Today is Thanksgiving day. After much thought I have decided to quit Facebook and Strava after nearly 5 years of usage. I am hoping by doing so I can put my time and effort to better use. I still don't know whether I will be successful but I have lived by this motto all my life.

If you are not trying for the fear of losing then you will never Win. 

Gravina in Puglia 3

I  made it to Gravina in little over an hour, headed straight to the local bar, sat outside and had a massive Gelato. con gusto di stracciatella and fichi caramellato.. Yummy. I headed to the room later, took a shower and just fell asleep. In the evening I explored the Gravina historic center and took photographs. I cannot post those here but if you are friends with me on facebook you are welcome to take a look at it. The historic centers in Italy is the heart in every sense of every town or village. They date back centuries and till today provide the pulse to the life. They are different region to region and the ones in Puglia are more rugged and fortified. Long narrow alleys lined with shops and businesses. Surely a piazza right in the center where almost the entire town gathers in the evening to socialize. Restaurants, cafe's and bars cater to them. In this case in Gravina not only is it beautiful but the old part of it also contains ancient caves or grottes and tunnels that were used for living or as frantoios where they made wine. They were used till a few years ago. 

Gravina in Puglia

Well the next day I decided to explore a few more places. That wine and limoncello got me drunk again and I could not wake up early yet again and faced another tough ride. This time I decided to ride to my destination without stopping too much. I took a different route for exploration sake, almost flat to compared to the previous ride and the road was so straight I had a kms of visibility in front of me.
The town I was headed to was called Poggiorsini. The town was set in the middle of these wheat vastlands and just a km in length! Took me an hour to get there at almost 25km/hr. I stopped just once to take this shot.

When I reached Poggiosini I found the piazza empty. Seemed like some of the far west movies were shot right here! There was no one and I was expecting a gun fight to breakout. Just one of those scenarios. I took a break to take more photographs. Later I went to a local bar to have a drink to refresh. The lady who worked there was keeping a curious eye on me as I struggled to find a place to leave the bike. She then finally remarked saying I should not be worrying, there was no one and very safe. I looked around and thought where the hell can one actually run with my bike in this sort of place!! I was later told that the piazza was full of people shoulder to shoulder in the evening when everyone gets back to town after the work in the fields. I lingered around for a while and just rode back home in a TT mode. The roads were that good 

I had a great trip and I love these isolated region of Italy. People crowd themselves in Tuscany and other places which are so over rated. I love the back roads. You actually get to step back in time in a place like Italy in the heart of Europe and get to see how life existed in these parts centuries ago. Some more photographs and I close this post here.

Poggiorsini

Thanks for looking!

Gravina in Puglia 2

Alright then lets move on! I did not do much that evening, I did get out and walked thru the center to get an idea of the place and get myself oriented. Had a great dinner at a local recommended taverna. A delicious Angus and red wine to accompany it with other local delicacies just made my evening. Add a limoncello to that and I remember feeling a little drunk on my way back to the hotel. Well the drunk part was confirmed when I could not get out of bed till 8 am! 

I dropped one of the panniers in the room and just filled one with camera equipment. By the time I left it was 9 am. I loaded the course on my GPS and it read 38C at 9 am!I knew it was going to be tough ride. The ride was going to be thru barren land without a tree to hide under. As soon as I left Gravina I was right in the middle of the wheat vastlands. I had never seen anyting like that in my life. Honestly felt I was in Kansas. The ride was sort of rolling hills and the traffic was mostly made of farm vehicles. A lot of people were busy working in their land and harvesting wheat or laying down the ground for the next season. It gets so hot that people prefer to work either very early in the day or late into the evening. By 10 people were winding down and I had just begun my ride. 

I took it slow and took quite a lot of photographs. The ride was a 60k loop which included passing thru a tiny farming town called Dolcecanto, descending to a dam and then climbing back to Gravina. During the entire ride I saw not more than a few vehicles and that was kind of spooky. I was the tallest object out there with no trees around! Beyond Dolcecanto I lost my way a little since the road I had chosen to descend to the Dam turned out to be a dirt road. I was not in a mood to take that in that heat and face any difficult. I took a good look at the 800 and I figured if I rode a few more kms there was an alternative to descend down to the dam but it included a climb. I thought what the hell. I went ahead and took it, passed a few climbs and then faced a one long descend into the valley enroute to the dam. Here I also got my first open view of the entire landscape. It looked great even if deprived of the best light conditions.

