nepal cycling tour

day 2 pokhara tour: tAnsen-pokhara - 120 km

september 15, 2011:
today was the hardest ride. 120km of riding, including 2000m of climbing altogether, though the end at pokhara (800m) was lower than tansen (1290m). the ride went through a series of downhills followed by solid climbs.

"white lake" seen from hotel the white lake, tansen. binoy living dangerously to shoot this video. the "white lake" is a mass of clouds floating over the valley below tansen

we got up at 0530 but it was 0650 by the time we unpack the bicycles and roll out of the hotel. the owner points us to a balcony from which we can see the eponymous "white lake" - it is a mass of clouds covering the entire valley below.

tansen is a spectacular hill town, and walking up to the sreenagar hill gives great mountain views. but today it's overcast, and we are unlikely to see the white peaks, so we just head down.

leaving tansen, we take a different route to the highway than the one we came in - this one will save us six km. it is a very sharp downhill, and in 25km we have lost some 900 m at the riverside town of Ramdi which we reach by around 8:30. here we cross the kali-gaNDaki which is bouncing off eastwards, and has some pretty serious rapids... one of our aims is to try to do some water-rafting on some of these turbulent himalayan rivers of nepal... beyond ramdi, we climb up until we are in the valley of the Adi-kholA river which we shall be following for most of the day.

the morning was a brilliant green blur...

out of tansen (1290m) it is mostly downhill along the kali gandaki valley. at ramdi (400m) we cross the valley and start climbing again.

After Ramdi it is a solid climb, and we celebrate a long climb after 15km with several frooties at gyalang (pron. gawlong) around 11, and shortly after 12 noon we have covered 55km and are at the small provincial town of waling. here we have a quick lunch amidst a series of buses coming to a stop, and we continue around 1:15.

binoy on a downslope. my fat tires were not worth it; the roads were rather good; might as well have come on a road bike...

the route went along the adi-khola gorge on one side;
landscape was gorgeous, with occasional mist. The sun came out by noon, and it became rather hot.

bicycling along a curve. anand, our driver, shot this video and the other running pictures.

The next town, Syangja, is some 30 km down, with a good downhill to start with and a big climb at the end. we make it there by 3:15, and take a tea break.

amit and binoy cycling through a trafficy stretch approaching syangja.

everywhere we went, boys would turn out to wave, shout "hello" or "bye" or "what is your name" - whatever english they know.
though we look close enough to the locals; the bicycling activity they associate with foreigners...
it was a relief to see the 50km-to-go milestone a little after waling.

rest-break after a long climb en route to Syangja. perhaps this is the "top of the hill" in the map below. at this point, binoy met the kid ravindran who was walking back to his village over the hills from his school - it's about an hour's walk each way.

rest-break at syangja. the two girls sandhya and puja, best buddies and class vii students, come by to say hello to the bicyclist gang...

puncture while going down a long sharp incline - perhaps caused by heat from the braking.

after this, i get a puncture on my rear tire (puncture-resistant "slime"). It is nearly 6 when we sight the first white mountains, a faint glimpse of annapurna from a small shop about 10km past syangja. climbing further, we cross kubinde (1050m) around 6pm and then there are a series of downhills to pokhara, with grand views of the town, but we are too busy negotiating the bends to look around.

the tourist strip at Pokhara lakeside.

we check into the hotel nightingale, where a room on the top floor costs is 1000 NR, with a window at the back that opens onto views of the annapurna range and machhapichhure - visible only when the sky is clear...

hotel nightingale, pokhara. dinner at a nearby nepal-chinese restaurant - only the decor was authentic.

route map : tansen - pokhara:

map by Frédérick Ferchaux, a veteran bicycle tourist who has been practically everywhere... See http://fred.ferchaux.free.fr/nepal/kapokara.htm for the original map, starting at sonauli. This site also has excellent descriptions of the route. Syangla in the map should be Syangja.

today's coverage:

see maps of nepal page for more maps.

* [ day 1: lumbini-tansen]
* [ day 3: pokhara]
* [ day 4: fisling-rafting-nArAyanghAT]
* [ day 5: chitwan]
* [ nepal cycling tour (home) ]

[bumpy trails bicyclists homepage]

amitabha mukerjee for the bumpy trail bicyclists. sep 2011. feedback: mukerjee [at] gmail