The alarm, yes the battle continues, breakfast is at 7.30 therefore we must set the alarm for 6.30 so that we are packed then have breakfast and are away by 8.00 – 8.30. Not going to happen as the alarm was promptly reset for 7.00! Did manage 7.00 and got the gear organised enough to be able to move reasonably smoothly. There is a problem with getting the gear completely packed before breakfast. If you put on a wool thermal top, wool base intermediate layer then a poly pro jacket plus the heavy duty leggings, Gortex inner and boots there is the distinct possibility that the occupant will expire during breakfast due to heat stroke! It is far better too wear the outdoor pants and thermal top and trekking shoes. The bag can’t be closed anyway as the toiletries bag containing the toothbrush has to be packed last, you can’t leave without clean teeth now can you! In the end leaving time ends up being around 9.00 – 9.30 no matter what. Ahhhh, the trials of the adventure rider!!
Just as we head off it begins to rain, great I think, the weather forecast was for rain over pretty much all of the eastern side of Argentina so it is going to be a very wet pair of boys at the end of the day. I really want to knock out 500 kilometres as this will leave around 400 for the next day to get into Mendoza. We did get a little lost leaving Zapala. Not as lost as one guy, he had rolled his truck. It lay on it’s roof with the trailer disconnected and on it’s side. The weather was very bad with mist and rain, it looked as though he had come into the corner too fast and lost control.
On the way we stopped for fuel and experienced a little hostility as unknowingly we pulled up behind the vehicles pulled up at the bowser. Unknowingly because it turned out we had jumped the queue. The pump attendant was gesticulating wildly and yelling at us, the yelling didn’t do much as we had our music playing. I got off the bike and walked over to him to find out what the problem was, he calmed down then explained that there was a line up that started on the street outside of the station. There was even an ancient sign indicating the starting point of the line. Due to the one way street system here in Argentina, even in the smallest of towns, we circled the block to get on the ever growing line. Finally we pulled up at the pump and the now happy attendant joked with us as he filled our tanks!!
Most of the day was spent on asphalt bar about 40km toward the end of the day. The hills we travelled through on the rippio were beautiful and would have really come to life if the sun had shone, they had amazing formations due to the ancient volcanic activity and the erosion that had occurred over the years. The colours of the hills were red, brown, white green, yellow. Through the mountains it was whiteout, with the visors of our helmets fogging on the inside and continually needing wiping on the outside. The speed was taken down to 20 kilometres an hour to ensure we would not end up over the side of the road or have an accident with the speeding on coming cars. Upon reaching Chos Malal we discovered we had reached the half way point of the road we were following from Torres del Paine to the Bolivian border, Ruta 40 – 5000 kilometres of emotion. We spent a little time taking the obligatory photos.
We finally reached the Rio Grande which ran through a canyon that had been eroded by the river itself. Finally I had found where I had taken a picture eight year before. As I rode up it dawned on me, the Rio Grande, the photo I couldn’t place, I recognised it instantly!! The whole area was volcanic, lots of old lava flow and large blocks of lava scattered for kilometres with old, large and small eroded volcanoes to be seen all around.
Not long after a photo taking session at the bridge over the Rio Grande we came upon an Estancia, it was late so I said to Paul that we should just ask if we could camp there. No problem $50 Argentinian pesos and we found ourselves setting up under some trees on a nicely swept section of dirt. As a matter of fact the gentleman that owned the estancia was still sweeping it as we pulled in, he was quickly getting it ready for us. The family was really nice and interested in us, the lady of the house helped me put my tent up while Paul disappeared to take photos of the sunset, fall over and get cow poo on his boots. The next morning was a similar result with poo on his shoe whilst taking sunrise photos!!. The young teenage daughter came out for a conversation and I was amazed how long we communicated for, she was learning English but was reluctant to use it, even with continual prompting. The conversation therefore ended up being with my very poor Espanol!. Just before night fell the dogs in a compound were at it and ended up getting knotted. Dinner once again consisted of pasta, sauce and Parmesan followed by a cup of tea and biscuits, hmmm could be a long trip!!!
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