Vast Wheat fields in Gravina in Puglia

The descend to the dam was fast and I did not quite feel that I was riding a touring bike. The landscape was so brilliant and uniquely beautiful. The fact that I had to climb everything I was descending still did not play on my mind. I rode hard to get to the damn. The curiosity was getting the better out of me. How could there be a body of water in this barren landscape? The contrast was something I was longing to see and hence I descended very quickly. A few more rolling hills and finally I got the first glimpse of it and my heart pounded with excitement. I honestly do not have words to describe just how beautiful it was. So I will let this photograph tell you the story!

I basked in the beauty around the lake for sometime stopping quite a few times to take more photographs. By the time I was done it was mid day and it was soaring hot and the temperature had reached 40C. I had a long climb back to Gravina. I was very low on water and the heat and the warm air dried everything inside me. My mouth was so dry I was almost choking on the bike as soon as I hit the climbs. I decided to only take small sip and conserve and just ride without stopping anymore. What I enjoy during these situations is that I am able to rely on my fitness to get me thru. I was confident I would get over the climbs without any difficulty if I just rode. I mean how long can a climb really be! 10kms or 15kms back to the town? I knew it was hot but I knew I could do it. These are times I relish I train so much that I can get by these situations. Saying that honestly.

Beginning of the long climb and a brief look behind. That was the last pic I took on that ride. I packed everything and just rode back. It was tough but I was also happy I was getting a good workout.

Gravina in Puglia

It has been exactly a month since I came to Italy, my yearly pilgrimage to the holy land of bicycling. Over the past 4 weeks I have been training hard to get in some decent form for the Giro delle dolomiti in early August. Every 4th week is a recovery week, recovery here means same amount of kms but just not intense. I thought it was a perfect excuse to put my Bianchi together and head out for a tour. Also I realized that in the coming 4 weeks I would not get another opportunity. To add there were few threads here last week about touring bikes that motivated me to jump the rope.
My in-laws have been coping with the flurry of bikes that gets unpacked every time I visit. We have 5 bikes here now. The post man made it known recently that he works exclusively for me these days. I love the Volpe a lot and it reminded me of all the good times I had in Greece 2 years ago. In an instant I put the bike together, threw a rack on it, dumped some clothes and other essentials in one pannier and cameras in the other. Ohh and I also installed the new saddle. I was a bit skeptical going on a tour with a new saddle but somehow was confident because I rarely have saddle problems. I sat up in the night to draw a few routes and downloaded the courses on the Garmin 800. I decided to leave as early as 6 am. 
Woke up in the middle of the night feeling everything was done in a haste and I would not enjoy a tour since this was the first time I was going on a 3 day tour on my own. Missed my wife a lot and went to bed confirming I was not going to go. Woke up in the morning at 8! Do I go or stay back and enjoy the days at the beach? After some encouragement from the family and also from my wife back in SL I decided to go. I told either I will be back in an hour or after 3 days. And i set off. I was going to Gravina in puglia, some 100 kms away from my town further south. This place has a wonderful historic center and if I am not wrong the land around it feeds half of Italy. My plan was to ride there and spend rest of the 2 days exploring the country side and small villages. This is a very remote region in Italy not like Tuscany or the rest. 
So I began thinking I was going to ride to the next town and see if I wanted to continue. I am the most skeptical bike tourer. I was enjoying the bike. felt very smooth. I am more used to riding these roads with rigid carbon bikes. This one felt like a 4 wheel drive with super suspensions. 
Above are 2 photographs. One is as I approach the first town Locorotondo, a town that makes great white wine and the other is a shot inside the historic center of the same town.

I enjoyed a fantastic cappuccino in that town above. Took a few photographs. As I was pondering over my future plans a whole bunch of bike tourers from the US and Italy rode into town. They loved my bike and we started to talk for a few minutes and that really pushed me to go ahead with the tour. Within minutes I was on the bike riding thru a very familiar countryside. Rolling hills lined with olive trees and fruit orchards and open landscape with wheat. This time of the year the wheat has already been harvested. The first 50k or so is my training ground and I have ridden infinite number of kms thru it but most of it in a very suffering fashion. In a default mode I saw myself pushing the touring bike at 30km/hr! Some bad habits die hard! I had remind to myself that I had to ride slow and indulge otherwise I was looking at finishing my 100kms ride inside 3 hours. Thus I stopped and took these photographs.


