Day 5
More city and highway insanity today, as the provincial road S356 turned into national road N325. Surprisingly, this toll road allows motorcycles, bicycles (and other human powered vehicles such as tricycles) and pedestrians. Hence, we had women with babies walking into traffic, motorcycles going against traffic in the bicycle lane and scooters jockeying for position at traffic lights. Unfortunately we chose the most direct route in order to get to our climbing destinations in the right season. However, the most direct also has the most traffic. We’ll have to choose more rural routes in the future. Not sure if the dust and chaos are worth the 2 or 3 weeks it would save.
We’ve stopped responding to the multiple hellos, hi’s and stares. As much as I would naively like to spread good will, it’s just too much and too dangerous. A trick I soon learned is that when people are tailing us dangerously close, once I wave them on, they will pass by and stop endangering us with their curiosity.
Cher found a little dirt trail along S356 and at 100 yards in there was a secluded flat spot with very few signs of human traffic except some livestock hoof prints. Plus there was a clean stream running down the hillside, this was a perfect spot to camp. To access the spot we had to push our trikes up a rugged, steep, wet hill. Cher insisted on riding and toppled over into a ditch with her trike on top of her. Pinned down in a wet ditch with her feet over her head I rushed over to free her and thankfully she found the incident more entertaining than horrifying.
After setting up our tent we saw a woman harvesting wild plants with a wicker basket, possibly for livestock. She didn’t even raise her eyes as she passed our camp site. Which as Cher pointed out was for the best. If she wanted to chat we might have ended up with an entire village of curious onlookers or a few stealthy plunderers. So whether she feared us or was shy, it was good that she didn’t take any notice of our wild camp. After a great shower in the clear stream, we settled in clean and fed as the temperature began to drop for perfect sleeping conditions.
After only 2 hours of sleep, I was awoken by hives everywhere tender. After many break-outs, I could only find relief by kneeling and propping my torso up with my head. Cher tended my itchy bumps but it wasn’t long before they spread and I was smearing the rest of the tube of anti-itch ointment all over myself for the next 8 hours. I slept only two hours and with my constant movement Cher got only slightly more. Looking forward to a nice cold shower soon.