Day 65: Tarragona to Arnes – 108k

5,103km down: 1,122km to go

It was hot during the night but thankfully we were at a quiet camp site.

When we got in yesterday we were told that the bar shuts at 4pm (it was 3pm) and the pool shuts at 6pm.  Not sure if it was because it was Sunday or whether it was because the camp site was deserted. To get wifi you had to produce your passport and get an ID card, quite a lot of work for one night.  Also we found out later the password was device specific and as a group we were only allowed four. Thankfully our group is now only 8 riders and not everyone wanted Internet access.

We are back to showers that you have to push the button to get 7 seconds of water before you have to push it again, and the toilet saga continues – toilets with no seat, but there was soap and paper. I guess if your house has no toilet seat there is never any argument about the seat being left up. There was another interesting translation on a sign in the toilet: “You had to use the paper properly, thank you”.

We knew today was going to be  challenging with hills 10k long, and the heat, so we were on the road by 7:30am. It is not light enough now to leave any earlier. The first 28k was relatively flat, we went through a seaside town called Miami Platsa (which translates to Miami Beach), and we took a photo as we left the Mediterranean and headed inland. The scenery today was fantastic – when you got your head up and your breathing under control enough to enjoy it!

Last view of the sea until Lisbon

I think it was one of the most challenging rides we have done so far. Tomorrow we start with a 50k rail trail then more of the same so maybe that will be the most challenging, as my legs will not have fully recovered from today. We climbed up past kilometre after kilometre of olive trees and almond trees. There was an enormous amount of work that had taken place building stone walls and terraces. There were a few fields of vines as well. At one place there was a golf resort and at the end of it there was a veggie garden.

We passed an amazing old village Tivissa, and just before lunch we crossed the Rio Ebro river. At lunch there was an ant hill just near the lunch truck, and after a few crumbs of food were dropped it was like a highway – streams of ants going both ways carrying crumbs, sometimes 8 or 9 ants were working together underneath the crumb, and you could just see moving pieces of bread and not the ants.

Amazing town called Tivissa

Today we climbed up 1,436 metres and went down 983. I had my photo taken at the summit of the Coll de Fatxes at 507 metres. In the picture you can’t really see that I’m leaning against the pole recovering. Just before the camp, having just climbed up a hill that seemed to go on and on and on, we got to a plateau and rode along with a beautiful backdrop of mountains with fields of new vines in front, it was very pretty.

At the top of Coll de Fatxes – 507 metres

When we got to the camp, YAY a pool! And no ID rigmarole! And open until late! I had a great swim with the best view I have ever had in a pool.

Across from the camp site

Day 53: Cannes to Aups – 101k

4,220km down: 2,005km to go

We set off in the convoy just before 7am this morning, the weather was not too hot to start with. At the end of the convoy we had a reasonable climb which certainly woke my legs up. There were some really pretty bays with some interesting rock red formations. There was even a bay called Miramar!

The first two hours of riding was peaceful and relaxed, through small villages and along the seaside etc. We stopped for coffee and a croissant and then about 10k later the flag took us onto a crazy busy highway. We had a traffic policeman shouting something at us, we thought we must have got onto a motorway (the day when we were going into Cannes we took a wrong turn and ended up heading up a motorway on-ramp before a policeman spotted us and turned us around) but turned out he just wanted to warn us there was an oversize load coming. Luckily we had pulled off the road and were discussing what he may have been telling us, because certainly we had no idea what he had said.

Crikey going into the crazy intersections definitely got the heart rate up, thankfully after half an hour most of the traffic turned onto the motorway toll road! The turns and directions and getting more challenging by the day, today the roads we needed to follow were D6908, D559, D928, D07, D1555, D557, D60. As well as this we climbed 1,114 metres (and went down 644).

We did really well with the directions until about 75k when we missed a flag down the bottom of a steep hill – I was concentrating on cornering. We did not realize for about 15k that we had missed it, until we came to a town that was not on our list and had no flags. I was not keen to go back 15k and then we saw a sign to Aups 10k, so we decided to keep going as that was the town we were going to, and we figured we could find the camp once we got to town. So we only ended up doing an extra 4 k 🙂

The camp – once again – has no toilet paper or soap, it but does have Wifi and a bar – you can’t have everything, including shampoo which I had left at the hotel in Cannes 😦 So I had to wash my hair with soap. I have to say I actually felt pretty good afterwards. I stayed up until about 10pm in the hope of sleeping better; at least the camp site is pretty quiet, not filled with Italian families well rested from a siesta.