We have been having a heat wave of sorts and the temperature now was lingering at above 38C. It was hot and I was feeling it. I was also hungry. I decided to ride town to town, most times are just 10-15kms apart. I rode thru a few without stopping and decided to take a break and fuel myself at Gioia di Colle at the 50k mark. These are rides with no shades. The ride is beautiful but one start seeing mirages after a few kms under the sun. I was happy to take this break and down a good drink and some snacks.

Anyways by the time I left Gioia del Colle it was 1pm. I knew a section of the ride was going to be on a very busy road almost a secondary highway and I wanted to avoid those busy hours. So I decided to ride on and not stop anywhere till my final destination. As I got close to the next few towns it had an industrial look to it. Nothing attractive. I just kept my head down and rode. As I got close to Gravina, the trees started to disappear and the land looked barren with miles and miles of wheat fields. Massive tractors replaced the fast cars. I was cooked by the time I got into Gravina. I had spoken to a friend who knew a good place to stay right in the center. I called him and he guided me to the B&B. They had a very spacious garage in the bottom of the building where I left the bike and headed to my room. A good shower and I settled on the roof terrace for a beer.

A view from the roof terrace right in the historic area.

My SL story continues! Castlereigh Reservior.

Rrrrrnnggg!!!, the alarm rings on my newly bought HTC phone at 645am! I was woken up more than usual since I still had to get used to that new sound. I could hear the sound of rain on the roof of the cottage. It had been raining whole night. It was cold. It was the first night I covered myself under the sheets in SL! I closed my eyes to that sound which seemed like eternity only to be woken up again. This time it was the knock on the door. My breakfast was here at 7am. I was so optimistic the night before that I had asked for the breakfast to be delivered as early so I could get out and ride my bike! It was a very small set up at the resort with just 2 cottages with the other one empty. Even the cook was not available so early in the morning so my western breakfast (not my choice) was made by the room attendant. He said it was easier for him to put a continental breakfast than a traditional srilankan meal. Fine! I settled on the verandah of the cottage with my food and a warm coffee. I know it is tea country but I still need my coffee to wake up my senses. Actually now thinking of it my senses were already awake from what I saw in front of me. Thru the tall standing timber trees surrounded by tea shrubs I could see the beautiful reservoir with low mist just hanging right on top of it. It was raining and the only 2 sounds I could hear was the rain drops on the leaves and yes religious tamil music coming from some speakers on the other side of the reservoir! Refreshing! I was told not to venture out too far into the tea shrubs as leeches were very common!

The view of the reservior from my verandah

Within 30 mins I was already in my cycling jersey waiting for the rains to die out. The night before I had mapped out a ride around the reservoir. It was a 50k ride with plenty of climbs on the nearby hills. Since i was not sure about what to expect of the road conditions, I had made up my mind to ride the mtb. I was going to take it easy and even packed my slr camera and a few lenses in a water proof bag. Just in case! Meanwhile the music continued on the other side of the reservoir, so did my wait! Everytime it looked like it was over and I got up from my chair, it would start all over again.

It was 11am now and I was still sitting in my jersey with my cycling shoes on and my arm resting on the bike. The attendant came over to take the dishes away, on his way out he turned back and said sir, it does not really rain like this, it is very unusual! Oh yeah! Thanks for telling me that. I was tempted to ride, I was getting impatient, very impatient but it was still 11, the ride was just 50k and the day was still long. So I waited.

The rain continued till 2pm and meanwhile I had my lunch! The cook was back at work and he made a delicious chicken curry, dal and plain rice. A cup of coffee followed! I know it is tea country but I need my coffee after my meals! Just after lunch the rain finally stopped and I decided to take the risk and go for a ride. Before I set out I confirmed with the employes at the resort about the route I had drawn for the previous night and also to let them know where I was heading. Just in case! It was strange to have my mind in a 'tourer' mode, it had been a long time! I had to intentionally slow myself down to relish some of the scenery! I was also riding the mtb. My scott was back at the cottage upside down to drain some of the water that might have entered inside the frame during the ride to Hatton! It had happened a few times in the past too. Though I have ridden the mtb a number of times on trails in the US and also around the city in Colombo, this was to be the longest ride I ever rode on a mtb! It was a little difficult to believe that fact.

