Day 73 - Down Up Down Up Down Up

Knowing we've got to make some ground on this hilly hilly terrain coming up, we're rolling by 8am, thinking that the first 100kms will be rapid because it's majorly "down"..... Wrong!

Started out along this winding ridge, through loads of small villages, everyone bundled up in the fog, drinking tea in small groups on the side of the track. Following the "main road" through the villages, eventually plummeting down the the river bed. And I mean river bed. A series of huge landslides over a year ago destroyed the whole road, so now the temporary road winds it's way along the river... A main road out of Kathmandu, and it's terrible!

Some 60+ kms down the line, we're on a real road! Feeling more beat up than we'd expected, we stop for a surprisingly good roadside lunch and get a bonus dog in a jumper!

Ben was considerably more excited by his 1€ burger...

We both express concern for how potentially slow moving Nepal might end up being, and with 20,000 vertical meters to do in the next 5 days, we decide it's a good idea to double check the stats and re-evaluate the route.... 😅. Ben gets plotting on Komoot, I follow the dog around taking photos. There's no point both of us following the dog around taking photos.

So we've got a new optimised route, have saved a few thousand meters of "pointless" climbing, and we head off down this stunning valley... Almost no cars, just a few villages full of smiling kids and hard working adults, and felt like we had the road to ourselves!

Last hour or so in the dark, we arrive in our town for the night, Ben inspects four different guest houses before reluctantly settling on one... "Passable" he says. 😅.... All you want dinner, and a room, for less than €10 for 2, sounds good to me!

Food spend today: 16.70 euros

Tea consumption: (a dismal) 3