You've Gone Too Far This Time, Sir! by Danny Bent

Author:Danny Bent
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: adventure, fun, people, motivation, danger, india, charity, pakistan, eastern europe, cycling, central asia
Publisher: Danny Bent

* * *

The roads down were treacherous. Cliff faces lined the sides and the road was made of gravel at best, rocks and potholes at worst. Ice and snow congregated in shaded areas. Our brakes were beginning to wear through and the bumping and jumping were testing our bikes to the max.

As we flew down a totally unmade road, fortune was again against us. My other front pannier rack snapped and the pannier fell off. This time it got stuck in my front wheel, breaking spokes and stopping the bike in its tracks. As you can imagine, going from 30 mph to 0 mph within a very short space of time catapulted me over the handlebars; landing me at the boots of a police officer who demanded, “Passport,” before my bike had quite finished somersaulting before landing on me.

As Matt checked into the checkpoint, I ran off to the surrounding houses and found an old woman who was willing to have us stay the night. She’d made a massive pot of meat and potatoes for her and her husband and we were invited to have some. The potatoes were amazing. I could feel the nutrition flowing through my veins, but the meat was pretty damn tough. I couldn’t chew through it, so I had to suck the meat dry and then leave it discreetly on the side of my plate. The house was pitch black and you couldn’t see what you were eating which was probably just as well.

We’d ditched our damaged bicycles outside, unsure as to whether Shirley could be fixed. My wheel had bent with the impact and wouldn’t turn. My front panniers were both unable to be fixed to the bike. I was wondering whether I was going to need to hitch a lift to the nearest town which was probably Kashkar, hundreds of kilometres away and in a separate country, whose borders we were informed over lunch were still well and truly closed.

We decided to ignore all this till the morning.

An array of delicious boiled sweets was laid on the table and we were encouraged to finish them off, which we very kindly did.

When I awoke the next morning, I could hear the sound of metal on metal combining with a donkey braying and Kyrgyz talking loudly. I peeked outside and there was Shirley laid out in front of Matt with a crowd of locals around him, many of whom were still sitting on the donkeys they took to work. Shirley, although not looking her best, was resembling a bike again. Matt had managed to round off the wheel and attach my panniers to the rear.

I couldn’t believe it. How lucky was I to have been picked up by Matt on his way through?!

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.