The ride began with a long descent towards the end of the reservoir. My plan for the ride was to just get to the end of it at about 5k mark and return since more rain was likely. 

The state of the roads were not too bad. It ran along the reservoir on one side and slanting slopes of neatly manicured tea plantations on the other. I was in no hurry and even stopped a few times in the first km itself. 5kms of riding brought me to a dam about 150m long at the end of the reservoir. I could not take photographs for obvious reasons but I stayed around to check out the views. Though one eye was always on the clouds over head as it just did not look good. The peaks of the hills were covered with dark rainy clouds and my original 50k plan looked a distant reality as it required me to climb to the top and get behind those mountains. I did not even know know how high they were as they were perennially covered with dark misty clouds. That had been the case since I got to Castlereigh the day before! My only knowledge of what lied behind those low hanging clouds was derived from the elevation graph that I had drawn online. There were a couple of fishing boats in the reservoir and few men fishing on the shores of the reservoir. I was told by the hotel attendant that these guys caught fresh water fishes that weighed upto 5kg, apparently it is very fatty and is best eaten fried!

After passing over the dam and a security post, the road went thru a small village of sorts. I decided to ride further. Right after the village the road started to quickly descend and wind thru tea estates towards a place called Norton Bridge. I stopped at a few plantations to take photographs. Norton Bridge was the lowest point of the ride at 800m. I was aware that since the ride started I had only been descending for 12 long kms and to go back there was some stiff climbing to do.  I was also aware that if i decided to ride my original plan of 50k I had to climb over 15 odd kms to a place called Maskeliya where the other reservoir was located.  A huge 1400m high mountain stood between the 2 reservoirs and I had to get some way on top if it to cross to the other side.  The rain had miraculously held back till now. So I decided to gamble and go ahead with the 50k ride. All this time I hardly encountered any vehicles and that played on my mind. I was just not in a mood to get stuck some spooky place I had never been before! I was also racing against light. It was getting darker because the light was not penetrating the thick dark clouds.. I quickly got back on the bike, cleated and took the road to Maskeliya. I was climbing thru misty winding roads and it got denser as the altitude picked up. The climb itself was not too steep but the mtb did make a workout of it. I knew these moments were different from my usual rides. This was an adventure and I was excited! I was a little scared too. I knew this was similar to that day when I climbed Mt Ventoux on a cold rainy day. My impulses were having the better of me and my desire to explore what lied ahead was intense. Inspite of all the cycling I do, these moments are rare and intriguing to me.

Without much trouble I climbed the first 5k mostly thru thick forest of sorts. The only people I passed by were a few kids getting back from school. They probably know each inch of these hills on the back of their hands. They helped calm my nerves. The first climb finished on top of a pass cut thru the mountain to get to the other side. This was a quiet intersection with a tiny bus stand. Two women maybe tea plantation workers took refuge from the wet weather under the roof of the bus stand. I wanted to ask them for directions or rather confirmation of my route but I decided to wait a moment to ask someone else. Not that I don't trust women! Soon a motor bike passed and I frantically waved at them to stop. Hatton? Road to Hatton? They wanted me to get back on the route I just came from. Ofcourse since I was riding a loop, I was still closer to Hatton if I turned back. I knew that myself. I made them understand that I was riding a loop and wanted to get to Maskeliya and then to Hatton. This reminded me that Vignesh my room attendant at the cottage had told me to ask for the Maskeliya - Hatton road in case.  They looked at each other and said the road to Hatton via Maskeliya was tough!  In their own words 'difficult'. It was really wet out there. For the first time I was looking down at the other side of the immense mountain into the deep valley. The valley steeply descended and from the scenic overlook or pass where I was standing I could see a dam way down easily over 500m or more into the valley. I quickly collected my attention back to the motorbikers. I decided to ignore the 'difficult' comment and thanked them for the advice but decided to finish the loop. I calmed myself with the idea that I had the legs to climbs, it was not going to be a climb of epic proportions and if it poured fine! It just could not take more than 2 hours. The only trouble would have been if I got a flat or if I crashed! I had everything I needed in case or worse I thought I could hitch a ride with someone. So I continued.             

