Category Archives: MTB

Asia, bikes, family, MTB, travel

From the archive – Thailand & Nepal – II

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[The diary that I compiled during our visit to Adele in Nepal in January & February 2008 came up in conversation the other day. As far as I know only Mum & I have ever read it – so here is part of it for posterity, the photos are complimentary – yeah, they are for free.]

28/1/8 Kathmandu

Slept in a bit, but still managed to meet at 0915 for start of MTB tour. My guide, for my purposes, named Andy, took me through early morning rush hour north out of the city. I was so glad to have my soft-tail bike – and that was just for the road riding – many large potholes! A wonderfully clear day, rather crisp at that time of the morning. We had soon made our way past the cacophony of horns & motorcycle engines. We spent the next thirty to forty minutes steadily climbing the hill road beside Nagarkot Forest – good views of the Kathmandu valley & a glimpse of the Himalayas.

We finished the climbing on the other side of the range looking in to the next valley, then popped on to dirt road downhill in to first valley. Nice cruise downhill with enough rocks & potholes to make it interesting. Stopped for photo of rice, wheat & potato fields & Andy discovered he had a flat tyre – also saw a beautiful blue woodpecker & numerous eagles soaring about.

Continued down to river flats (the river is pretty small at the moment – pretty much a stream in the dry season) – there were many small trucks & people loading the trucks with shovels of sand for construction. Another short climb up to a very popular temple for lunch. Cruised back in to the city & hit the traffic the again. There were a number of sets of three speedbumps that were great for jumping over all three at once. Got back before 1300 – apparently I was quick, but probably due to the fact there was only one of me. 32 km, 2.15 riding time.

What a fantastic way to see the city & villages & be able to stop easily, yet still cover reasonable distances – so glad I brought my own bike (pleased not to be on a hard tail).

Pokhara tomorrow – am looking forward to escaping all the horns of Kathmandu & seeing Adele.

29/1/8 Tuesday Kathmandu – Pokhara

We made it to Kathmandu domestic in an early ‘80s Corolla – bike bag in boot & all the rest of the luggage jammed around the passengers – a tight squeeze. It turned out that the 1000 to Pokhara actually left at 0945 – the first time I’ve been on a scheduled flight that left early. We didn’t see a lot flying – a bit cloudy, but got a decent view of Nagarkot forest & the valley I biked up yesterday. Got to Pokhara airport well before Adele as we were there very early – the Yeti Airlines flight was great, a Jetstream 31 turboprop, no dreary safety briefing, lollies, cottonwool for the ears & three biscuits. All in half an hour!

Adele was very pleased & excited to see us. Her favourite taxi driver managed to cram us & our luggage in & on top of his Maruti Suzuki 800 (the taxi of choice in Nepal now the polluting Vikrams & tempos have gone). Arrive at Adele’s home, Blue Planet Lodge & met her other family – Ram, Sabine, Tara, Asmita & Madu.

Lunch lakeside & afternoon spent wandering Lakeside, assembling bike (again!) & scoping out a guide for a MTB ride tomorrow morning.

30/1/8 Pokhara

Up early (0645), as Adele thought it a good idea to meet at 0800 for a bike ride ex. Pokhara MTB club. Our guide was 19 year old Ashadin & a couple of younger boys (~12-14 years old) tagged along – rather, were in from most of the way.

We eventually got going, rode through Lakeside (beside the lake), then Damside (beside a dam at end of the lake). The rain had pretty much stopped by now – but very low cloud & mist – a great day for riding, but an awful day for taking photos as no mountains to be seen anywhere. Crossed a lot of fields that are crossed by irrigation dykes – these make excellent little obstacles to hop over or jump off. Winding through small villages & small land holdings and as today is a holiday there are kids everywhere who are all saying namaste, hello or bye or encouraging tricks – bunny hops, wheelies or jumps – by saying “jumping, jumping”.

Following the Seti River downstream & enjoying gentle gradients up & down. A nice downhill to get to top of cliffs over big river plain – another tractor & trailer down the bottom collecting sand. We ended up 15 km away from home before reaching small bridge to cross river, a decent climb up to bigger village & eventually a town. We didn’t ride on many roads – instead keeping to back tracks & still seeing kids everywhere.

The track continued near the end for a long way beside an irrigation canal & the start of a powerhouse construction. The canal ran a long way through town & ran quite quickly. Rode by Pokhara Stadium, over bridge across very deep narrow gorge, beside airport & home at 1300 – 42 km. A long ride for Adele – once again a great way to see a lot, pity it was so cloudy. Lunch with Kim – a nurse from Canada that has been working with Adele.

