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Published: April 9th 2013
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Rocky gets excited
This is the Kiwi rock sign that Tony, Melean and Raewyn made last year when Allan broke down in his 2CV It has been a hard long ride from Arequipa in Peru to Cafayate in Argentina.
After an early start out of Arequipa, with me leading everyone out of town with Tiny leading from then on.
The instructions and briefing was specific that we do not go to Lima, well how come I saw Jack and Rodrigo returning from that direction as I was heading towards Chile??.
There is a tricky Y intersection that we had also talked about at the briefing, unbeknown to me Tiny took the right hand fork (as he and Rippa did a couple of years ago) and took most of the guys with him. I spotted Don a little bit down that road and had seen Scratch getting fuel back a few kilometres, so I got Don back on track, but he said he saw another couple of guys go that way. There was no point in trying to catch them, as they would now add another 100 kms to their day.
Somehow between then and the border, it seams that I had lost everyone, as I was the only one at the border??? And I am the chase truck?? We had agreed
to all met there as I was carrying all their Shopping! And it would have to go through the X-ray at the Chilean Border. So I waited and waited, for about an hour and a half, then Tiny and his gang arrived after their wayward trip around the Coast of Southern Peru. Now where the hell is Scratch and Don?? We all waited two hours, eventually I drove back the 30 kms to Tacna, as they would have needed fuel there and I may have missed them when I came through? Eventually Radar suggested we ring the Hotel in Arica, Chile and low and behold their are two Kiwi Riders sipping a beer around the Pool!!
The disgruntled waiting riders, were happy that they were safe, but a bit pissed that we had waited two hours for them. By the time we got to our hotel and loosing two hours when we entered Chile made for a pretty late night.
The ride down to Iquique was uneventful apart from some riders trying to stay awake in the heat and altitude of the Northern Atacama Desert. We regrouped for lunch and then we all visited the Historic mining town
of Humberstone, where we left Rocky and Eric in charge of security.
We followed the coast down to Tocopilla and then inland, climbing 1,000 m within 20 kms to the high platau and our destination that night at San Pedro de Atacama.
We had a briefing and as there were now 4 motos with weeping front fork seals, also a couple of riders with leaking seals also, and Scratch with his blown rear shock, it was decided to take Paso Jama, which is sealed instead of 300 kms of corrugated Ripio. This turned out to be a good decision all round as the views are just awesome and we could enjoy it more.
During the descent to Susques, Radar started to have power and engine trouble on the KLR so he just took it easy (he had to). We had about 80 kms of unsealed Ripio and Terry was still lacking confidence on his Tiger, so at one point Barry stopped and gave him the DR and a few tips, well he rode off with a new lease of confidence. I was running the chase truck on a parallel road as Barry jumped on the Tiger, so
Rocky and Eric
In charge of security while we were at Humberstone. off we went in a cloud of dust, as the dust settled, I couldn't see Barry? untill he stood up and dusted himself down, the Bloody Tiger had spat him off!! Lucky it was soft sand that the Argentinian Sand Snake lurks in. Anyway it took a few more sand pits and he mastered the Tiger and we set out to catch up with Terry who had found his confidence.
Once we got to San Antonio de Los Cobres, Barry and Radar worked on the KLR but couldn't pin point the trouble, it got cold and dark, so it was time for dinner and as good a nights sleep you can get at 3,800 m.
We were not able to do the Ruta 40 to Cachi, as it is not repaired from last years flooding, so we took the option to come directly to Cafayate, another good decision, as Radars KLR was still playing up and as we rode through La Merced, Rodrigo's rear suspension on his Vstrom completely collapsed in the Main Street!!
We decided to take Gerardo's BMW with the flat tyre off the truck and put the Vstrom on. We found a tyre panda
Barry at Humberstone
Taking time out to catch up on reading the KiwiRider Mag. in the truck, removed the small nail and pumped it up, it all looked good, so Rodrigo rode the BMW to lunch. We met a few bikers from Argentina and they said all our other guys had left about twenty minutes ago, so we had a nice lunch and chatted with them.
Arriving in Cafayate, we found that the BMW rear tyre was pretty flat, so Scratch, Rodrigo, Howard and Jack took the wheel off and replaced the tube. Barry and Radar, stripped the carburettor down on the KLR and found quite a bit of gunk in there, so hopefully everything will be OK for tomorrow.
So until my next blog, Hasta pronto, Rosco
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