So, let's bike!

01/08/2013

This morning I decided that today will be the day that my bike meets the Samoan roads.

It's a partially cloudy morning, but already pretty hot. I'm packing a small bag of the needed bits for a bike trip, my tools, my pump, some patches (just encase), my camera, phone, wallet and water bottle. (I probably should have packed the map too, but I forgot)

Starting my trip today I was thinking "I'll just get the feel of the cycling today" I've not cycled more that a few pedals in the last 10 months, let alone any sort of distance. The lodge being high up in the mountains it gives me a nice few of the valley below and Apia town centre in the distance.

Apia visible on the horizon

 

The lodge sits well and truly on the peak of the hill and it's got a real killer, steep up-hill driveway... I am NOT looking forward to this on the way back, the driveway is actually so steep and scary I don't even want to cycle down it.

Cycling down will be one of those "run-away" cycles, the type where you can forget about brakes once you started... your rear wheel will just skid uselessly when the rear brake is applied and God forbid you touch the front brake (I think doing that will catapult you all the way to the bottom without touching the road, likely the fastest possible way down if you have a death-wish anyway)

The killer driveway

 

So this particular driveway is just plain off limits, the "old" non-sealed driveway leads down to the left and zig-zag down the hill, it looks unwelcoming and miserable to cycle but I can't expect a perfect road everywhere.. (It turns out going down hill on even a nasty road is actually ok :-)

Dave Parker (the lodge's owner) has a really large piece of land and it takes quite a while to cycle to the main road, it's a dirt road but actually not too bad to cycle.

On the way to the main road I pass about 4 houses that of his cousins and other family and also two semi-washed away bridges.

Passing the houses I suddenly have a pair of barking dogs after me, exactly what I did not want. I think the bike is trying to set me up, because just as I was passing the houses the little bike bell on the handles did a couple of loud "DING's" all by itself, one would think the bumpy gravel road is to blame, but no... The bell did not "DING" anywhere else on the gravel road, it had to "DING" right by the houses with the sleeping dogs.

(This led me to another thought, I think everyone knows the song "Who let the dogs out... Whoof Whoof Whoof whoof!" , so.. it being Islanders who sang the song, maybe they have experienced my dilemma aswell?)

Luckily there were only two dogs, both looked like some sort of pit-bull street dog mix and looked really dirty. They were barking and chasing with their tails wagging, I'm not sure if they are just excited and want to smell and play or what, all I know is I'm not stopping to find out.

When I got to the main road I had an ongoing uphill to my left leading deeper inland and a really, really long down hill to the right, a bendy twisty road leading all the way to Apia town center about 14km away.

Since I'm just "checking out" the cycling business today I'll turn left, heading up-hill to get the feel of the road and so on.

Cycling up-hill this initial bit is pretty hard work, but I'm making good progress and it's making me feel empowered. I followed the road for about 3km where it seem to come to an end into a dirt road leading into a local village that's visible in the distance.

Since I already concluded that villages have dogs and that gravel roads are bad and make my bell "DING" I've got no intention to go all the way to see if the road really ends at the village or whether they have dogs.

At this point I'm actually really tired, my legs kinda hurt and I'm pretty hot, so now for the fun part, back down hill to Dave Parker's entrance...

The trip back down was fun, fast and cooling, so when I reached Dave's gate I was feeling so good I just kept going....

As I'm free-wheeling down the mountain I'm telling myself "are you crazy? go back this uphill will be nothing to sneeze at on the way back" Maybe I should have listened to myself, but the feeling of freedom and that fact that I was already "going down" overruled my better judgement and fear of the uphill back.

Before long I was at the end of the mountain road and at a street crossing with the most beautiful church right on the corner.

The view of the church from the lodge

The pretty church up close

 Now I knew that there's mostly level roads ahead all the way to Apia, and once on the coastal roads it will be nearly all level.

It's about now when I was thinking to myself, "should I commit and go ALL the way to Apia?.. I do not have a map and only a pretty small water bottle" I decided to just go for it, I decided I'll just have a good look at my surroundings as I go and will buy something to drink in town.

As I get closer to town there's no mistaking it, the traffic gets more and more and when a car comes from behind, they honk at you. Do I look that awkward on the bike that people can tell from inside their cars that I've not cycled in ages? or maybe they just honk to warn you of their presence? I hope it's the latter.

When in town it seems that the gloves are off in regards to road rules, indicating seem to be pretty rare, people stop just anywhere at any time open their doors,  when I indicate with my hand that I'm turning, four different motorists wave at me... as they thought I was just waving -_-

This all said, cycling in Apia was fun and beats walking in the streets by a large measure. I managed to buy myself a drink (so that I can leave my water un-touched) and at the same time fended off the local street merchant trying to sell me a "Lavalava" (a Samoan dress)

I got a lot of compliments on my bike today too, bikes are rare here, adult bikes anyway. I saw only two other adult bikes the whole trip today (and yes, mine was better).... Interestingly many of the stores at the markets sell kids bikes (ages 4-8)

The kids bikes are really cheap in my opinion, only 210TALA each (about $NZ108) But, as I mentioned on an earlier post, there is little money to go around, so even a "cheap" kids bike is infinitely expensive if you have no money at all.

It started raining and I knew I had to start making my way back to the lodge, the "good" thing about the rain is that the rain is the same temperature as everything else here.. around 30 degrees today. The rain and the stream coming of the roads like really warm breath, pushes the humidity to 100% and it's a nightmare to cycle in.

I'm still on the level roads and I already feel exhausted and over heated. "Luckily" there's only another 10km of up-hill mountain road left -_-

The way back up nearly killed me, I cycled the first 6km or so and after that started mixing in cycling and pushing the bicycle. During this time I was wondering how do one know if you're dieing from heat exhaustion? Is it when my hands and feet feels like pins and needles? or when my head feels like it's about to explode? My legs are sore, stiff and feel like they no longer want to bend, my back is breaking off and my groin and crotch is really sore (sore from the bike seat!)

Back up the driveway...

 I eventually made it back to the lodge, so now I know it takes about 40min to cycle to town and about 2 hours 40min to cycle back. At this point I'm not too sure I would want to do that again...

One good thing though is that "if" I were to stay at beach side accommodations I will have no reason to go up the mountains and can maybe beach-hop between all the "easy" places to get too.

Tonight I'm going to have a really good sleep, dream about the things I experience today and likely be very sore in the morning... I can't wait :-D