We can cope with hills, rain and headwinds; what we can't cope with is all three at once. The day didn't start too badly, the weather while far from ideal cycling conditions was just windy. While we were loading the bikes the rain started, but that was fairly light, nothing that donning our waterproofs wouldn't solve. The fact that the first 12km was downhill added to the general feeling that we would probably be able to make it to Madaba. Unfortunately from then on everything took a turn for the worse. The long descent was replaced by a 7% gradient climb into a headwind that was gusting to about 40km/h (taken from wunderground.com), while the rain pelted our faces. We were down to our lowest gears and struggling to stop our bikes being blown into the traffic.
Having stopped during a particularly strong gust, a pick-up truck pulled over ahead of us. Riding up to the door to see what he wanted, the driver admonished me for being out in weather like this and then explained that he was a van for hire and he would happily be hauling bicycles today! The price was a little steep, but there was clearly no way that we were going to make it to Madaba under our own steam. With the bikes loaded and ourselves squeezed into the cab, we began the longish journey in the company of our saviour Hashim.
Hashim was pleasant company and his English was pretty good, so we chatted our way through the journey. While talking to Hashim we learned that he has a three year old son who is profoundly deaf. His dream in life is to see his son learn to speak and to be able to hear. Unfortunately, unable to afford cochlear implants (about £20,000) and the three years of speech therapy that his son requires, it looks like an unattainable dream. Which brings about the question of how anyone in the developing world could ever afford the treatment. It makes us feel lucky to have grown up in a country where the state offers help to those who require it. It would be nice to think that employing him to transport us goes some way towards helping his son.
Arriving in Madaba we unloaded the bikes, thanked Hashim and set off in search of a hotel. We eventually pulled up outside the 'Rumman Hotel' via a few wrong turns, a ride the wrong way up a one way street, lots of asked directions and a very helpful guy who ran alongside to show us the way.
The weather is forecast to get worse for the next couple of days, so we will be holed up here for at least three nights. Hopefully, weather permitting, we will get a trip down to the Dead Sea arranged while we are here.
No comments:
Post a Comment