Monday, January 16, 2006

Day 136 - cycling out of the Mekong basin and over the hills to Nanjian

Start: Manwan, China
End: Nanjian, China
Distance: 98 km
Time: 7'42"
Avg: 12.7 k/h
Max: 47.5 k/h
Total: 8360 km
Total riding days: 92
Riding hours: 0915 - 1800

Route notes: over the Mekong bridge, then it's a 33km hard climb to a false-pass, followed by 7 km gentler climbing to the true pass. A 20 km ish descent takes you to a new river valley - turn left to keep on the G214 to Nanjian, which you will reach after a 20 km not-too-hard climb and a 20 km steep descent that would be a hard climb if you were going the other way. Nanjian is a big place with all mod cons.

A little village at the foot of the last climb had some kind of market going on; I hadn't eaten all day and was close to bonking, so I ordered a bowl of I-can't-remember-what-she-called-them-but-let's-just-say-they-looked-like-noodles. She followed an elaborate recipe, adding 7 or 8 different liquids, solids, goopey things and whatnot, which made me think they must taste good. This turned out not to be the case.

I planned get to Dali tomorrow, but having stayed up all night drivelling on my blog, I might not make it.
Posted by a blogger at 15:30

8 comments:

  1. slang help please: what is 'bonking' for you?
    ReplyDelete
  2. bonk, bonking, bonked v. - to run out of bike fuel.

    A wave of nausea and exhaustion caused by running out of glycogen in the muscles, which causes the glucose levels in your bloodstream to drop catastrophically. Not fun.
    ReplyDelete
  3. Reminder to Ed: Cycling & camping at high altitudes in summertime can kill you, in the middle of winter it WILL kill you. "P.G."
    ReplyDelete
  4. dear recently bonked,
    Just making sure your still ticking along and was wondering if you could help me out? Science lesson no. 1 if you get the urge to boil some water and take a temperature reading at the point of boiling. (in degrees C) I could work your altitude and mail you back I saw it in my year 10 atlas while trying to workout where china was with my daughter. (the one who makes christmas trees that look like hats Keep yourself out of trouble and lookforward to more ranting from the darkside...

    C,H+e
    ReplyDelete
  5. I disagree with that definition of bonking. They essential aspect of bonking or being bonked (?), is that it creeps up on you unaware. You don't feel exhausted, you just suddenly start doing very silly things. Hence the importance of stopping and filling up before it occurs.
    So there.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Where are you?
    ReplyDelete
  7. With a little luck He's out buying a thermon-on-no-metre (sorry for that spelling but I've been out drinking) So he can test my science experiment theory about boiling water at altitiude. While I've been looking for Hemmingway's easter eggs.

    Hope all is well...

    C.
    ReplyDelete
  8. I bloody well hope all is well also, given the oracle has not spoken for ten days. Plus it's Chinese New Year. And 3 am. And I'm drunk.
    Dan
    ReplyDelete

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