We woke early this morning to go swimming and had a great time skimming the coral. We see so many different kinds of fish and coral it’s just amazing. All this right under the surface, not very far from shore. We swam for a while, then got out to shower and have a snack. We then decided we’d cycle to the other side of the island. This island is not flat, it’s a big mountain poking out of the ocean. It’s covered in jungle and quite steep. But the guide book showed a path to the other side and we thought we could do it. There is a sidewalk-like path that connects most of the villages on the West side of the island. The main transportation here within and between these villages is scooters, motorcycles and three-wheeled scooters with cargo space. A few people ride bikes. The book made it seem like this kind of path would take us up and over to the other side, so off we went. Looked and looked, exploring each path that went off to the West. We found the electricity plant, the houses where locals live, the school, even a narrow jungle trail that seemed to go in the right direction but was not bikeable. But we couldn’t find that path! We stopped at a bakery to ask directions (and get some ice cream, a donut, and corn pudding) and finally someone came out and told us to head South on the main path and turn at the top of the hill to the left. He said it was steep. Steep! He made exaggerated steep motions with his hand. He looked at our bikes. Steep!

We finished our snacks and headed South. We found the left turn at the top of the hill. We saw it the day before when we were tooling around checking out the villages. We thought that was a driveway or something, because nobody makes roads that steep. Steep!

We switched down into our easiest granny gears and put our heads down and went up. We grunted. We swerved from side to side. And finally, I had to stop. And rest. Steep! Oh my, this is really something. “Who would do this on a bicycle?” I kept thinking. I started again and caught up to Dave resting. We started again. I couldn’t keep that up any longer, the effort just to keep going was making me go anaerobic. The muscles were burning, my lungs were screaming. STEEP!

Dave kept on turning those cranks while I pushes. There is no way I could have done this with my panniers on the bike. We stopped again at some point and I said I needed a few minutes. I was absolutely drenched in sweat, couldn’t catch my breath, and I kept thinking, “What are we DOING going up this steep hill in the MIDDLE OF THE DAY? Who does this? Why?” But then we heard some crashing in the trees and we looked up. Monkeys! Lots of them! We watched as they scrambled around and made their way down the hill and across our view from tree to tree. They were so graceful yet they were crashing and thrashing through those trees. They would stop and nibble on things along the way, chat to each other a bit, and then move on. What a privilege to have seen that. We had caught our breath, so we got on the bikes again and pushed forward. On and on we went like this, pedal for a bit, push over washed out areas or too-steep areas (I did way more pushing than Dave, sheesh.), resting and then doing it again. Finally we made it to the top. But by then I wasn’t at all interested in going down to the other beach, swimming, and then coming back up this nasty, hot, sweaty hill. No! I told Dave to feel free and keep going, really I don’t mind, just give me the key. But he said let’s just see how it looks on the other side, maybe it’s not so steep. So we rode down a tiny little bit, came around a corner and saw that it was steep. We looked at each other and said, yeah, let’s turn around.

So, yes, we did all of that and didn’t finish the goal. We turned around. I think any sane person would have done so way sooner. Going down was kind of scary because of the steepness. My hands were cramping from holding the brake so hard. But before we knew it we were back at that turn off the main path. I mean, really really quickly. We didn’t even go that FAR. It just felt like it. Dave took several readings on the way down with his compass, which has an inclinometer. He determined that the grade of the road was between 15-20%. Mostly on the upper end of that.

When we got back to the cabin we changed into our suits and went for another swim to cool off. It was late in the afternoon, but it was still warm and the water was clear and there were many fish to keep us entertained. We swam for quite a while, and when we were done we were ready for a big dinner. Quite a day.