Day 41: Ozeljan to San Stino – 112k

3,334km down: 2,891km to go

Today started off reasonably cool but was blazing hot by the end of the ride – 38 degrees. We had a small hill at the start and then it was downhill to the border of Italy – only 7.5k from our camp. It was very exciting, as I have always wanted to come to Italy, and now I am here 🙂

Once again it was an open border, but least it was clear where the border was, and there was a sign so we could take photos.

Italia – I’m here!

There was an interesting town called Palmanova that you have to go through an arch to get in and out of, and the town is set out in the shape of a star. We stopped there for coffee and to have a look around.

The ride today had villages interspersed with long stretches of farm land and a bit of forest. The villages are still really pretty, but not nearly as many window boxes.

One of our instructions today was missing but luckily the first truck spotted this on its way to the next stop before any of us got to it, and they covered the turn with flags so it could not be missed.

After lunch there was a really long hot stretch of highway about 20k long, with a very slight up gradient, plus favorable wind (behind us). I should have been flying along it but my legs must have been tired from yesterday, even though they weren’t sore, and it was hard work.  I stopped for a cold drink thinking we had about 8k to go, but then 1k up the road we saw the flag to the place we are staying – Casa Mia. Yay, with the heat and tired legs today was certainly the day to have the kilometres wrong in our favour.

I have to say the tour guys come up with a range of places, last night was more the traditional sort of camp with a reception, ablution and cooking block, tenting area, cabins (well, bed boxes is what they were really called, and it was a good description). Today there is a house, no reception, two showers like in a guest house, and the campsite looks like a back yard, with a small kitchen for campers like a kitchen in a house.

There are rooms available – one with 1 bed, and one with 4 beds. I grabbed the one bedroom. The lady who owns the house sleeps every day from 1pm to 4pm. So she put me in charge of rooms for any of the riders who came later and wanted one.

Tonight is the last night camping for a number of the riders. Tomorrow we bike 60k then we catch a water taxi to Venice to our hotel. We are having a farewell dinner and then for them it’s all over. We move hotels the next morning to be closer to where we ride from Venice.

I am looking forward to the chance to get into Venice and look around. We have two rest days so I should see a bit of it.

Leaving the tour in Venice:
Gen – is meeting her boyfriend and looking around for a week
Rob – going to Florence for two nights then home
Daphne – meeting her husband who is Italian and staying here to visit with family for  a couple of weeks
Shirley – staying with Daphne in Italy for a week
Walli – staying one night then home
Brian – going home, he is stopping in London to see his granddaughter on the way
Louise and Gareth – going home
Plus Ciran one of the tour guys is leaving. He has done a fantastic job fixing all sorts of problems with the bikes.

We are getting a new rider on the 29^th of August. Danya’s dad is going to join the tour for a couple of weeks. If he is anywhere as nice as his daughter he will be great addition to our group.

The place we are staying tonight has a small hall with a stage. Dayna, Jan and I think that as it is the last night this could be the night for Tour de Africa (TDA) Idol Contest, so we are trying to enlist other riders to participate! So far we have had a mixed reception and have plenty of slots left. We will do another recruitment drive after they have had a beer and/or a wine or two!

Day 24: Bobolice to Krakow – 91k

2,148km down: 4,077km to go.

Great, we thought, 91k today – easy. Also it was 10k less than we had originally thought! So I set off with a positive attitude even with legs that were not at all cooperative. I was pleased that I had not made the effort to go the extra couple of kilometres to Mirror Castle last night as our route took us right by it.

The positive attitude lasted about 5k, until we met our first hill, and then it was hills for the next 65k. We climbed up, then down and then up again. Some of the hills were like Makara, some like Tawa to Johnsonville, and one sharp but short one that I was not sure I would get up, and was also sure I would not be able to get out of my cleats either – thankfully I made it. I am pleased it was not as hot as the first day of this section, it was not raining either, it was just grinding it out.

