Distance: 84.46 km
Ride time: 6:09:42
Average: 13.73 km/h
Total: 22960 km
When I met Michael, the other Danish cyclist, he told me he enjoyed listening to podcasts on his phone. So far I have enjoyed a bit of music or radio once in a while, but I have also been riding a lot without my headphones. Now I have realized that there is a great deal of interesting stuff to download – in fact the first hours today seemed to fly by as I was listening to some interesting radio programs about Myanmar.
The views are still beautiful with green mountains and blue lakes, but after a couple of weeks of this, it all seems more normal now. The towns at this part of Carretera Austral are about 70 kilometers a part. In La Junta the gas station provided bread, some sweets, a cup of coffee, and perhaps most importantly the chance to be inside for a few hours.
I continue to meet four or five cyclists every day. From them I can follow the progress of Michael who now seems to be about two days ahead. From the cyclists you can also get an update of the challenges ahead. I knew that I was about to hit a 80 km section with road works. If a dirt road is not bad enough in itself, it becomes even worse when they start to dig it up. Several cyclists had hitched a ride over the section, but with my mountain bike I thought I would be able to make it.
The thing about a bad road is not so much that it is hard to ride (you just go slower), but the fact that it will sooner or later break the bike. Several times today I felt that I might as well jump up and down on the bike as continue to ride – the result would be about the same.
There were also a couple of 45 minute breaks included as cars, busses and cyclists had to wait for the road workers to clear a section. Always a good chance to dry the tent as the sun was now shining.
At the end of the day both I and the bike seemed to have survived the ride. Finding a wild camp spot was easy. A good thing as I needed to be well rested for more of the same tomorrow.
