Day 31: Saddle Sore Not Fun

I’m in a hotel in Sissu with Adam, we’re sharing a bed for the first time, kinky! Today was the worst day I’ve had so far in terms of my saddle sore. Horrible pain the whole day, barely any relief. I don’t know if I’ve describe what a saddle sore is yet but it’s basically a pimple or ingrown hair folliculitis blister thing that occurs where your ass meets the saddle and it just gets bigger and more painful until you have a proper rest and theoretically it should heal and the skin should get stronger. But I’ve had this sucker essentially since I started and healed she has not. The worry is that the pimple could tear or rupture and then start swimming in all the yummy bacteria and fungi living in your nether regions and then you could have a terrible infection and DIE. We don’t want that to happen. So yeah, today kind of sucked. My knee pain was hardly even noticeable compared to that. We still put in a good 70km with a few big climbs here and there. At lunch a motherly woman who described herself as tribal cut us up some apple slices and gave us popcorn with the kernels still very intact. As she attempted to clean the knife on the edge of the table she accidentally sent it launching at my face and it was deflected by my mug as I drank. This sent her into a hysteric fit of laughter, and I laughed too but I also knew I’d narrowly escaped being blinded in one eye. Tomorrow we will be in Manali, either going through the Altal tunnel or braving the Rotangla Pass. We had seemed to be set on the tunnel but now Adam is telling me he fancies the pass so I’m going to have to really give it my all. But it’s kind of more poetic this way. I want to earn the reward that is Manali, not cruise through some tunnel. What’s one more pass? I can take it. And it’ll be paved. Sounds like fun. I believe we shall make a game time decision tomorrow as to which path we take. The more I think about it, though, the more I think the pass will be the way to go.