Descending towards Norton bridge

The mist got denser as I continued my climb, the views down the valley got even more spectacular. I was riding parallel to the peaks wilderness sanctuary. The mountain range seemed like a massive wall. Inspire of the height at which i was riding I could still hear the loud sound of the river raging through the valley. A few kms ahead was another scenic overlook and I had my first glimpse of the laxpana waterfall. White raging water in all its fury taking a deep plunge over a 100m height into the valley was quite a sight! I was only a km away and the sound was deafening! On any other given day the sight or the entire ride was just maybe not as mesmerizing but the conditions that i was riding through made just about everything twice as dramatic and i felt spellbound in it's beauty. As the ride continued on one side of the valley the mountain range continued it's own parallel path. There were plenty of more waterfalls off those mountains and lush green impenetrable forests on the higher range of the mountains. The scenes looked like a clip out of the movie Avatar! I thought why they spent so much money on computer rendering and effects when they could have just shot the entire movie on the other side of the river! It was that enticing! The winding climb continued towards Maskeliya and soon i was riding back thru more tea plantations. The west side of this mountain range that i was riding on was far more dramatic and wild compared to the east side at Castlereigh. This sise was more rustic in its beauty. I wondered how the entire range must have looked a few decades ago when the entire lot was one big jungle. 

By now the tea plantation workers were towards the end of their day. The women dressed in colorful raincoats were walking on the side of the road in a line carrying the freshly picked tea leaves in the baskets on their back. Further ahead I saw many more women weighing each basket of tea leaves. I am not sure what the men do but so far I had only seen women doing the job while men did the job of supervisors. As i passed them they paused to look at me. They were probably wondering what I was doing riding my bike thru there. One thing we had in common was our colorful raincoats.  I dont think they see too many like me. The end of the day's work for them also meant I had to hurry thru my ride to make it in time to reach Hatton before it got dark. I was over the half way mark. A few kms later I had my first glimpse of a huge building certainly a tea factory. The sight of the tea factory relieved me as I knew i was not too far from Maskeliya. I had been climbing for an hour thru some of the most fascinating scenery. I was already excited about sharing this with my wife who was supposed to come to Castlereigh with our son the next day. The tea factory lead me to a small intersection and I could see many Hindu temples in the village down in the valley. I stopped, took some photographs, drank some water and took note of the time. I was at ease now!

A big descend brought me rapidly to Maskeliya. A tall tree stood in the middle of the intersection. Every eye in that space was starring at me. Many sat under the tree waiting for the buses to take them to their destinations. I felt observed and intimidated. A right turn would bring me to Adam's peak while the left indicated Hatton. Without further thoughts I took the left. I was thru 3/4 of my ride and the challenges were behind me. A few kms of further climbing brought me to the top of the hill and I was back looking at Castlereigh. The climbs for the day was over I thought. This was the highest point from where I had a view of the  castlereigh reservoir. I was exactly on the other side of the reservoir where my cottage was located. I tried to locate it but it was hidden behind the tall timber trees that lined the shore. A 5k descend brought me to the town of Norton and after a further few kms of climbing I was in Hatton. The sun was beyond the mountains by now and I was riding in the last rays of light towards my cottage. I was ecstatic. I felt like I had made some sort of a discovery! Ofcousre many before me must have done the same but i was ecstatic because I did this on my own without any recommendations or suggestions. This was entirely my own ride!! 

I quickly changed into fresh clothes and settled on the verandah with a cup of warm tea!! The Tamil music continued from the other side of the reservoir.

Discovering SL, one climb at a time! Part 4

In the past 6 months due to many logistical reasons I did not really have the chance or time to explore SL. I was sort of satisfied with the rides I mentioned above but deep within me I knew I had to ride beyond that since some of the finest places lied in the central highlands and beyond. A few weeks ago Vandit mentioned on the forum that he was going to Bhutan, a place on my top 5 destinations to ride. I know Bhutan very well as I have lived there in the past and have explored just about every corner of it but on foot! When he proposed the idea that I could join, i was ready to jump on the bandwagon. When I started to figure out the logistics for me to get from Colombo to Paro with my bike, half my inspiration died. Thats when I thought i was being a fool trying to go to Bhutan when I still had the whole of SL to explore. I was charged now and ready.I started looking beyond Hatton on the maps and came across 2 reservoirs just a few kms beyond Hatton. I thought I could pack my bikes and try to spend an extended weekend out there. Trying to google or research about bicycling in SL is futile, there is absolutely nothing except a few counts of riding in Nuwara Eliya tea trails. I was up for whatever the place offered. So Thursday I left Colombo for the reservoirs. I packed the car the night before with my MTb, bike tools and extra wheel sets. But i was going to ride my scott atleast to Hatton. 

