Day 955
20,000 miles!
We will ride 20,000 miles just to get...half way round the world! Yep, since we left home we’ve ridden more than the Guiness Book of Records says is enough to cover the world. Well you know Tom, no shortcuts for him!
We were struggling to feel in a celebratory mood though. We needed a treat. Just 11 miles away was another town with a hotel that has rooms with a thermal spring hot tub. A bath with hot water, now you’re talking, this was how to celebrate! The mist had disappeared, we had a wonderful ride down and around the side of a beautiful valley, the road condition wasn’t brilliant and yes, we had to climb up the other side, but did I mention the hot tub, and only 11 miles! The town, Cachicadan was clearly suffering, run-down and looking almost deserted, apart from the guys at the pub, who as usual greeted us with a cheer and a glass of beer. Ok it was barely 11am but when in Peru! Many buildings had been abandoned and were becoming derelict. It is something we have seen a lot through all the countries we have cycled through. Life in these remote communities is tough. Covid often the final nail in the coffin. Here in Peru, harder than most. Often no running water, electricity a luxury, work in the fields mainly done by hand, oxen to help with the ploughing if you’re lucky. People flock to the cities for work and hopefully a less brutal life. Our hotel though was open, although the restaurant wasn’t, the hot tub was hot and we celebrated our 20,000 miles on the road with some stale bread and out-of-date crisps but at least we were warm and clean.
Then it back up into the hills, stunning wildflowers everywhere and views to match. Time and again we rode past the remains of the Inca Road that runs the spine of South America. Then we wildcamped again, we had a river but it was fast flowing and muddy so decided to give it a miss. We had a decision to make, we could leave to 3N and take a shortcut and miss nearly 1,000 feet of very steep climbing. It made sense, I mean the 3N was in awful condition just how much worse could the shortcut be? Our friend Matt P had ridden it 6 months ago and found pretty bad, so much deep loose sand, especially on the corners, it was more of a push than a ride. Locals were 50% for, 50% against, so no help there. We knew surfaces change, we’d had rain which hopefully would dampen down that sand and decided to go for it! Well it was just fine, not perfect, but someone had clearly taken Matt’s sand to build castles with and we blasted through it, grinning from ear to ear. Then back onto the 3N and the hills. Another wildcamp down a rocky path and getting ourselves psyched up the tomorrow’s ride. 57 hairpins down and up a valley, we’d been looking forward to this since we left the UK, would it live up to our expectations?
