Put to the Test

The rest of that day was spent following the river, although sadly the road didn’t run alongside it – the terrain requiring a fair bit of up and down.  It did, however, culminate in some fairly spectacular cascading waterfalls…

Finally, as I neared my stop for the night in the town of Vitis, I came across a relative oasis of trees, something which had been noticeably missing from the landscape for the last few days…

The next day took me down on a dirt road, which eventually became tarmac, offering up a blissful 10km or so of smooth gliding – it’s a real treat to leave the dirt behind once in a while.  Ever since I started riding my road bike seriously, I’ve really enjoyed climbing mountains – it’s a great challenge and a real thrill when you reach the top.  You also climb it content in the knowledge that you’ll get a long descent at high speed shortly after.  On dirt roads, however, it’s a different ball-game as the descents can often be as hard, or harder even, than the ascents!  You are out of the saddle much of the time (if you want to avoid a bruised bum) and you really have to concentrate hard on the surface ahead of you, steering to avoid large stones, gravel or sand that might send you flying.  You are constantly scanning the road further ahead too to see where the best line is so that you can avoid pot holes and slopes.  It can be quite stressful and tiring – a world away from the smooth tarmac roads where you are mainly preoccupied with braking points and the fastest line through the corners.

The tarmac continued all the way up to the village of Laraos, where I decided to rest up ahead of what would be a hard day’s climbing the next day (up the really big climb in the elevation profile above) towards Punta Pumacocha.  Coming up the valley, there was extensive Incan terracing, still in use by the farmers today…

The next day I continued the climb, now back on a dirt road, up through increasingly impressive and imposing scenery…

…before calling it a day near the lake at the foot of the final climb, my legs having little energy left to take on the steep and gravelly last 500m or so of ascent.  Decision made, there was little more to do than relax in the sun and read my book…

As the sun lowered, I made camp and then headed up a small hill to take in the scenery and build a little cairn!