One of the games I play with myself when riding and I get tired, and it is coming into lunch or the end of the day, is measuring out the distance to go and comparing it to known distances at home, like 15k to go that’s just Johnsonville to home you can do that, 10k is from Tawa to home etc. 50k is into work and back, and then I imagine where on the trip I would be. If that is not working I play the game I used to do when I was running – count slowly to 1,000 and if I want to stop at 1,000 I can. I find with cycling – the same with running – that by the time you get to 1,000 you are up that hill or finished that stretch and can keep going.

Just before lunch I was grinding my way to the top of a tough hill and I was huffing and puffing, and a local man was smiling and gesturing and telling me something. I was not sure what but it turned out that we then had a great 4k downhill ride to the lunch stop, in really interesting countryside (place called Ojcowie, it had a castle/ church) and interesting rock formations. I could almost see it as a setting for a Peter Jackson movie. I got to lunch with only four riders behind me but was feeling a lot better for having taken it slowly. We asked Ciran if he knew what the remaining 25k was like, he assured us it was all downhill and said every other rider had asked him the same thing.

Well it was stunning countryside, because it is a national reserve park. People with houses can drive their cars on the part we were on after lunch. There were more amazing rock formations plus a fantastic wooden church built over the river. Kaplica w Ojcowlie: The chapel of St Joseph the Craftsman otherwise known as the chapel on water. The reason it had been built over the river is the Tsar had said no new buildings were to be built on the land, so they built it on the river instead!

Church on a river (photo from Wikimedia)

After we left the reserve we were back on Highway 794 and it was busy! Getting into the city and dodging the traffic was a mission but we made it ok. Some helpful soul had removed a couple of orange flags and we had misunderstood one instruction but we figured it out and it only caused a slight delay.

The hotel is Hotel Polonia, it is quite nice, a bit boutique like and old fashioned antique type furniture, high ceilings etc. I am back to the narrow single bed but beats a tent and the bugs can’t get me.

First on the list – as always – find the Laundromat. Good news is that Krakow has one! Armed with instructions Walli and I set off, it took awhile to find as we were looking on the wrong side of the street. Unbelievable when we got there, there was no wait, the staff were nice, and there was an outside bar and an inside bar where you could get a beer. Jan and Danya were also there, but nearly finished. We chatted to them for awhile until they left. While we were there we managed to drink two beers which turned out to be a bad idea sitting in the sun and feeling wary. Walli had wanted me to come out with her and some friends that were meeting her and staying for our rest days. Sadly I was not up for it, I was only interested in a quick bite to eat and bed. I bumped into Michele on the way back to the hotel, he had the same idea so we headed to the enormous mall complex around the corner and had a Panini. I was back at the hotel and toes up by 9pm.

Day 23: Smardzewice to Bobolice – 145k

2,057km down: 4,168km to go.

My legs were quite weary today and never really got going well. The morning was much cooler than the day before – only 26 degrees. Once again we set off early to get some riding in before it got too hot. Daphne is still not well so I was riding with Shirley. Lucky for her I was with her as the turn at about 60k was not in our daily notes and Shirley would have totally missed it. I saw the flags, phew. Scott – who is always first – went past it head-down thinking “20k before the next turn” and added 42k to his day. I would have been looking for a taxi!

Although my legs were weary the morning was not too taxing. This resulted in David and Walli deciding to do the whole stretch – they are usually regulars in the truck back to camp after lunch. What no one had told us was the were some significant hills after lunch. Not as bad as Makara but equivalent to the hill up to Johnsonville or the Ngaio Gorge! Shirley is much better at hills than me, although I can go faster than her on the flat. What this means unfortunately is I wait for her on the flats and she drops me on the hills. Anyway, I did not see her again until 20k out from camp!

Half way up a very long hill it levelled out, and I spied a sheltered bus shelter so I went in and had a wee rest on the bench, then headed out there and at it again. At the top of what turned out to be the final significant hill of the day there was a turn to the right which I went past without having a good look at. There was then a great downhill for about 3k. I was halfway down the hill before I thought “Shit! I hope I was not meant to turn back there!”. I kept going, having decided that if I had gone the wrong way there was no way I was going to go back up the hill, I would get to the town, have a beer and find out if there was a taxi service. Failing that I would ring the tour guys and beg. Thankfully coming into town I saw the orange flag at a turn, yay. After that it was 10k mostly downhill to camp.

