Day Sixteen - Nearing the Border.

This post refers to Saturday 16th May.

After I made my last blog post, I went for a walk around Damascus to see everything that was going on. There were basically two lines of stalls, with a lot of them either selling tie-dye clothing or hammocks. One table caught my eye because they were selling stickers about bicycles, so naturally $5 for 5 was an offer too good to pass up upon. My bike now features slogans such as 'Bikes not Bombs', and 'I <3 my bike'. I regret it a bit now, but at least it'll remind me of Damascus. Perhaps I'll pick some more up along the way.

::Edit:: Since writing this, I've peeled a couple off. Since I can't be 100% sure of the political stance of the towns I'll be going through, I thought it'd be best to not advertise any 'anti-war' slogans.

Anyway, I managed to find some wireless in a subway in town (even this sleepy town has a subway), and so ate in there. I thought about staying on in Damascus for a bit, but I decided that this wasn't really my scene, since they were all hikers in their little groups, so I went to my tent and got an early night.

I woke up at about 11, 12, 2, 4 and 6:30, when someone cycled past with a horn shouting 'wake up everyone, these mountains aren't getting any closer!!'. As I resented being woken up again, he had a point. I collected my things together, went for some blueberry pancakes and hit the road at about 9am. Today was going to be tough, I had two steep hills that went up over 3000ft. My day started out with the same old countryside that I've become used to, fairly same old same old. I then had an almost deja vu of yesterday afternoon, I had another similar downhill section that was almost as good as the day before.

The first big hill was killer. It was about 4 miles long, but when you're struggling to go faster than about 5mph, 4 miles is a LONG way. Coming down the far side was satisfying (if not slightly steep for my liking), but I knew I had more uphill to come.

If you're a cyclist (or perhaps if you're not), you'll know that dogs chase you when you ride past. As I cycled past a house on my way up to my second big hill of the day, I had two unrestrained dogs that saw me coming. The road I was on was relatively busy compared to what I had been on that morning, which meant that chasing me wouldnt end well for one of the dogs. It bolted straight out in front of a truck / trailer that was overtaking me, and got hit square on. The driver who hit it didn't stop, and I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news to the owner, it could have landed me in a whole load of hassle, so I too continued.

I made it to the top of the second hill after about 45 miles, and pretty much coasted to Council. I looked at the map, and it was another 18 miles to Haysi, which I decided to head for after much umming and ahhing. The road was mainly downhill, but not so downhill that you could freewheel. I arrived in Haysi at about 4:30 - 5pm ( I can't really remember) and was gutted to find that where I was staying was at the top of ANOTHER hill. I had no choice but to stay there, as the next town was unreachable, and I wasn't going to go back to Council. I finally got to the top, paid my $31 and got my room. I was disappointed to find I had no phone signal or room phone. I almost always send a message to let them know I've arrived okay, and I felt bad I hadn't done this. I had a shower and walked back into town to see if I could get any signal. I found some wifi, sent a message out and went for some fairly disappointing enchiladas at a Mexican restaurant. I was slightly bizarre for there to be a Mexican restaurant in the middle if absolutely nowhere, but it was run by real mexicans so I let it go.

I'm not 100% sure where I'll be headed tomorrow, but it'll definitely be in Kentucky. :)