Tag: Nepal

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in Nepal on Thursday, 10th-November-2016. Mugling to Pithauli. 49 miles. It was a really hard ride this morning for the first 25 miles or so, the road surface was non-existent and it took me until lunchtime to complete!

After those initial hard 20 miles, I’d had enough, and by the time I’d reached Narayangadh I was going to stop, but it was only 1 pm, and I thought that was just a little too early, so after stopping for something to eat and drink I continued on.

The roads improved a lot after Narayangadh, also all the mountains disappeared, and the terrain was a lot more flatter now!

I continued on for a while longer, but I’d really had enough, so when I saw a sign for some “jungle island resort”, I followed them. Something I very rarely do; I normally just wait until I see something on the road I’m on!
And I could see why I don’t normally deviate from my route! 4 miles later, down some track, I found my resort! The trouble was the road started off ok and just got worse; the trouble is when do you stop and say no, enough is enough and turn back; it could just be around the next corner, so what do you do? You just have to keep going!

Watch Garry’s YouTube video of the Narayanghat-Mugling Highway.

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in Nepal on Wednesday, 9th-November-2016. Kathmandu to Mugling. 60 miles. I was hoping to get on the road really early today to try and beat some of the traffic. But it just seemed to be one of those days. And instead of being really early, I was really late. It must have been nearly 8 o’clock by the time I left the hotel! But hey, that’s life. No point getting stressed about it! Anyway, the road out of Kathmandu wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be. Possibly because I’d psyched myself up for it to be really bad! I always find that if I psych myself up for something, it usually works and isn’t as bad as you expect!

Had my first puncture this morning. Funnily enough, just past the place I’d stopped the night before arriving in Kathmandu, as I went around one of the twisting corners, I could feel the back of the bike starting to slide out, so I immediately looked down at the back wheel and sure enough the tyre was going down or rather by now it was flat!

I pulled over to the side of the road, took all the panniers off, turned the bike upside down and took the wheel off. Past experience has taught me it’s always easier to take the wheel off to fix a puncture rather than try and do it whilst still on the bike. Annoyingly, I couldn’t find the puncture, and I had to replace the inner tube with a new one! Which is a pain, but it’s always a bit worrying that I never found where the puncture was as there could still be something stuck in the tyre and could give me another one after checking the tyre thoroughly to make nothing was still stuck in the tyre I put the new inner tube on, put the wheel back on the bike and loaded my panniers back on.

That Went Well, Not!

I wheeled the bike two feet, and bang, the rear tyre blew! I was sure that there wasn’t anything still in the tyre, but obviously there was! Once again, I took all the panniers off and the wheel, took the inner tube out, and this time I could see the puncture. It was a massive hole, but at least I knew from whereabouts on the tyre it came from so I could check for things still stuck in the tyre. But I still couldn’t find anything, then I noticed that there was a split in the side of the tyre and that’s what caused it!

Luckily, I carry spare tyres, and after fitting a new tyre and another new inner tube (the whole was too big to fix) and loading everything back on, I was on my way.

What with my late start, and I must have wasted a good hour or maybe two trying to sort that puncture out, I ran out of light and had to stop a bit before I wanted to!

At least I’ve not been going uphill all day today, and it’s probably been more downhill than up. Been following the Trishuli River down the valley all day.

Watch Garry’s YouTube video cycling along the Trishuli River on the Prithvi highway.

 

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Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in Nepal on Monday, 8th-November-2016. Kathmandu. I Definitely had a case of culture shock today! But in reverse, I’ve been so used to not seeing any Westerners over the past month and being the only Westerner in a town. It came as a bit of a shock to suddenly be confronted by a load of Western tourists. Even though I know I’m one myself! I definitely preferred it when I was in more remote places!

I went to Durbar Square this morning to have a look around the Unesco World Heritage Site, which sadly was quite badly damaged in the earthquake of 2015. Although there is still a lot of standing. And a lot that shouldn’t be standing but it is!

Bloody Traders

I didn’t realise just how badly damaged it all was until I looked online and saw pictures of it before the earthquake. Most of the buildings are supported by wooden posts propping them up, but you can still see the intricate wood carvings on the buildings and apparently, they are going to rebuild it all again. Let’s hope so!

It was all very stressful, and I was constantly hassled by street traders either wanting to sell me something or be my guide! Don’t know whether it’s because I’ve not been to any real tourist areas recently. But I found it really bad, even worse than Istanbul or Marrakesh. And those places are bad enough for being hassled!

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Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 Nepal Monday 7th-November-2016. Chisapani to Kathmandu. 11 miles.  Not really much to say today it was a very short ride into Kathmandu and I was in a hotel by 10.30.

The ride itself wasn’t very pleasant at all. And I’m so glad I waited until this morning! The road surface had disappeared, or rather they were renewing it. There was so much traffic on it. Although not as much as last night. There was a steady stream of traffic all night on the road, I could hear it from my room, and if I looked down over the valley all I could see was one long snaking trail of lights on the road going up the valley!

Once at the hotel, I gave all my clothes a good wash and updated the website. I also had to repair one of the rear panniers. I’m not too sure if I’d been hit or I’d caught it on something, but there was a tear in it. I did some maintenance on the bike and a de-stress for me. I felt pretty worn out after the past few days, and today wore me out mentally with all the traffic and bad road conditions!

Think I’ll play the tourist tomorrow before moving on on Wednesday, the hotel only has a room for two nights, and I’ll probably be bored by then anyway!

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