Once again I managed to get a room shared with Walli, so no camping this stretch. The bugs only get the time I am outside for the riders meeting and during meals to get me. Mind you I guess it is payback as I ride with my mouth open and a few bugs have been harmed on this trip (probably one of my main sources of protein!).

Anyway after dinner I decided I should walk up the road and see the castles, but I only looked at Royal Castle Bobolice not Mirror Castle a couple of kilometres away. Royal Castle Bobolice was in a state of disrepair but has been renovated. The outstanding aspect is it is built on a huge rock. There was an underground tunnnel linking it Mirror Castle but this is shut and Mirror Castle is in a state of disrepair.

Royal Castle of Bobolice (photo from Wikipedia)

Day 22: Warsaw to Smardzewice – 145k

1,912km down: 4,313km to go.

We set off at 7am to avoid the traffic out of Warsaw, it also helped that it was a Sunday. The biggest hazard on the road on the early part of the day was people going to church, walking three across along the road. 98% of the population are Roman Catholic and there are a lot of churches so lots of opportunity for meandering church goers. I was riding initially with Shirley and John, as Daphne was still not well. It was really, really hot today even when we got out of the hotel at 7am. We stopped for a drink after a couple of hours and I bought a bottle of cold water and tipped it over my head! Lunch was at 75k, another bottle of water over the head. It was so hot that I did not really want to eat but had a sandwich, but did not make a takeaway one (silly me).

After lunch it was hotter, and uphill. My bike was sounding so loud people were turning around to look! I had chatted with Ciran who looks after the bikes (during day he alternates the lunch truck with riding sweep) and he said it was not doing any damage. It seemed a really, really, really, really, long way today, I was really pleased to get to camp! I will have to get used to riding in the heat as it is just going to get hotter and hotter as we head south. It was so hot today that I have a heat rash on the front of my legs, at least that’s what I figure it is as it is not itchy, but I covered it in chamois cream after the shower as well.

Everyone else is tenting tonight, but Walli and I have got a room – at a cost of $15 NZ. I want to give the bug bites a good chance to heal before taking on new ones. Also because of the heat we are leaving at 7am again tomorrow, so it is much easier to get dressed and apply the many lotions in a room, and not have to pack up the tent etc.

Miles has rejoined us and his arm looks much better, it is nearly healed. Danya and Yarn had a great time in Warsaw with Yarn’s relatives. Danya can only speak about 10 Polish words. The Grandad came to our hotel a couple of times and seemed a very nice man. Danya said she was amazed at his energy and he nearly walked them off their feet yesterday. She thought he maybe taking it easy today but no he had a full itinerary planned once he said goodbye to them at the hotel (he came this morning about 6:30am to see them off). Danya’s injuries are healing well. Talking about injuries, I managed to get my daily accident over and done with before 6:30am today by walking the wrong way into the revolving door at the hotel.

Ciran has now fixed my bike, so it should be easier to ride and a lot more peaceful tomorrow. We have bike shop at 4:30pm every day and we are meant to help work on our bikes however when I offered to help Ciran said it would be easier for him to do it by himself and told me to go and have a rest. I’m sure that this was not influenced at all by me having taken my speedometer to him for the first 10 days every morning for him to set. I don’t know what I was doing wrong but it just would not set for me. I don’t have this problem with my one on my other bike. He had to turn it off and restart it each time. I have it sorted now! It could also have been influenced by my question “What is the bottom bracket?” when I was told it was loose.

Anyway I got to have a shower, do my washing and sort stuff while my bike was being fixed. I bought him beer and we were both happy. Not only did my bike have a problem with the bottom bracket, but also the head set and the front hub! Must be all the dirt and bone shaking roads we have been on.

Day 16: Vilnius to Seirijai – 132k

1,366km down: 4,859km to go.

We set off from the hotel in a convoy for 11.5k to get out of town. We got about 5k and Dan got a flat, we were then held up by road works, then Rodney got a flat. All in all the 11.5 k took about 2 hours!

I rode by myself for about 5k then caught up with John. It was a beautiful day, the sort of day I had imagined when thinking about this trip.  When I caught up with John he said that his eye was sore but I didn’t have any drops and he declined Saline. After 15k he could hardly see so we pulled over. Daphne and Shirley came past and Shirley had drops (crikey the stuff she has in her bag – I expect to see the kitchen sink), unfortunately it did not help. We rang the truck and they said pick up would be an hour so John decided to keep riding slowly, although we tried to talk him out of it. I rode off with him but luckily the others had rung the lunch truck, which was only 20 k away. That arrived and picked him up just a kilometre after we had left, so luckily the other riders rang the lunch stop and insisted.

