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Published: February 14th 2008
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Flowers
The smell was lovely.... THE BLACK DOG GANG
Myself, Carl, Jose (from Spain) and his girlfriend Ulli (from Germany) set of from Cafeyate on a beautiful blue day as we cycled pass vineyards and rolling mountains running on either side of us. We stopped for a short dreak and were introduced to the delux temptation of ´Dulce de Leche´smeared on bread or on banana. Unfortunately it probably does not do your teeth any good (Sorry Jenny, Ian you´ll love it). It is a tub of spreadable caramel/toffee used in cakes and pastries. Basically it´s great to dip biscuits into, which was used on some of the long days we did....
Our first night we did a camp in the small Municiple of San Jose, it was here we decided to celebrate us meeting up again and the next part of our journey by opening the bottle of Domingo. This was especially appropriate as Jose´s last name is Domingo. We feasted on the typical camping food of pasta, olives, tomato´s, onions, cheese and bread. Fantastic.
We made our way over the pampa along the famous Ruta 40 that runs from northern to southern Argentina along the mountains and through the desert. As we
reached the top of the rise the famous wind greeted us again and Ulli stated that they had been lucky and had a lot of tail-winds over their trip. Tail wind we exclaimed.... Where??? Unfortunately for Ulli it was the start of 2 weeks of head-wind for them and it evidently became mine & Carls fault because us English love the wind and it was since they had met us they had come across it....
We came across another of our old friends ´the track´, which we would do as much in Argentina as we did in either Peru or Bolivia. The pampa finally decended and we joined the river valley to Belen. As we were 5 miles from the town we came across a Hector and his son (who is the Argentinian track champion) out training. Thankfully with Jose & Ulli speaking Spanish we got talking and were invited to come and stay with his family for a couple of days. What a couple of days we had with the family as we were made at home and fed so well that it took me a week for the body to recover... The boys had the tools and
First Tea
The first tea´s of many. (We had to explain that northners call dinner tea-time) equipment to attend to the bikes and myself and Ulli did the clothes washing. Both myself and Carl would like to say a big thank you to the family for their kind welcome and great hospitality. However this is where we came across the Black Dog, who truthfully looked like he had come back from a weekend in Amsterdam with the expression on his face and the way one of his ears went forward and one went back. We soon realised that a number of black dogs in Belen had the same expression!!! This will explain why on some of the photo´s we have our hands on our heads like ears.....!! This also went well with Jose and Carl who soon relished in each others company coming out with the same kind of banter that you would hear on a summer club-run!!
We all left Belen on full belly´s and carried along Ruta 40. We soon realised that we were leaving the mountains and riding through the desert as the temperature rose during the day and the thunderstorms came during the evening and at night. The Hillegerg was put to maximun use, as one of the spots we camped
Cloud
Amazing how the cloud just sits there on the mountains.... in one night became a lake of water. There is a fetching picture of Carl in his Che boxing-shorts outside of the tent on Ulli & Jose´s web-page. There are a number of other pictures from the 2 weeks as well, so check it out.
http://www.globetrulli.blogspot.com
Along the route we came across more track and snaked our way through the mountains again, which was a relief after the desert and head wind. Many a song was sung and acted out on the road to get us through them tough moments, a personal favourite of Jose´s was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen!!. We did come across one frightful sight. Well it was actually 4 times we came across him. For some reason a certain man, decided he was going to strip off and do a little show for us at the side of the road... I was quite glad we were a group of 4.
As we crossed mountain ranges, this also meant rivers, and it was 2 rivers between Villa Union and San Juan that stopped us in out tracks literatually for 5 hours one day and half a day and a night (thank you very much to
the policemen who put us up for the night in there station house). It just reminds you how powerful nature is, as unfortunately a group of men were swept away in their pickup at one crossing. We knew that 1 had definately died. We knew we couldn´t cross this one on foot, so we all had to get a lift in a truck because the river was still swollen the day after. A lot of patience was needed and thankfully paid of in the end.
San Jose to San Juan to Mendoza is all desert and was mega tough going as the heat got as high as 35-40 degrees C. However it also meant that the insects were out and we came across our first daytime mosquitoes. Unfortunately everytime you stopped for a wee they attacked you. On the last count there were at least 20 bites on my backside. The only place I had not put insect cream!
As we got to Mendoza we knew the end was near for the Black Dog gang. The rough camps, eating over the camping stove, thunder storms, head wind (just for Ulli), Mosquitoes, red wine and the black dog were
going to be a memory. But it will be a happy one as we quietly repeat to ourselves our little sayings in either English, German or Spanish (they are not repeatable on this website).
We set of from Mendoza knowing that this was the last pass and track we would do in South America. The first day was suppose to be easy, but unfortunately the road we were on was closed as they were building a new one because the dam had been extended over the old road. So this meant we had to go back and use the busy highway. Then we were hit by a massive thunderstorm (we hid under a bridge for at least 30 mins) and then had to climb to the town, which we reached at 9.30pm after doing 70 miles on what should have been a 40 mile day. Thankfully the bad weather left us as we made our way up the Uspallatta valley with stunning scenery and snow capped mountains upto the last section, which was tough going. This was a 5 mile track that climb 700m up to a hight of 3800m to a statue of Jesus and then decended down
The Belen family
Amazing hospitality and a lovely family. A big thank you. to the Chilean border on more track. (Caz, I´ll personally send you the photo´s & the route so you can fly over and do it).
Thankfully the last sectin was mainly down hill to Santiago, which was lucky as we had spent one of the mornings talking to a Scottish cyclist called Ronald, who knew the area very well. After doing nearly 3 and half months of rough hostels and camping, we finally decided to treat ourselves for the last few days and are living it up in a very nice hotel. However this is only because we can´t find a cheap one and that Chile is nearly as expensive as England........Ouch!!
Next stop New Zealand....
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Jóse & Ulli
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hola de "black dog gang"
What wonderful pictures and looong texts!!! You´ve certainly put your foot down!!! Jose´s still on "his" mountain, I´m recovering with capuchino in Mendoza. Thanx for the wonderful 2 weeks of head wind, somehow the wind has calmed down as soon as you 2 have left...que raro!!! And remember: Always "todo derecho"!!!