Dinner with Pushpa, Menuka & Jonathon. Great to meet them finally after hearing about them so much from Bronny. Jonathon 10 months old, but a bit under the weather so we didn’t see much of him & Menuka – he is quite the cutie though. A lovely dinner & there was so much to choose from – I am so full! At least it wasn’t too hot for Dad.

31/1/8 Pokhara

Another ride today, after passport photo for trekking visa, set off 0930 through Pokhara retracing our path from yesterday afternoon. A big climb up technical rocky uphill for twenty minutes, then up sealed road for another forty minutes, then continued up dirt road for a further twenty minutes or so. Still very cloudy, so no good views. At highest point, we could just make out the lake – Begnas Tal. Cue six kilometre downhill that was very rocky & a lot of fun – unfortunately near bottom was going too slowly through very rocky part, over handlebars, landed on arm & chin. Very bruised right wrist, upper forearm & upper arm – I thought I came close to breaking it – but not enough pain. Managed to also split chin open & bleed everywhere – guide cleaned this up & we rode back in to town. ~42 km again away only three hours. Chin wound was deeper than I thought, Adele patched it up & I should get a nice little scar when it heals.

Adele took us to visit Green Pastures Hospital where she has been working for three months. Saw many patients – leprosy, spinal, burns – & not so many doctors & nurses. Good to meet everyone & have a look around. Then also tea at Dr Simon & Dr Sarah’s – Adele has spent much time in surgery with Sarah – a plastic surgeon.

Lovely dinner back at guesthouse with Ram & Tara & Asmita – they also enjoyed the Cadbury Dairy Milk that Mum had brought over for them. Had good meal of Nepalese food & ate with one’s right hand (which was rather difficult with my sore arm).

1/2/8 Friday Pokhara

Big sleep after last night’s pain – Adele up & off to her last day at the hospital before 0800. Up to Sarangkot with Shyam in taxi, past where the paragliders launch from. Saw a couple of chutes take off & also some rescued birds (Eygptian vulture & kite) released to soar with the paragliders.

Clambered up many steps to the Sarangkot temple & lookout. The least amount of clouds we have had for three days afforded great views of the Annapurnas.

After lunch we walked along the ridge line for three hours through villages & paddies – walking was a bit slow after the previous days’ rides, not sure how I will survive seven days trekking. Shyam picked us up at end of the track (on a main road up into hills only built 13 years before). The road passed by Shyam’s house.

2/2/8 Pokhara

Up & downtown to buy replacement SD card for my camera. Mum & Adele went off shopping a bit later & Dad off in other direction for the next instalment in the Yeti Airlines ticketing debacle. I arrived back first & met Kim – chatted for a while, Mum & Adele back, chatted a while longer & then us three younger ones off to go paragliding!

After signing our lives away (they did actually have medical/travel insurance) we proceeded for about forty minutes (Nepali time) for the jeep to take us to Sarangkot. The Mahindra jeep chugged to the top with us three & five pilots in the pack & a number of sails on the top.

Kim was the first to take off with her bright yellow glider. Adele got airborne with their fourth attempt. I waited a little for my French flier, Pierre, to pay a short (read long) visit to some trees & then we were away quite easily – lean forward & pull on glider as it rises & tries to pull you back & then run off the edge of the hill to certain peril. There is nothing to it. Somewhere in there you float away & then sit back in the harness for the ride. The sensation of floating up in the sky in peace & quiet is fantastic. With my camera securely tied to the harness I took plenty of photos of the immediate surrounds – the mountains were hidden in cloud, but that didn’t matter much as the flying was so good.

Pierre was keen to fly up, so we climbed high above the other gliders. Apparently the weather & wind were really conducive to good flying today. I couldn’t spot Adele’s red & purple wing for a while & began to look for it plastered in to the hill side – eventually it came in to view well below us.

By now we were literally soaring with eagles (perhaps hawks or vultures) & we chased each other around & around (I wonder if he is using the same wind that we are using?) – plenty of good photos here.

Adele came up towards us to meet us & then fell away a bit. Pierre & I (really Pierre only had the say) went much higher in to the clouds & it got a lot chillier & with reduced visibility it became quite disorientating – did manage to get a good view of the path that we walked down yesterday.

At lower altitude we went close to the road up to Sarangkot & could get good view of Pokhara & all the main roads. By now, Adele was heading well over the lake before going down to the landing zone on the shore.

