Day 27, 44km: (by Amy)

Today our lovely road got steeper passing through grassland with free range pigs and eventually turned into a gravel track in forest and ascended to 9800ft. I decided very quickly that I hate tracks. It was like riding on a stream bed. We stopped for pasta (which i have been carrying since Chengdu) 5km from the top when I realised we weren't going to make the pass at any reasonable lunch hour. A sign at the top said the area was a nature reserve with wild giant pandas and jaguars. The veiws were fantastic down the valley. We looked for a camp spot on the way down but the land was too steep and the bamboo forest too thick. Instead we ended up in a guesthouse where Chris got bitten by bed bugs (I used my own sleeping bag) and the toilet was a concrete pit in the yard with maggots climbing up the sides.  Nice.