May 7 - Day 3: Kathmandu to Kakani

Day 3: Kathmandu to Kakani

Time to try out my cycling legs. Today is a relatively short day - which is a great way to start!!! We spent part of the day yesterday assembling our bikes, pumping up the tires, tightening any screws that needed to be tightened. I'm glad that I took a Bike maintenance course prior to leaving as I do not know anything about bikes. Although today is a short day - there will still be significant elevation gain. Time to try out those new gears I changed out. Our cycling begins with a ride to Kakani. Most of the towns around Kathmandu sit at the bottom of the valley – Kakani at the northern edge is set above a ridge. Just off the road to Trisuli Bazaar there are magnificent views stretching from Annapurna to Everest, via Manaslu, Ganesh Himal, Gauri Shankar, Dorje Lekpa and Shishapangma. There was some earthquake damage here in 2015 but the village is open for business as usual.

This is us getting ready to leave this morning.  The ride today I found to be quite different from the description which follows.  We rode 3 km through Kathmandu....which was terrifying.  I made the only blunder, trying to get away from a bus that was determined to go.  I ended up on the opposite side of a busy road....and had to navigate my way back to the proper side.  The road was uphill all the way....at the best it was on broken Tarmac, at the worst it was dusty, deep sand and muddy.  The last 3km were a steep uphill.....and then we arrived.  Only 25 km today, but we stopped 6 times along the way.....about every 5 km which meant that we arrived in the heat of the day.   Someone's thermometer said it was 36C.  Much too hot for this girl....but tomorrow is mostly downhill and then we are in Tibet where it will be much cooler.  The resort is great....at the top of a hill which I'm sure would have a gorgeous view if it wasn't so hazy.  Pollution mixed with dust from the lack of rain.  So far the group seems great....everyone is getting along and watching out for each other which is really nice.  

So now you can read the description from Red Spokes.  

We follow well surfaced road for 6km towards the Shivapur conservation area then continue for around 5km on jeep track, which brings us to a typical local village Sawana Gaon. From here we cycle on with a gentle downhill to Chilaune and then climb for 5km to join main road to Nuwakot. We cycle for 13km on paved road with a gentle climb until the last 3km; a steep climb to reach Kakani. We will get have awe-inspiring views of majestic Annapurna Mountain, Dhaulagiri Mountain, Ganesh Mountain and other mountains. Kakani is famous for its colourful strawberry farm and Japanese rainbow trout.

Accommodation: Guest House
Sleeping altitude: 2,030m
Elevation gain: 700m
Cycling distance 34km