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Published: November 21st 2005
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My Friend the gnome.
I was tempted to put this guy on the back of my bike and head off with him ... problem was he was taller than me. I´m all alone again, it just feels real strange to be cycling alone again ... Maybe you have to run that through your head to the song ¨I´m on the road again, I just can´t wait to get back out on that road again¨ ... or maybe I should just have brought my iPod along and spared Chrisite my spontaneous outbursts of song such as ¨It´s a wonderful day today, whatever I´m gonna go, I´d like to be doing it with you¨ (this is a particularly good one to sing as you get to the bottom of the first long steep hill on a cold wet day to see what sort of response you get). tee hee.
In fact today was a wonderful day. I had somewhere between 75 and 115kms to cover (depending on which map you believed) and so was expecting a fairly long day on the bike. By 9am I was packed and on the road having arranged to meet Christie at 4pm in front of the Cathedral in Bariloche. Now where´s the nearest bakery ... ah there it is. Objective one completed. Time for second breakfasts as the hobbits would say.
The first thing to
Lake Views
I reckon my gnome friend would have enjoyed these views. greet me as I left El Cruce was a wonderful, beautiful, fantastic road sign that told me it was only 84kms to Bariloche ... My spirits were immediately lifted.
Then came the tailwinds ... we´re talking tailwinds that could blow you up a decent gradient without needing to turn a single pedal. I flew the 65 kilometres down the lake in about 3 hours flat which is bloody good time on a fully laden mountain bike with 2.15inch knobbly tyres. I topped out at 70km/hr going down one hill, and in one flat section of road I managed to travel 3.6kms at 34km an hour without having to pedal once. This was my type of cycling ... and Christie was missing it all. 😞
Sure there were a few hills that I had to grind up, and one or two sections where I had to pedal into the wind (very poor road design I say) but all in all it was a glorious ride where I could just sit back and enjoy the views of the wind whipping the lake into a fury on my right and the mountains and streams on my left.
The price to
Yellow flowers everywhere
These yellow flowers lined the road for kilometer after kilometer. be paid for this was that I had to cycle the 21km back up the other side of the lake ... It took two hours to cycle this last bit. If I knew a word that rhymed with pluck and meant I was really not very happy with that wind, I´d say it.
Actually it wasn´t too bad at all, I had plenty of time to prepare myself for the wind and it wasn´t that far to go. It´s just a dispiriting feeling to be cycling along on a flat road, using every ounce of my strength and only travelling at 9 or 10km an hour ... I can run faster than that. I´m sure there´s many a sage cyclist who will tell me that this is only a taste of the Patagonian headwinds to come. Great.
Did I mention that Christie´s bus ticket (incuding bike and all luggage) was only 9 Pesos ($A4.50) ... might be I´ll be catching a few more buses whenever I need to head West. I love that saying ¨It´s the moments, not the miles you should be counting.¨. Why kill myself cycling miles into the wind when I can just enjoy the
moment on a nice air conditioned bus?
I ended up making it to the Cathedral by 2pm, so spent a couple of hours reading my book, trying to find dry spots out of the rain (which started as soon as I reached Bariloche) and wandering the streets in vain hoping that I´d stumble across Christie somewhere along the way. I did stumble across several pubs to be tried later, a bike shop to be visited tomorrow, and an all you can eat buffet which looks the go for tonight, but no Christie. She did turn up on time (impressed!!!), it was only four blocks to our home for the next few days while her knee recovers (doubly impressed) and she´d already stocked the fridge with beer and the room with chocolate ... now you know why I love this girl so much!
Bariloche is the chocolate and beer capital of Argentina. You´ve gotta love those Swiss and German Immigrants. Our room has cable TV (you know that you´re TV deprived when you actually consider watching an episode of the OC simply because it's in English, and you think that ¨Robin Hood, Men in Tights¨is funny).
After tearing
myself away from my remote control, I discovered that the all you can eat buffet included wonderful salads (yay for Christie), sushi and Chinese .... lots and lots of spicy, sweet chinese ... I gorged myself switching between overflowing plates of chinese and sushi smothered in hot, hot wasabi ... Mmmmm it´s been so long since I´ve had rich foods. All of this was for the princely price of 18 pesos ($A9). What a perfect place to spend a few recover days in.
Loving it!
=====
Days Ride: Villa La Angostina to San Carlos De Bariloche
Distance: 88.6km, Total Distance: 473.8km
Weather: Mainly overcast, strong westerly wind, and infrequent showers
Mood: I love tailwinds, I love chinese, I´m as happy as a boy could be.
Route: All paved roads. Easy, undulating hills, great views. About 64km to junction at eastern end of lake, with excellent km markers all the way along. After that you get out on the highway for the last 21kms. Horrible. Narrow bitumen strip, with steep drop to wide, loose gravelly shoulder, lots of cars driving dangerously which when combined with strong headwinds and sidewinds meant I spent most of my time grinding along
Cathedral, Baraloche
OK, made it to the Cathedral. 2pm. the dirt section. There are some small roads running parallel to the main road that you can follow along in sections.
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