Riding up the hot slopes of Ginigathena

By the time i started riding the day after it was already 30c in the shade. it was miserably hot and humid. I decided to take it easy since i was just looking to get to Hatton. Much of the description of this ride has already been stated above. Half way up the climb to Ginigathena, it was so hot I felt my head was turning around and there were moments when I was blanking out. That alarmed me and I stopped for my car to catch up. My driver too was alarmed as he rarely sees me stop on a climb. As the car approached me I made hasty signals to hand me a bottle of water. Emptied a bottle of water on my head and I told my driver that I would ride to Ginigathena and then just ride the car. I kept a moderate pace from there on and it felt a lot better.

It got misty and cold and wet.

Ginigathena is at 650odd metres but every time I pass thru there it seems a good 10C cooler to Colombo. Also the ride to Ginigathena is always sunny and exposed to the sun while the ride from Ginigathena to Hatton which is a further 15k of climbs is usually wet, cold and cloudy. Maybe it is the mountains that create those conditions. Wet and cold sounds miserable if you were in England but when I saw the conditions playing out to the usual script I changed my mind and decided to ride all the way to Hatton. My legs found new vigor and i set out rolling on the bike again. The rain intensified and got misty thru the winding climbs. Fine, no worry at all. I asked my driver who was right behind me to keep those fog lights on!

I just kept going till I reached Hatton. On reaching Hatton I realized that I took more or the less the same time I usually take to climb till here! Just on the outskirts of Hatton there is tea shop, a really cool place with a scenic overlook. I always end my ride there with a cup of warm tea. The scott was put on top of the car, made a phone call or two to figure out our way to the cottages that I had booked around the reservoir. Soon got the confirmation and we set out to reach there before it got too late. My driver had to drop me and get back to Colombo the same day since he was needed at home the next day a friday a working day for both my wife and son.

Common sight around Dickoya!

Tea Plantations around Castlereigh

The reservior I was heading to is called the Castlereigh reservoir. It is set in a valley of tea plantations and lined with tall timber trees. Just beautiful. Amazingly scenic place. The roads heading out to Hatton to the reservoir was broken tar and I was glad I also had the MTb in the car! It is about 8kms from Hatton, a downhill drive and passes thru a small tea factory town Dickoya. Dickoya really seemed like a sleepy town where time had decided to take a break!! It was pouring now but still midst of the tea plantations on sloping hills were women dressed in colorful raincoats picking tea leaves.

And ohh I rode 70 odd kms with 25k of climbs from about 20m to 1200m in altitude

Discovering SL, one climb at a time! Part 3

After the initial enthusiasm of discovering Hatton died out a little, trying to ride it on a weekday and get back home to pick my son from school in time started to take a toll. It became extremely tiring to squeeze it in a day. As long as it was working out, I was managing to get there atleast once a week. Meanwhile I started to ride on the Galle sea face road very much like the Marine drive in Bombay. The road is however shorter just a km long with no traffic at all. It is a perfect set up for short high intensity intervals. The Galle face road was closed to public till recently due to threats from the sea from the Tamil tigers. Since the end of the war the roads have been made open to public but still there is a huge military presence as the army headquarters is pretty close by. The adjoining ground that lies sandwiched between the road and the beach is very popular with the locals in the evening. You see thousands of families enjoying the surroundings and over all the spectacular sunsets over the Indian ocean. This time of the year it is very popular with kite fliers.

The ground also has a massive flat post that carries the national flag. Every morning and evening it is hosted and taken off with precise ceremonies by the army. In the morning the army uses the ground for their regular exercises. Anyways I have been riding this on Sundays providing a spectacle to the army security and the morning joggers. I ride this in the company of my motorbike and we reach 60km/hr at the end of the km. The return is recovery. As I pass the army folks drenched in sweat and my head hanging off my shoulders in despair I hear them silently murmuring "come on" "come on"!! I turn back at the other end and I am ready for the next effort.