Day 89 – Cemuc Champey, GU to Sebol, GU

Day 89 – Cemuc Champey, GU to Sebol, GU 11/18/10 Mileage: 47

I was looking to move on today but the weather was not cooperating. The road coming in is of course very bad and the rain makes things 10 times worse as the road gets slippery. Worse than that is the concrete pads on the steep hills that get covered with mud dragged on there by the 4×4 trucks wheels. I gave it a whirl but it was just too slick, so it was back to the hostel to wait it out. If the sun came out and dried things out enough to leave in the afternoon, I would make a run for it…otherwise I was stuck here another night. Luckily, that’s what happened and I gave it another go. The road was still muddy but had definitely dried out a bit including the concrete tracks on the steep sections, so it was not too bad. I also lowered my tire pressures which also helped quite a bit. Once back to the main road, I could go left and backtrack to Coban on the paved road, or go right and continue towards Sebol through the mountains on the dirt. You know how much I hate to backtrack, so with two hours of daylight left I made run for it.

The going was painfully slow in the mud and daylight was beginning to become a problem. Luckily the road widened and improved enough towards the end so I could pick up the pace despite that it started to pour.

I arrived in Sebol about 15 minutes after dark and went straight for the nearest hotel. It wasn’t much to look at, but it was dry, only $9 and I was soaked. The bathroom was particularly, umm, unsightly and the sink was actually in one end of the shower. It also had one of those electric shower heads to heat the water as the majority of buildings down here only have plumbing for cold. What’s worse, this one had the electrical breaker box in the shower as well which is a first!

Needless to say I didn’t need a shower bad enough to risk electrocution! I also didn’t trust the bedding, so I did the old ground sheet over the bed trick and slept in my sleeping bag liner.