Over the lake & much closer to the ground/water surface, Pierre performed a series of sharp left & right turns in succession that flung us out to the side – it was similar to being on a rollercoaster, but so much more peaceful. The stomach was noticeably elsewhere for the first time on the flight. Landing was a non-event, smooth approach & touchdown.

Out of the harness to find Adele & Kim both enjoyed their flights – in spite of Kim emptying her stomach while Adele was trying to photograph her & also while landing. Adele even got to steer her glider – she was suitably pleased. Jeep ride back to town, where Adele managed to feel more motion sick than during the flight – she thinks the anti-nausea pills were doing her in – they sure did when she had an out of body mind experience while shopping.

Strolling back home, we met Mum & Dad for lunch. Then it was off shopping for next week’s trek. I eventually ended up with fleece pants, trekking pants, fleece gloves & the standard Pokhara fake down jacket.

We enjoyed our best dinner yet at Monsoon with one of Adele’s medical families & Kim.

Africa, bikes, friends, MTB, travel

First few days in Kenya

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I’ve been in Kenya for three days now & it’s been a reasonably relaxing few days, but with a few little things worth talking about. Also, if I do little spurts of story-telling, it won’t be as tedious (for both reader & writer) to read as one big narrative. A reasonable enough nine hour flight straight through to Nairobi – but I don’t particularly recommend Virgin Atlantic (they don’t stop talking over the PA, the check-in is a nightmare, the entertainment is not on-demand [so if you miss the start of the movies every two and a half hours, you have to wait another two and a half hours] & the food is poor – I think I’ve been spoiled by Air NZ). But we did land early & I was through buying a visa, collecting my luggage & convincing customs that my bike was two years old (& therefore of no interest to them & their duty) before Adrian could get to the airport. As it was nine-thirty on a Sunday morning, the traffic driving northeast through Nairobi was sparse – but still the typical crazy one expects from a big third world city.

We stopped off on the way home at quite a western cafe (WiFi if I wanted it) for breakfast & continued the catch up. Adrian has been in Kenya for about a year and a half & is working for an organisation that arranges volunteers to come over & do work on various projects around East Africa (very busy, but by all accounts better than selling automatic sliding doors to shops in Auckland). Thankfully, ACTS is based a bit out of the city & it wasn’t too long before we were at the house where Adrian lives with a workmate & a couple of guys who work for a similar organisation (GC) – the house also has accommodation for some of the volunteers. It’s a good arrangement with the few permanent tenants (ACTS & GC rent it) & a stream of other expats staying for a little while or longer. I haven’t quite worked out the history of the house, but it must be thirty or forty years old & I like to think maybe it was at the centre of a tea plantation. It’s quite a large house (I think the lounge is almost bigger than the flat where I am staying in London) & comes complete with a great staff – there’s always a guard at the gate (three at night), the maid comes in everyday (I’m not really used to my bed being made every day) & a gardener who has got the grounds in immaculate condition. It’s all a little strange & takes a while to get used to. It’s still quite odd that the internet here in Kenya is so much faster than what we had back in NZ.

After meeting a few housemates over (their) lunch at Brackenhurst (the nearby compound where the ACTS offices are), it was back to the house & I somehow got motivated to put my bike together. That afternoon Adrian took me on his running loop (I rode of course) that goes around Brackenhurst & through a lot of tea fields.

Embarrassingly, no sooner had we got out the gate & Adrian veered off around the corner on a dirt track & I followed around on the grass, I put my front wheel in a big unseen hole & went straight over the bars – only damage was to my pride & a bit of a bruise on my thigh. I had never seen tea fields up close & was surprised to see how well established the little bushes were – for some reason I though that tea plants would be ones that are replaced every season or so.

We were riding/running on dirt roads & tracks between the tea fields & it made for some good riding – unfortunately the hills quickly showed me up as being very hungry, tired, jet-lagged & most of all, quite out of shape.

The downhills were a blast though (but one did have to be mindful of people walking up the opposite way) & I worked out that the hundreds of speed bumps everywhere aren’t so bad on a bike – they are pretty horrendous in Adrian’s short wheel base Suzuki (it brings back a lot of memories – it was one of these that I learnt to drive in). Adrian has been introducing his housemates to Flight of the Conchords so a fair few episodes were watched that night before a rather long sleep for me.

