One Mile Up

So tough to leave the city at a decent hour starting a new leg of our riding what with newspapaers to read, cooked breakfasts to hoover down, and great foaming cups of expresso to quaf. And then there is the stocking up of food for the next days in the desert - dried sausages, rolls of crackers, cans of anchovies (for lunches), tube of barbeque sauce, maccaroni, tomato sauce, and a tetra brick of vino tinto. And oh ya 8 liters of water each.


Finally left La Rioja at 12:30 pm riding west into the abruptly rising scub covered hills. Followed a winding paved road shouldering a stream trickling down from the nearby mountian lake. Yet another hot cloudless day and siesta was in full form (not a person to be seen til 6 pm) but interesting pedaling past summer homes of the rich and the numerous camping areas - many of the camping areas are only open during the day and have pools and picnic areas. I would hate to live near one of these camp sites though as there is always the ubiqitous "drum and disco whistle" dance music blaring from huge truck mounted loud speakers - yet no one, not even the older folk, seem to mind or maybe they dare not ask them to shut the fuck up.

Continued the rest of the day climbing into the mountains, wow what a grunt. This was the first day of big hills. Started at 500 meters in La Rioja and by late sfternoon after numerous long hills and uphill switchbacks we thought we had reached the top at 1400 meters. But after a nice cruise down a long hill and then around a big corner the sharp dusty cuts on the otherwise green mountians in the distance revealed our next nasty looking ascent. Spirits and legs weary by the thought of the next hill we found a little dirt floored house with a scouling faced seniora that sold beer and water (old picture of Juan & Evita Peron above the beer fridge). We were tempted to have a Salta beer and call it a day but didn´t see any promising camp areas so we decided to buy mre water and trudge on uphill to make the next day easier. After another 3 hours of up and at 1700 meters we set up camp in the cactus and thorn tree brush - still not at the top. Sun was going down, full moon was rising, and I ready for some rest.
















It is russian roulette rolling the bikes into the bush to camp - so many thorns everywhere - it´s hit and miss whether you get a flat or not. Already had 5 flats so far from thorns and starting to run low on patches. And what about that dead turantula spider and the snake that we saw on the road today- what other surprises await in the brush.

Set up the tents, set up my shortwave radio with the 30ft antena to listen to the BBC (actually got a bit of a RCI broadcast but changed the channel as they were talking election), and chopped up a nice meal of meat and crackers - a bit of boxed wine and wow I slept well.