I have not known the meaning of true tiredness for a long time until today. But then bicycling 60km is not a joke. I even doubted if I was up to it. But K/G said we must give it a shot after our newer fitness levels and I thought yes we should. So we set off at around 8.45 am after a meagre breakfast of a baguette+jam+butter. We borrowed the same cycles from the same shop and the owner smiled as he recognised his regulars. He didn’t know we were about to put his bicycles to a gruelling test.
We were headed to Kuang Si waterfalls, which has been variously described as magical and fairytale-like. Situated 30km away from the city centre, Lonely Planet says that the road is “gently undulating.” We found that it is anything but.
It began fairly straight before the murderous climbs, treacherous inclines and breezy declines came round the many corners. We stopped many times along the way wheeling the bicycle up the steepest of inclines and using every muscle in our quadriceps to go up the others. The one good thing was that the roads were marvellously paved with not a single crack or pothole. Thankfully, the weather held up most of the way, being cool and cloudy. I almost gave up along the way thinking that I would not make it. And then I realized that I was not just about to do so easily.
We reached Kuang Si at around 12.00 pm, three hours later. Not bad timing. We also met a few other bikers along the way, giving us some consolation that we were not the only mad ones out there. A good noodle soup and a milkshake and plenty of water later we were fortified enough to get up and begin walking along the trails around the falls.
The falls themselves were tiered, a turquoise blue forming pools where people were frolicking. The color of the water made it look truly fairytale-like and magical and I felt like I was in some tropical paradise with palm fronds and dark green leaves drooping all over into the waters. We trekked up to the head of the falls, which took another 45 minutes or so and it was a steep climb. On the way down, a completely drunk woman with a group of kids kept calling out, “hello, hello!” annoyingly. We sat down for some time so we could lose her.
Two hours later we left for our excruciating journey back, but surprisingly it was faster. There were more downhills and we zoomed along happily with the wind flying in our flushed, sweaty faces. We made good time and reached in a little more than two and a half hours.
What I liked about the journey was the exhilaration of breezing down the declines, the little kids calling out “Sabaideeeee!” meaning welcome and all the people smiling at us. There was even a tourist group comprising elderly/middle aged people who egged us on “Bravo bravo!” But most of all it was the feeling of accomplishment. Aching knees and writhing calves apart, I felt I had done something I had never imagined I could do. Cycling 60km, on a non-mountain bike, had not been easy but it was truly an amazing experience. And yes, I would definitely go for something similar again.