I’ve had to run away to the cool inside (thick stone walls & floors do have their advantages) as it’s too hot sitting in the shade on the balcony. Monday was a pretty lazy day for me – nice sleep-in, sorted out my stuff a bit, watched the first half of NZ’s innings in the third ODI against Pakistan, went for another ride around the same loop (knocked twenty minutes off the time) & then went out for dinner to see Inglorious Basterds with Joe & Nick. The roads are little bit easier to handle in long wheel-based Prado.

I was up well too early on Tuesday, as Adrian’s work & house mate Carmen had organised for me to go in to a school in a slum in Nairobi with a couple of their volunteers. Jeff & Christina (from Montreal) had been to the school the previous week & in the meantime bought a whole lot of school supplies to give to the children & teachers. I wasn’t too sure where the slum was, but it turned out to be near the airport as the big jets were coming in to land over the corrugated iron shacks. We had a later than intended start after two flat tyres on the ACTS van, but even so the trip took three times as long through the traffic as it did on Sunday. Naturally, as we got further in to the slum the squalour increased & the roads deteriorated – it was all pretty horrendous & looking out of the van on the drive reminded me of Nepal (except the skin colour is darker & there is a lot more English around).

The head teacher was particularly pleased to have visitors & I was the only new visitor I was paraded through each class; upon our entrance all the students (the classes ranged from about four to eleven years old) would stand & then burst in to a welcome song, the students would introduce themselves in turn & then I would introduce myself.

It was all very cute (they do love to sing). After we had distributed all the gifts & there were an awful lot of speeches & singing & dancing the kids went back to their homes for however much lunch they could get. After lunch I somehow found myself alone in front of a blackboard trying to teach ten year olds how to convert from metres to kilometres and vice versa. As I always suspected, there is a good reason I’m not a teacher – it was just as well the content was pretty easy & they all seemed to know what there were doing. I slowly managed to get hold of writing on the blackboard & avoiding the potholes in the concrete floor without falling over. Hopefully that is the end of my teaching career, as interesting as it was.

Yesterday I finished the book that I had picked up the day previous. It was a well thumbed copy of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, I’m not sure where I had heard of it before, but was pretty certain that I had. It gave a fascinating insight it why America is so disliked around the world. This guy’s job, in a nutshell, was to go to developing countries & provide very inflated & unsubstantiated economic forecasts of what their country could do with new infrastructure, convince them to borrow the money needed to develop the infrastructure from the World Bank or IMF or such-like, spend all the borrowed money on American firms to build the infrastructure & then when the forecasts didn’t prove quite right they are saddled with billions of dollars of debt & in America’s pocket when needed for oil, votes at the UN, military bases & so on. That’s my very quick summary, but it was a very interesting book.

Carmen is taking me to another project this afternoon, but I have no idea what….

around home, bikes, family, friends, London, MTB, UK

Ipswich, Canterbury & the most cyclists I have ever seen at once

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It’s been most of September since I got back from Edinburgh, so I must have a few little trips & events to write about. Hopefully the blog editor behaves itself this time. I’ve now worked out how to work around the annoying changes to Blogger – apologies to those that receive this twice.

A day or so after I got back I was off to Ipswich for a long weekend staying with Te Puke & Palmy friends – Louis & Emma. They have been in the UK for a little over a year & seem to be quite enjoying living in Ipswich. It was great to catch up – & quite like I remember flatting: generally eating, watching sport & a bit of mountain biking. Louis & I loaded the two bikes (it’s good to know bikes can fit in Micras with the seats down) & set off north-east for Thetford forest. My first singletrack in the UK this visit. I see now why Suffolk is known for being flat – we didn’t exactly have a lot of climbing to do. There were four different trails, apparently of varying difficulty, & we did the two “hardest” ones. It was great to be out riding in the forest & there were plenty of people out & about (but not too many on the tracks). We managed to occupy ourselves for three hours & Louis did heroically when the seat on his borrowed bike worked the bolt loose & kept tilting up at the front. There were some nice little bits of flowing singletrack, but these were few & far between & generally the trails seemed poorly designed. I got quite excited when I saw these signs –

– warning of almost certain death, but in the end it was less challenging than the Diamondback/Dipper in the Redwoods & one small part of it was quite fun. Nonetheless, it was great being out & I more than happy to go out for some doubletrack around some woods closer to Ipswich on Sunday afternoon.

The two weeks since then have been spent organising things, brief bike rides (two hours) locally & the odd trip in to London to see sights (National Gallery & Portrait Gallery were very good – must go back to see the majority of exhibits that I didn’t have time for; back to the Imperial War Museum; really enjoyed poking around Campden Markets & wishing I had a budget that extended a bit further) & friends.

