gede and Pangrango. We had only two backpacks between the three
of us, so I got off to a light start, and told Ian I'd swap with him
soon. As it happens, this was a horrible, horrible mistake on my part.
I offered to take the pack off our guide, Mas Daud, as he was having a
bit of trouble keeping up with our pace. I found out later that, among
other things, he was carrying no less than 17 cans of Pocari Sweat.
Needless to say, I was somewhat hampered.
Perhaps now is a good time for a brief infomercial regarding the
importance of replacing salts and ions lost when sweating, and to
extol the benefits of an isotonic drink that has saved us from certain
cramp. Our second day was 104 kms, and by the end we were all in
various stages of compete muscular spasm. For my part, I could no
longer lift my legs from the bike without glute cramp, which made
sitting on a bike a painful exercise. I have also been informed that
at one point Two Beat's quad disappeared completely inside his thigh,
something which raises questions of basic physics, let alone anatomy.
We quickly realised that we were sweating much more than usual, and
that drinking water wasn't going to cut it. Enter Pocari Sweat. We've
been going through about 4 or 5 a day, and haven't had cramp since.
Back to the mountain. Because of a late start we decided that one
mountain was enough for the day. This was still 1650 metres up and
down in a day, so nothing to sneeze at.
The following days have been the best of the trip so far. The cycling
has been relaxed, with only 45 and 72 kms respectively, and the hills
have been gentle. Yesterday Top Cat and Two Beat went paragliding
(then the weather turned and I missed out) and today we visited a
volcano and hot springs, which we are leaving at this very moment.
I don't want to get too ahead of myself though, as our next 3 days are
all 120 kms. Hopefully we'll have Internet, and I'll be able to write
about the pain as it happens.
Until next time,
Smokin' Mike