Day 75 - Four Thousand Metres
Even more cute houses!
Big day planned, moderately efficient morning to start it off - helped to have found some oats the night before so we weren't at the mercy of the very slow kitchen! It was a bit of fairly smoggy flat and then our first hill. Boy was it hot at only a couple of hundred metres above sea level and the sun blasting down - we were soon both dripping with sweat but the metres were slowly being eaten up.
After a quick stop for some momos, we enjoyed a rare treat - a road descent not in the cold and not in the dark! It's amazing how quickly you can descend on tarmac!
And then it was back up again...for a monster 2400m climb! That's about 4 hours of climbing with panniers! It was everything from dripping sweat at the bottom to white fingers at top, but stunning the whole way up, and varied too - forests at the bottom and steep ridges towards the summit. I made it a good way up, just staying ahead of the descending smog when darkness fell and so the steep top section was done in one little island of light, but with a gorgeous sunset at my back. At the very top I stopped to check where the planned hotel was, realised I was standing outside of a better hotel and so the day was done without any descending and at the very, very top of the pass - should be a good view tomorrow! The gas for the hot shower 😱 has been hooked up, then tweaked, then hooked up again, but as yet not working, so the state of the washing facilities is hanging in the balance as I type this while waiting for dinner. Let's hope it's better than the room heater which turns on, groans, and then goes back to sleep again - the season is over, clearly! (In case you didn't guess, it's cold here at 2500m!). Either way - we'll sleep well tonight.
Food spend today: 10.50 euros
Tea consumption: 9