Two weekends ago was a big family get together for Trish’s (the second cousin I’m staying with) birthday. It was great to catch up with quite a few people – most of whom I had met last year. I have since seen photos of our trip in 1987 to the UK that I have not seen before – the infamous Renault 11 makes an appearance & I was a lot cuter.

Saturday last, Trish & I took a pleasant little day trip to Canterbury (a certain line from The [real] Office keeps coming to mind). After lunch, we took a look around the Cathedral (didn’t see Blackadder around or Baldrick trying to sell dubious relics). In some respects it was another great big cathedral (more of which I’m sure I will see) – but I was surprised at how it kept on going, it was a lot larger than I expected on first sight. Afterwards we took a stroll along the river in part, & then around a lot of the old walls of the city. It was warm close day & there were plenty of people out enjoying the weather & I was surprised at how many teenagers & students were around.

Yesterday was the Mayor of London’s Skyride. For six hours in the middle of the day, a loop was closed off that went from Tower Bridge, along the Embankment to Trafalgar Square & down The Mall to Buckingham Palace. Coming back the other half of the loop split off & took in St Paul’s. I biked from home in Sidcup & met up with a small group three and a half miles down the road. From there we set off for Greenwich & met up with hundreds of others. Biking from there & over Tower Bridge it started to get chaotic with so many on bikes taking over the roads. It was great joining (as it turned out) sixty-five thousand other cyclists in the city on what was a beautiful day. Of course, it was rather congested & slow going – but no one seemed to find as there were bikes everywhere, not cars, taxis & murderous buses. A great range of bikes on display – fixies, roadies, a few mountain-bikes, town/city bikes, unicycles, penny-farthings, even a pedal-powered piano, clown bikes & best of all – kids everywhere on little bikes, trailing bikes having a ball. Six hours & thirty-odd miles later, I was pleased to make it home exhausted.

bikes, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Just Outstanding

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Another deep sleep after yesterday’s exertions (& not quite as chilly) & I awoke when the dogs were let off at about half past six. Another great meal from Sam – a lot of French toast with a nice dash of cinnamon & other goodies. Decamped & loaded the truck with bikes (I had to borrow a spare Juicy 7 from Bill, my brakes were still faded & it wasn’t the pads) & we all drove in to Kernville & gassed up (running short on gas was a bit of a theme for the weekend). On the way saw my first American bush fire – a spotter plane, chopper with monsoon bucket, countless fire engines (Forestry Service, Bureau of Land Management, Kern Valley Fire Dept & who knows how many other agencies) & a troop of kitted up firefighters crossing the river & hauling a lot of weight up the hill side. It seemed to be relatively out of control – I didn’t get burnt.

From the west shore of Lake Isabella, we drove up to the top of the ridge & past a skifield (it’s strange seeing an off season ski field surrounded by pines – back home it’s usually all rocks), found the trailhead, & left for the lake. With different front brakes I was somewhat tentative hauling in to more great corners, & Irmina was similar with pretty poor rear brakes. Still it was another great trail – more dirt (& therefore more dust – one had to keep quite a distance behind the previous bike to facilitate useful vision) & nice corners & yet more cases of the trail suddenly turning to rocks. It was mostly in trees, so no great vistas – but did get in to this very cool tunnel of overgrown junipers (“I say, those are my juniper bushes”).

Shortly afterwards, we hit another good climb (what is with these climbs when you are going down a hill??) – well practised & not at such an altitude, it was another good middlering grind. I emerged on to a fire road & waited for the others. Apparently we were to follow the fire road down a while & then head in to the trail again. Much to our disappointment we never found the trail again & after riding up hill for a mile or so, trying to find it, had had enough of the sun so we blasted all the way back down to the lake & met Sam. As this was almost the end of our weekend together we got all our belongings in the correct vehicles & headed back to Kernville for a great last meal at some cafe (Sam got out of cooking this time).

Saying goodbyes the others headed back to LA & struggled on very tired north a couple of hours & crashed in some overpriced motel with a very poor shower (I was very much looking forward to ridding my skin of two days’ worth of dust & sweat). I think that may have been the end of my west coast mountain biking – a shame that, I had an absolute blast & really enjoyed the challenge of riding on different surfaces, some good climbs, fantastic downhills, great scenery & best of all riding with some super people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. A big thank-you to those that shuttled, showed me rides & were just generally good riding buddies.