Later I missed a really well flagged turn and added 8k to my ride but luckily I figured it out and did not go any further.  After lunch I rode by myself for about 20k then rode with Dan, Michele and Brian. We stopped for a drink stop at 105k and Jules caught up. We rode off in a convoy, and at 110k Jules and I missed the lights so we rode the rest of the way together.

From lunch onwards it was pretty much uphill for the rest of the day, mostly not too steep but certainly I was very happy to get to camp, even though I suspected the only downhill of the day – the 5 k into camp – would have to be ridden as uphill in the morning when we left.

Other than two others, we were the only campers at the campsite. It had a great lake, I went for a swim, most of the other campers did not, they said it was too cold. It was warmer than any New Zealand lake! I was toes up in bed by 8:30 pm.

Day 10: Mazsalaca to Riga – 95k

889km down: 5,336km to go.

Good news is the weather is fine, bad news is the day once again started with a dirt road for 6k. My tyres handle it better than Daphne and Shirley as they have a light touring bike and much thinner tyres (also means their bike rides faster on the Tarmac than mine but as not as robust off track).

After the dirt road it was a gentle climb through farmland and a few small little towns. We stopped for coffee and to see a Latvian bike museum. At one stage there were six bike factories in Latvia alone. There were all sorts of bikes – I have taken some photos, one worked on rail tracks, one had a basket out the front large enough to do the weekly shopping.

The lady who runs the camp we stayed at last night was telling us that there is lot of unemployment in Latvia. In Estonia when the Soviet Union dissolved the Estonians kept all the industries going but the Latvians didn’t. A lot of the young people are leaving the country to find work. Added to this, business is bad for the tourist industry, locals have no money as the summer is very bad: windy with lots of rain so tourists are not coming to the camp grounds (apart from us crazy bike riders).

The second part of the ride today straight after lunch was a bit of struggle, I had tired legs but came right after about an hour. 5k out of Riga our friend the rain returned to join his best friend the wind, but we were happy knowing only a few kilometres separated us from a soft bed, a warm shower and a rest day.

Unfortunately today I had my first spill off the bike. Michele and I had stopped at a kerb to let a tram go past and we started across the road together, but for some reason Michele decided to jump up onto the next kerb directly in front of me. Bang, down I went. I can not see why anyone would ride a bike without a helmet – I could hear and feel the whack as the helmet hit the road. Thankfully only minor injuries to me – sore elbow, neck and collarbone, the bike is unscathed. I was a bit shaken but got back up and rode on to the hotel (keeping a considerable distance from Michele).

I have added this to my list of other injuries:
1. Numerous blisters from St Petersburg – one of which is still on my heel
2. In the drying room at the camp I had gone in and shut the door but when I went to go out someone had opened it and I did not see it through the hanging tents and walked into the door and smacked my forehead
3. Sitting at dinner on a bench/beam, I was sitting on one end and Dan was sitting on the other (he is quite a large man) he suddenly got up and the beam upended with me on it – I hurt my left palm (which is of course right where I rest it on the hood when riding)
4. And to top it all off I was sitting at dinner minding my own business when a wasp for no reason flew up, stung me on the top of my right foot, and flew off. This was when I discovered I do not have antihistamine cream or tablets – they are now on my list to buy today!
Apart from that it is just the usual aches and pains of continuous riding, which will improve as I become accustomed to it.

On a positive note:
• There have been no serious injuries with anyone
• There has only been one puncture within the whole group
• The riding so far – and for the next week – has been mostly flat
• And I am on holiday – even on the wet miserable day I was still happy to be here on tour!

So after my spill, I got to the hotel, it was a very nice one:

Maritim Park Hotel Riga

The first stop after a shower was the laundry to wash the no doubt very smelly bike clothes. However the hotel was not able to tell us where to find a laundry (language barrier) but Jenny googled it and found one so we (Jenny, her dad Rob and I) hopped into a taxi and off we went. We found it ok but it was going to be two hours to get washed and dried, but the lady said we could come back and pick it up, she would transfer it from the washing machine to dryer for us – what a change from the lady in Tallinn!

