Meeting Your Match - Peru

 After some rather epic riding to reach Cajamarca it was time to take my foot off the pedal and take it a little easier. My next three rides were all between 30 and 40 miles, gentle rides from town that town.  

 Low-key, rather uneventful days except for getting caught up in a thunderstorm one afternoon. I don't have any photos to record the moment as I had other things on my mind, like my impending death. It was a genuinely terrifying moment as lightning forked around me. There really wasn't any shelter so I kind of stopped at the edge of the road forlornly for a couple of minutes then, as the lightning abated, I rode on desperately. 

 Clothes drying after yet another drenching. But glad to have survived!          

 After these three pedestrian rides it was time to be adventurous again and I went off-piste onto gravel tracks to take a higher pass that would save a days riding had I stuck to the roads. 

 A fantastic days riding ensued with spectacular scenery and very little traffic. The track up to the pass was hard packed and easy to ride and after a few hours I'd reached a new high for my journey, around 13,600ft or 4,400m. I must be wel acclimatised as I didn't feel any adverse effects. 

 Switchbacks are an everyday part of Peruvian riding.

 Hardy beast.    

 I thought I'd done all the hard work on the ride up to the pass and was looking forward to a screaming descent into the village if Mollebamba.  No such luck! The track down was horrible - steep, rocky and frequently crossed by waterways.   

      

 It was really hard to control the bike at times as, tyres bouncing off the rocks, the bike veered off in different directions. At one point I came perilously close to falling off the edge of the track; in several stretches I had no choice but to walk the bike down. 

 I was mighty glad to reach the small village  of Mollebamba, my end point for the day.  

 This is my typical accommodation at the moment - hospedajes, low budget hotels, usually 15 soles for the night, £3.75.  

 These little Andean mountain villages are utterly charming but there isn't always a lot of food on offer. This evening I resorted to boiling some eggs to eat with bread and a bit of fruit. No real hardship, you just have to lower your expectations in terms of choice and level of comfort.  

 Riding out of Mollebamba, 6:30am the next day.  

 This was to be a hard day in the saddle but still smiling (if barely awake).    

 The challenge of Peruvian riding. This is the one country where I've really met my match and I have to say that the relentless nature  of the terrain is wearing. I'm used to being able to push on at will and set ambitious distance targets but here this approach will burn me out. Incessant climbs followed by precipitous descents means there's very little downtime to switch off.  

 Nevertheless the scenery is a constant positive distraction and you do get the occasional break...  

 None shall pass. A major landslide had completely closed the road off so I, and these motorbike riders, were stopped in our tracks. A slightly frustrating three hour delay but time to rest up and tinker with my spongy brakes.   

  Another charming Andean village.   

 Funeral procession.

 Friendly locals desperate for their photo to be taken.    

 Switchback heaven. I dropped from 11,000ft to  2000ft over 48 miles - great fun though I couldn't help thinking 'I've got to ride back up again at some point!'.  

 Descending deep into a canyon  the environment became barren and desert-like. Lots of cacti. 

 A couple of near misses from stones falling off screw slopes  encouraged me to to put my helmet on!    

 Contender for the worst room of my trip! I really should have bargained down this room but the owner was so friendly, giving me glasses of fruit juice on arrival (I think I looked a bit of a mess and close to collapsing!). A further unexpected bonus was that the water tank for the shower was exposed to  direct sunlight so I had my first warm shower in over a week.    

   

 A very interesting landscape to ride through but you wouldn't want to stick around here for too long.  The villages had a bleak, ghost town feel to them and were all eerily quiet.  

 Narrowing canyon.  

 As I climbed back up the valley greenery reappeared on the slopes. 

Another landslide. This one had a diversion over the top so there was no delay.

 Smiling as I was just short of Caraz where I've had my first rest day in ten rides.

With just over eight weeks left on my trip I have to admit I'm struggling a bit right now. Having come so far and already seen so much my motivation levels are slipping a little despite the incredible places I'm travelling through. Any OXFAM donations or messages of encouragement will be gratefully received!

