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Published: November 9th 2009
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Not a happy Tom
At the Hotel in Las Grutas Well here we are in Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic coast. we left Ing Jacobaci two days ago and went to Las Grutas, but not without a bit of drama, about 5km out of town we came apon Tom at the top of a hill overlooking Las Grutas, I assumed he was taking a photo of the panoramic view that confronted us, BUT he never had a hand on his head, so we went back to make sure he was OK. HE WAS NOT !! The rear chain had parted company at around 100 kms an hour and had completely destroyed the rear underside of the poor KLR, he was lucky that it never came forward and hit his leg, and that it never jammed up the rear wheel…. what a big BUGGER!
We left Tom admiring the view and went down town to our hotel, unloaded all the tyres off the truck, and Gerardo and I went back and picked up Tom and the KLR.
Gerardo made some enquiries around town, as it was Saturday evening here and everything will shut down on Sunday, we had to work fast if we were going to get the moto on the road
Puerto Lobos
Somewhat run down, no lunch here. the next day.
Luckily I had bought a new chain for Gerardo’s BMW, but it was too long, so we found a fellow who could grind off the extra links to shorten the chain.
Now the problem was that we had spare links, but could not fit them. This fellow was resourceful enough to take another joining link out of the BMW chain and make that work. After raiding an ATM to pay him we got back to our Hotel and the boys had kindly left us some Pizza for dinner and it was goodnight from me.
The next day we made our way down the coast to Puerto Madryn, many of the guys went looking for some unsealed roads on the way. We were late away as the boys were watching the Moto GP, but once Stoner dropped his moto and was out of the race, they lost interest and decided to ride South.
We all had lunch at various places and different times in Sierra Grande.
We were the last to leave in the truck and nobody stuck to the route sheet (missed the turn off) and went the 22 km to the coast, and Puerto Lobos
Puerto Lobos
The end of the road and the 80 km of brilliant unsealed road. I think Mike V was the only one who saw the turn off to Puerto Lobos, but was short on gas, so decided on a sealed route.
We have two nights here in Puerto Madryn, and today was to be whale watching day, but the bloody Patagonia wind is blowing seven barstards here today and cold with it. So we had a maintenance morning, and made more repairs to the KLR, fitting new sprockets, air filters etc.
We had hoped that the wind would abate in the afternoon, it is now 3.00pm and nothing has changed, so Gerardo, Bones and Tom have taken the truck along the coast, hoping to see a whale or two from the shore.
They will come back to the hotel via the Supermacardo, with meat and provisions for a Chilean/Argentine/Kiwi BBQ here at the hotel.
Tomorrow we head further South to Caleta Olivia.
Here is another blog from Bones…
Continuing on from Las Grutas (I will leave the technical, blokey stuff to others - suffice to say we had pizzas delivered to our hotel where we commandeered the dining room/bar for the evening,
Ruta 1
At the start of Ruta 1 while Gerardo, Rosco and Tom sourced and supervised the repair of Tom’s chain - we did save some Pizza for them - just!) Zane was awarded The Medal for actually being First One to the Destination - something he never previously aspired to!
A somewhat restless night for some - Tom reported that he was up at 4am. and went for a walk on the beach, encountered some birds (they were actually parrots I think). The Moto GP in Malaysia viewed live was the excuse for a late checkout, but as Casey Stoner came off during the warm up lap, the whole thing was deemed boring, (more likely the heads had cleared from the previous night’s consumption of vino) and the team hit the road before the race ended (RRRA obviously had more appeal!)
By the time we (the chase truck, which has accumulated a thick coating of dust any adventurer would be proud of!) left our seaside abode, the trail was cold until we stopped at a police check for declaration of carne and fruitas. The officer spoke English and after a cursory look in the back and us explaining that we were following the motos, he
Flamingos
Flamingos at Puerto Lobos told us that all had passed through - much relief, as we were contemplating retracing our steps to Las Grutus. Sometimes a crystal ball would be a good thing! It doesn’t matter how many cellphones the group has if there is no signal!
We are now officially in Patagonia, albeit at the Northern part, but the long straight roads are becoming the norm (we noted the first corner of the day at 110kms!) At our fuel stop (for us and the truck) we saw Gerardo, Tom and David cruise past, and minutes later, 5 more motos were spotted meandering around the gas stations. As we headed out of town, Rosco picked a hill with a long run up to video the ‘boys’ as they came from Sierra Grande. Put up the NZ flag on the truck, and waited, and waited, and waited……….. Finally they appeared from a side road, obviously exploring as many alternative routes as possible. Caught them though! Sweeping along, we turned off towards the coast for Puerto Lobos and 100kms of dusty gravel road (just what Barry would like every day) only to find that there were no moto tracks ahead of us! Where could they
Ruta 1
Dead straight for 80 km's be? They wouldn’t miss the turnoff, surely? David even had the GPS coordinates.
Anyhow, we continued, along another 80kms of straight horizon reaching road (where we saw a small squadron of bright pink flamingos practising close formation flying against the deep blue sea - amazing sight) then a LEFT HAND corner, another 20km of potholes, dust and bone rattling cattle stops, before rejoining the main Ruta 3 to Puerto Madryn.
After several passes of the waterfront of this sizeable port, amongst the throngs of Sunday day trippers we finally found our destination - beautiful home style apartments, more like a European hotel than the ecclectic accommodation we are becoming used to….)
Rosco and Gerardo were eventually jointly awarded The Medal, as they had changed the hotel and the name on the Day Sheet, but NOT the instructions on how to get there!
One way to see a town - going round and round in circles! (But it is amazing how Gerardo seems to pop up just when you need him!) I must add that I was a contender for The Medal for being the only one seeing the turnoff to Perto Lobos (Mike will argue that he saw it,
Baldrick at lunch
He is a fashion Icon over here ??? but didn’t think he had enough fuel to do it - what???)
Anyway, later we all roamed the streets, ate well, added to the sticker collections (legitimate purchases as they don’t take up much room, esp. when plastered to your moto!) and fell into bed well done with the day………………..
As we have two nights in Puerto Madryn, there is an opportunity for whale watching, but the winds are too high for the excursion boats to go out (the Navy has to issue permits each day) so there is much moto maintenance going on this morning. This is all happening alongside a murky swimming pool - it would be tempting to wash the motos here!
Maybe after this afternoon……..there is the Peninsula Valdes to explore, where sealions, penguins and sea elephants reside.
We are having a parilla (BBQ) tonight (there is an outside room built especially for this purpose - too good to pass up! Yours truly has been given the chore of salads - lead me to a good deli, Gerardo!) I guess it’s the least I can do, I am keeping well away from the maintenance department!
Hasta luego - Bones
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Vanessa Sorenson
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Looks like you are having a blast
Great to see you on the trip Bones, its great getting these updates. love to you guys