While we were waiting we decided to go and have some tea – no one else seems to use the word tea for dinner and I have confused a few people and myself with their responses as you can imagine:
Kaye: Do you want to go and get some tea?
Fellow bike rider: I don’t drink tea
Kaye: No I mean eat tea
Fellow bike rider: You eat tea?
Anyway, I managed to communicate myself well enough that we had dinner and a drink at the alehouse across the road. I have been trying different beers as I go through the different countries. Yesterday I had a Flying Dog Brewery: Double Dog Double Pale Ale. It was ok, would not make it my usual. I was intrigued by the Flying Dog: Raging Bitch but did not try in the end as my first beer was 11.5% and had already had a reviving beer at the hotel before we set out. The meal was great – salmon steak with white wine sauce, portobello mushrooms cream, bouillon, leek, rice with spinach, olive and greens – it was really nice.

Plus – and it’s really sad just how excited I am about this – I finally found snap lock bags!! Big ones, small ones and middle sized ones!! Or should I say allzweckbeutel bags. Yay I now own about 100, ha just smiled again with the joy of it, sad person aren’t I? It is amazing the things you treasure and miss. Luxury becomes an inside toilet, dry clothes, and in my case – snap lock bags. For those of you curious what I want them for, in particular it’s to put the phone, camera, and now of course the iPad, in for protection, plus they are very useful to make and put an extra sandwich in at lunch time in case you need it later.

We got back to the hotel at 7:45pm, just in time for the 8 pm massage I had booked to help with the aches and injuries – it was very relaxing, I came upstairs and feel straight asleep.

I woke up at five am this morning, once again really pleased that I have my own room so I can potter around without worrying about disturbing anyone.

Today I am going off to do the touristy thing again, I am off to the old city to see the old town, looking in particular for:
– Riga central market
– The black heads house
– National opera house
– Dome cathedral
Plus I will do another bus trip around the sites. And new to the list: to hunt out antihistamine cream and tablets. Plus if I can find a post office, I will get some post cards.

Day Four: Saka to Kasmu – Full Blog

366km down: 5,859km to go.

Unlike when I got to Russia my phone did not automatically reset when we got to Estonia but I did not realize this. Walli had not bought an alarm so I told her that I would wake her up at 6 – so unfortunately the next morning I woke her up at what I thought was 6 but it was actually 5!

Our first night of camping last night, at Lainela Camp – it was also the first night of rain, but I managed to stay dry. Thankfully the rain had stopped in the morning, we packed the tent and gear and set off. The day was a bit overcast and quite mild. Some of the riders complained about the wind but to a Wellingtonian it was just a mild breeze. The first 20k was on a dirt road, we slipped and slid over this. My legs just did not want to bike ride after the gravel we turned onto the highway for 5k which was a bit of a worry with the really large trucks, however we quickly turned off onto country roads again. I was really struggling to keep up with up with Daphne and Shirley and convinced them to go on without me. Nothing worse than feeling like you are holding people back and they are not enjoying riding. I caught them up just before lunch as they had stopped. At this point I was seriously doubting my ability to complete the ride. I set off from the lunch stop before them, thinking they would soon catch up with (and then overtake) me but suddenly my legs had come right and I ended up catching up with the group in front.

We rode the rest of the day through woods – kilometre after kilometre, with the occasional scattering of quaint little houses. It would not have been surprising to see Hansel and Gretel walking through the woods or Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. At one stage going through the woods we came to a clearing and it was right by the sea, there were heaps of boulders and hundreds of white swans sitting on them.

So many swans!

The gradient was a gradual downhill the rest of the day with a glorious downhill at the end (thankfully did not have to climb back up this the next day, which I thought we might as it was just before the camp, but the road carried on past the camp). When we got to the camp we were able to rent a bunk room each instead of having to tent. This gave us the added bonus of being able to dry our tents out in our rooms.

Food so far:

Breakfast
Muesli or porridge with or without banana, dark rye bread with spreads tea or coffee (have started drinking coffee instead of tea first thing in the morning as the tea water is always lukewarm).

Lunch
Sandwiches, spreads, cheese, meat, tuna, fruit

Dinner
Fresh salmon steaks with noodles and salad
Chicken thighs charred and simmered with rice, celery root, cabbage and carrot stir fry.