Jacsback

We have arrived, a day early after doing 270km in two, rather than three days. Across a rather cool desert, thankfully. Eventually found some traffic, and more Indian like horn useage. I've even been in to a conventional shop yesterday. And found a hospital with some drugs, so the potential for Jac mouth frothage is now all but extinct, which is nice. Running water, lights, choice of food, paper in most toilets, quite incredible.... More soon, later. Bikes stacked, final distance something like 2600km along, 26km up and I guess about 23km down! Highest point (50m lower than highest Peruvian pass, second hghest!) 4749m, more about that later! Big thanks to my (Norma's) family in Boliva, our adopted family in Macari, Bananna Man and his water supplies somewhere in the scared valleys, the Mango girls on ... read more

We´ve arrived. Ayachucho, where the streets are paved with..., well paved! And is my bottom glad about that. I arrived in a bit of a hurry as it happened, convinced I was about to start frothing at the mouth following an earlier attack by a rather over excited canine acquatance I´d had the miss fortunte to have been biten into by, earlier. Having got somewhat accustomed to dogs of various sizes going mental at or in close proximity to my ankles coupled with stuggling to fight of frustration generated by the 6th or so day of digestion failure, a severly grated arse and an incredibly ineffective, inefficient and irratating cycling surface, I decided to stop pedalling as if the lack of circular motion might reduce the lunacy with which this beast was acting. I can see ... read more

Ok here would be the dullest entry to date, if I hadnt concockted some previously. Largely for Ross!!! To speed things up, cos I could be looking at stunning hills right now!! I am just going to put the numbers down. The order of which will always follow this; km, time on bike, avg speed, max speed total climb, highest altitude, avg gradient, max gradient final altitude (where recorded) So here goes (initially I didnt reset computer every day, pretty obvious when not! 25/10/06 94.22, 4:56,19,51 736,4092,3%,11% 26/10/06 165.45, 9:02,18.2,56.5 1560,4276,3%,11% 29/10/06 65, 3:25, 19.2, 60 512,4033,3%,8% 30/10/06 153.5, 7:33:39, 20.3,60 855, 4033,2%,9% 1/11/06 47.50,2:26.48,19.40,53.5 271,4077,3%,11% 2/11/06 96.57, 3:36:11,26.7,44 291, 4007, 2%, 6% 3/11/06 140.90, 5:38:05,25,44 441,4028,2%, 7% 4/11/06 117.49, 7:20:11, 16, 53 977, 4601, 3%, 1... read more

Good steak, good sleep. Despite the radios either side of 3mm plywood, either side of us. And torrential rain all night. Still it stopped for our awakening. Still freezing. Brave new restaurant for breakfast, some rather old looking, tepid, battered fish and rice and bread and potatoes. Slow start. No rush, big day was yesterday. Climb out of village to rejoin ´main´road! No probs. Long slog up hill, wet, sticky. Not as steep as yesterday, but must be tired, not as sikied, altitude starting to take effect. Slowly slowly. Make it, but hard, slow work. Only 400m odd. Into the clouds. Cold, down to 9 deg cent, was 14 on way up. Down hill starts slowly. I´m not that impressed initially. Soon get into the swing of it. Quite good non road road. Brake 50 kph ... read more

I´ll try and pick up from roughly where Jac left off. We arrived in the town of Atalaya as the sun had disappeared down the Madre de Dios River. Weary arms and even wearier bikes were rested as we tucked into two dinners each at a shack to at the end of town where we had hoped to find a sauna and cocktail bar. Despite being everyone´s starting point into the jungle it transpired that a maximum of 15 minutes was spent there before being shipped off to the private lodges in the jungle downstream. There was however a healthy selection of boats that held the only promise for our continued journey. After such big day it would have seemed odd to be dropped into the lap of luxury so we were happy with our cold ... read more

Well hello there! How are we all doing? Many of you well from the various messages and comments I get. Thanks all for them, always good to log in and see we're not forgotten! I don't think I've contributed to this blog thing since arrival in Cusco so here I am again. Please forgive, but a large part of this whole crazy idea was to get away for a wee bit. Its been great to not touch a computer for 10 days or what ever it is now. I'm much more of a hill person than a computer one, and boy have we seen some hills. Yep, we have. I hope the spreadsheet advice to work got through. Sorry Damien, in essence its quite simple. In practice I wish you luck! So where to start, photos ... read more

So we left here moments after I mopped up my latest effort and Dom finished his last entry. Hit the road feeling a little worse for wear but glad to be actively constructing anything other than more mess. Enough, it was, and fortunately so was it. Across the town of Cusco out past the large white Jesus, bisecting many of the Cusco local Inca sites. Not allowed to stop and visit because a, by now no time and b, man asked if we were planning to and we said we weren't. Short cycle to Pisac, as we like, initially uphill with a breeze descent to our destination for the night. 32.92 km, 1 hour 43 min 51 seconds, 402m climb. Max ascent 11%. Arriving in Pisac we catch the tail end of the market, huge market. ... read more

Hello Everyone, I´m just writing this whilst Jac packs up and gets himself together after numerous visits to the toilet in the night. So take the length of this entry as an indicator of our general health/organisation. OUr next adventure out od Cuzco will take us down into the jungle to - in theory leave today. I´ll keep you posted. We caused much confusion and general hubbub by arriving in Machu Picchu on our bicycles. Under normal circumstances the site is inaccessible by any other means but the train but via a 300km round trip we eventually bounced into the historic site along the railway sleepers. Our journey started late in the day at 3.30pm as we tried to reach the town of Ollantantambo before dark laden with the additional baggage of our hangovers from the ... read more