The day started well enough with a 30 km down hill ride past amazing valley scenery with the landscape looking like it was part of Gods' initial playground !
The good news was that we'd dropped 600 meters in altitude the bad news was that our two following climbs over the next 20+ kms were going to take us back up to just short of 5,000 metres.
The first of those climbs was the stunning Gata Loop 21 switchbacks over 8 kms for a 400 meter gain in altitude.
Each loop sat right on top of the other with some short and others long and most having a steep off road pinch at the end of each switchback.
While most of the team did well it was a slow grind for me with altitude again kicking in. Never the less after 1 1/4 hours I finally made it up for fine views of the valleys and loops below.
After a drink it was straight into our 2nd climb. A bit longer and a bit rougher than the first as we closed in on the 5,000 meter mark. I thought about joining Alan in the support bus but just had enough energy to make the pass although all the climbing and altitude was beginning to take its effect - headache, blocked nose, nausea, stomach acid - the lot !
The descent following to Whiskey Nullar a former road camp that built some of these so called roads, was in a rocky dirt roads that did little for my headache !.
We had lunch at the bottom cycled another 1 km to camp with tomorrow's Mtn climb staring us right in the fave !
As mentioned aboved I crashed Imediately upon reaching my tent and was later visited by the groups Dr as a precaution. His provision off a myriad of tablets and some 3 hours of sleep helped no end !
Another hard effort but a spectacular days ride !
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