21/08/17 Narkanda to Rampur

21/08/17  Narkanda to Rampur

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Narkanda Cycling: Distance 73.67 km | Time 3:57:15 | Speed 18.6 kph | Elevation 509 m

Starting the day at 2600m, the tops of the clouds in the valley were several hundreds of metres below us but slowly rose and engulfed us as we set off. We began to freewheel immediately on leaving the hotel and continued without pedalling until we came to the mighty Sutlej river another 30 kms further on. The weather had looked uncertain but slowly brightened and although this was initially perceived as good news it also meant that with descending from 2600m to 835m the valley floor was going to be hot and humid. It was.

There were lots roadside places to eat and todays lunch and drinks for two came to the princely sum of 80p. Once we had joined the Sutlej river we began to follow its SE bank gently undulating back up to 1000m at Rampur.

Rampur was typically busy with chaotic frightening traffic. Intending to find a hotel we thought we'd first buy a beer to settle in with but failed to find any for sale. Asking a local where I could find some resulted in him insisting that I jump in his car and drive out of town to buy a couple of bottles. He then returned me to town and a sweltering Marjet and then showed us the fantastic Sutlej River View Hotel overlooking the river. “Guest is God” is apparently a common Indian phrase and he certainly lived up to that ideal. Apparently only this year the area of Himachal Pradesh has banned all sales of alcohol wihin 3kms of the National Highways, hence no alcohol for sale in the town centre.

The hotel setting couldn't have been better and we topped it off with a beautiful evening meal in our room. Pick up the phone, order the meal and drinks and have all it presented with great formality. Fantastic

We felt very decadent but hoped to get used to it.

Approaching Rampur

Cows in the high street are still a novelty