Day 31-37 hey....these legs actually do something!

Day 31 Abra Huamina

First, you'll notice the descriptions of these days are only mentioning the impressions that I'm left with rather than any detail. I'm writing this after 3 days and visiting Machu Picchu, so there you have it.

A half day for me as there was a large climb at the beginning. My legs were beginning to work, but they weren't that keen.

The ride was on unsealed road at over 4000m in altitude. Quite nice actually. The road was actually in very good condition for the most part, as there's a lot of roadwork preparing it to be sealed.

A rather uneventful day except for the campsite. A wide open area on a slope. Very cold at night, well below freezing. The sky put on a very nice show at sunset.

Day 32 Chincheros

Ah, the day of delays at roadwork sites, starting with a chilly morning with ice covering everything.

When road works is done here, it's a little different to back home where they'll work overnight, close 1 lane and try to keep traffic disruption to a minimum. Here, different story. Close the road and only allow traffic through between 6am and 7am, 12pm and 1pm, and 6pm-7pm. Any other time queue up and wait.

The locals can be quite smart and take advantage of this. You'll often find them setting up a small fire cooking up a storm with usually rice, eggs, potatoes and tea.

The ride was otherwise enjoyable and uneventful on unsealed roads. On the downhills and flats I quite happily was able to pass quite a few people thanks to the dual suspension bike while others are enjoying their bikes shuddering over the rough surface. A good sign I'm becoming stronger too.

Day 33 Andahuaylas

The route chosen for this day was such a great choice.

After a first large uphill of I remember rightly 1200m of climbing, there was this magnificent downhill. Just a beautiful part of the world on an unpaved road.

I opted to start from the beginning of the downhill. It still bugged me doing this while most of the riders earn the downhill by climbing to the beginning of it, but I'm still racing the sun at my climbing pace. There's not enough hours in the day.

After the downhill, the lunch spot was exceptional. A very good place to feel mellow and appreciate the mountains.

Found THE spot to relax and appreciate the scenery

After lunch however, it became a VERY tough uphill. Sometimes with a 10% slope on rough ground. I have no shame in saying I walked parts of it.

Part of the climb.

Photos often do not give away well how steep something is. 

Let the fact that there's switchbacks tell part of the story.

Day 34 Eucalyptus Forest

MORE roadworks after lunch. Although this time it was because of a rather large landslide.

Later in the day though it was such a gift. The scenery was beautiful, the climbs short and gentle, and the downhills were had a nice flow to the corners. This was on unsealed road.

Yolande was taking it easy on the downhills. She's on a cyclocross bike. So no suspension, and skinny tyres, and the corners were sometimes sandy. So she was being very cautious.

Once arriving on the campsite, I found it's a eucalyptus forest! Just like being back at home. Just missing the possums in the trees and the thump of kangaroos or wallabies.

Day 35 Abancay

A relatively short day. 60km and 714m of climbing.

Rode the whole day, and given it was a short day, experimented a little with my technique. Much to my surprise my legs could take a little more strain than even a few days ago. Up a gear or 2 more, still going well. What's this? These legs can climb now?

Day 36 Limatambo

The last of the big hitter days with respect to climbing of over 2000m, In this case 2459m and 118km long. There are longer days to come, but they're flatter.

Despite being rather pleased with myself from the day before, the first climb right at the start was huge. Well, it was long, even though the slope apparently was at a manageable average of 4%. Still, that would take me a long, long time. So up to the lunch spot I go in the truck. I don't miss out entirely, there was more climbing later.

At the top of the climb, there's a little chapel and great views of nearby snow capped mountains.

At the lunch spot with Adrian, Graeme, Kevin and Christine along with Didier of course

After lunch, there was a rather long downhill. Another moment where I was catching bugs because my smile was so wide.

At the bottom of the downhill there was a river, bridge and a small village. I stopped to get an Inka Kola for some energy before the climb. There's a shelf at the front of the shop full of drinks and snacks. I saw the fridge behind the counter, so I ask for a cold bottle instead. So of course the girl open the fridge and gives me the bottle. This was great, the fridge wasn't turned on. Warm Inka Kola. One of those little quirks that we often get each day during our rides.

The climb to our camp site went well. I was riding a little distance behind Kevin and Graeme. This time I didn't watch them fade off into the distance. Nice. I declared to Kirsten while she was cooking dinner with a huge cheesy grin, no more half days for me. I'll be doing all the climbs from that point on.

We camped outside a hostel. Some people took a bed, but there wasn't enough beds for all of us. So we had tents in their yard.

A lot of us including myself tried cuy (guinea pig) for dinner. Many compared it to rabbit. It was marinated, so plenty of flavour. They're little buggers though, you wouldn't order just 1 if you're hungry. Not much meat on them!

Day 37 Cusco

This day has been highly anticipated by many of us. It's a larger city, and the stepping stone to Machu Picchu.

Not too long a day with 78km, although 1479m of climbing. 1000m of this climbing was as usual first thing in the morning in one big chunk.

With my new and growing confidence in my ability, I elected to take it on.

Don't get me wrong, I took 3 hours to climb that first mountain. I arrived at lunch on the other side of the mountain just after midday. I stopped after every 150m of climbing to drink and have something small to eat like a biscuit to prevent running out of energy like I had in the past. It worked, and my legs while sore, kept going.

Turned out the tough bit was also my preferred bit for this day.

For perhaps 30km there was a flat area which gradually began turning uphill again. This is when the first unpleasant bit happened.

Happily rolling to 1 side of the road, where a bus decides it can squeeze past. The silly thing actually BRUSHED me as it went past. It would have scared the crap out of me, only I haven't had diarrhoea for some time now. I was hit by a car and injured last year, so I did feel a little rattled after that.

Towards the top of the 2nd and last climb before dropping into Cusco, I got hailed on. Still, I'll take that over being brushed by a bus any day.

Finally enjoying the drop into the centre of Cusco I had a puncture. I had perhaps 4km to go. During this trip when I've been using my slick road tyres I've had many punctures. The tubes inside the tyres could be works of art with the amount of patches on them. I didn't have any spare tubes left, so walked the final distance to the hotel alongside the chaotic traffic.

Next I shall describe the visit to Sacred Valley, Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu and how Cusco is so different to the rest of Peru we've seen. That's later! A very memorable 3 rest days for so many reasons.