The Highs and Lows of Rural Peru

I've just completed a three day ride from Chachapoyas to Cajamarca, wow, what an incredible journey!

 Dropping from Chachapoyas I headed up a river valley with a gentle rise towards Leymebamba. Absolutely charming scenery. Old farmhouses and forgotten villages evoked childhood memories of holidays in the Dordogne.  

 

 I tried to hide a smug smile as I nipped through this rockfall past a line of waiting cars. Good thing too as a few minutes later my gear cable snapped, just 10 days after the other one failed. I lumped on to Leymebamba with just three gears, hoping and praying for a bike shop in the village.    I 

 As I'd feared, there was no solution to be found in Leymebamba, it's a small village. However, a motorbike mechanic told me with certainty that I could find a new gear cable in Yerbabuena, an even smaller village 12 miles back down the valley. It sounded too good to be true but it was worth a shot; I had no other option. Miraculously Yerbabuena delivered, a new gear cable bought and fitted for 2 soles - 50 pence! 

 I'd lost an afternoons riding but was determined to make up the time and still reach Cajamarca in two more days. The next day, riding up and out of Leymebamba, the first challenge was a 1500m climb to a pass at Calla Calla. 

 A real pleasure of Petu is that I'm meeting other cycle tourists every day.

 This group of four chicas from Ecuador and a Chico from Barcelona admired my lightweight setup. Nearly everyone I meet has four panniers (as did I until Costa Rica). Two is enough for me and I soon raced off ahead of them.   

 1500m up was followed by an exhilarating 2500m drop into a deep gorge.    

 Peruvian roads are so much fun to ride! For all the change in elevation the last nclines/declines are rarely very steep as the sinuous curves snake across the hillsides finding the gentlest routes.  

 Towards the bottom of The Valley i entered a desert environment.

 50 miles of riding with few breaks and I was starving. A simple meal of soup, eggs rice and beans seemed like the most delicious meal I had ever tasted.  

 River crossing, from here the only way is up. 2200m to the next pass!

 Riding through the desert was inspiring and detracted from the climb. Such an alien environment to anything we have back home, it feels exitic and other worldly.  

 Barren and inhospitable, desert scenes always carry a stark beauty for me.

 I'm not sure how well the pictures convey the scenery but I found it absolutely breathtaking.

 A room with a view. In an afternoon ride up the pass I managed to get halfway up the 2200m before calling it a day.  

 I bailed out of the climb and stumbled into a tiny village called El Limón. No hotels or guesthouses and no one around but a group of girls carrying wood into the village bakery. I asked them what my options were and they said I could camp. I really didn't want to and explained about the rain and that I'd be willing to stay in a simple room. So one of the girls asked their mother to give me a room and I had a roof over my head for the night. Result!

Doris, pictured, really didn't want to take any money from me but I did give a 5 soles donation. I'm glad I gave at least this meagre sum because later Doris would serve me dinner and breakfast. 

 The village girls wanted to try a tiny bit of English with me but were more interested in the bike. I took off all the gear and gave all and sundry the opportunity to ride up and down the lane. 

 I think the frame may be one or two inches too big for you....

 Next day, feeling fantastic after a good breakfast and all the wonderful contact with the village folk, I ride on to the top of the pass. 

 Two hours later I reached the foggy peak and it was a quick descent into Celendin. All that remained was a final 1000m climb, but spread over 30 miles, then a slow descent into Cajamarca.

 I didn't take many photos in this final leg of the journey, it was raining a lot of the time and, honestly, the fatigue of the previous days was setting in and I just wanted to get to Cajamarca in one piece. Finally, after three long rides - 228 miles in total, I cruised into town, exhausted but contented to have completed a challenging stretch.

I write this early on Friday morning in bed in a hotel in central Cajamarca. What will today bring, who knows? Legs are feeling a little leaden but I'm thinking a shorter ride, perhaps in the afternoon to get back into the villages and countryside - that's where the real reward of this trip lies.