Day 18 - to Doña Dora - High Maintenance - 6 Week Carretera Austral - 2024

February 5, 2024

Day 18 - to Doña Dora

Loooooooong day.

I’m so glad we got the cabana you could hear the wind howl all night ! The border collie that with 2 whistles would herd in the sheep was sleeping at our door step. I’m not sure he thought we had 4 legs and were furry or because I was scratching his head and he was protecting us.

After 9am and a good breakfast we left for the day. Today was Patagonia wind day, It would be only around 60km however serious head and cross winds and guess what Ripio day ! Today along the way we would hit ripio and that’s it for pavement for the rest of the ride.

The owner of the camping park gave us 4 hardboiled eggs! David saw her go to the henhouse to get them, talk about fresh !

Oh another tip when putting on your sunscreen and then head off and ride make sure you put it in your bag. After 15km I then went to reapply it, go to grab it and say a few curse words as it’s not there. We usually do a few sweeps of where we stay to make sure we don’t forget anything. I’m adding a checklist! Also forgot the bag of onions in the fridge.

So many places are off the grid here. No hydro of course their solar panels on their property and bada boom bada bing power.

Totally off the grid. It’s great to get that much sunshine to always keep the batteries charged, or guess bring out the candles

Well the first few kilometres were on pavement then we saw the sign . I don’t need to have taken Spanish lessons to interpret this one.

Even I got this one, pavement ends 200 meters. Yahhhh Ripio

Ripio for the rest of the trip ! I didn’t get a picture of the mileage marker it was around 730km.

Now this was all 3 types of ripio if you’ve forgotten go back a few posts 😃. Almost like magic you turn a corner and the winds hit you. We are riding in a valley and depending on the corner the winds hit you head on. The first section was a downhill where it was the soft gravel, large stones you name it ! I was amazed watching motorcycles go down the hills with 2 riders.

If you ever play „wack a mole“ at the amusement park, riding in this is the same. You basically go from the best hard pavement to the next, from south bound lane to northbound lane to even the middle of the road. Tip, if you ride the middle be prepared to be passed on the right, cars will take the path of least resistance. With the Patagonia winds you can’t even hear cars coming up from behind.

There will be very few pictures since the riding was slow and arduous. There was one corner with at least 55 to 60kph. We checked the windy app before the ride. I swear it took every ounce of energy to be able to push the bike up the hill. Between the ripio, constant dust from the traffic, crazy winds and going up hill, if some pickup truck offered a ride I was thinking about it. The baseball coach Yogi Berra coined the phrase, it’s 80 percent mental 30 percent physical ( do the math haha ). This was a day it was all mental!

However, that last corner that we turned where we almost gave up for some probably bike, god reason the wins died down well they really die down we were going a slightly different direction in the Valley.

This was the last corner before the winds were not in our faces.

David said eventually we would be doing a descent down the mountain, and every turn I was hoping for that descent. The ripio was actually getting better. We were out down to hard packed gravel almost payment like in some sections, but then, every once in a while would be back to stones and loose gravel. The worst part is when you’re going downhill you don’t want to catch some loose gravel, and then go for a spill into the the side of the road. As I type before the traffic going, north and south gets pretty heavy at sometimes and get lots and lots of dust. Hint to those that are doing this trip. Make sure you grab a bandana or something to cover your your nose and your mouth. You’ve heard that expression eat my dust and you literally do it on this part of the road. Sunglasses or glasses are mandatory because you really don’t want to get the dust in your eyes. To think that I have another 500 km of this, well today was a good practice run.

We finally hit the descent of the mountain and at this point the road turned to a lane and a half so it was quite dicey when you’re going down. Brake checks because obviously you can’t go down full speed and watching for traffic. Two days ago we could go down the mountain at 55 km an hour and have a blast now we’re probably doing 15 and praying. It was fun in spite of the conditions. When dogs come running out from a farm barking at your heels you are quite happy you are going downhill even on gravel.

It was 630 and we were still peddling to hit our camp site call Doña Dora. They have camping and bed bunks. I said to David no camping we will get a bed bunk ! Alejandro who is a few days ahead of us now, said she makes dinner and breakfast so real food ! Around 730 we turned a corner and saw few camp ground! I was never so happy. This was the toughest day cycling even though we didn’t do that many kilometres. In David’s broken Spanglish we got a bunk bed and asked to have dinner. Did I mention the tip, learn Spanish. You can’t do Google translate where there is no Wifi or cell service!

It’s so cool to be sitting at their table in their house. After a great home cooked meal, salad, chicken, rice and vegetables we were ready for the bunk beds. Since a true cabin no hydro when it’s dark it sleep time ! The camp had a shower rather primitive however water was warm, it’s so good to wash the grit from your face.

Even though It‘s mountain water still ran it through the sterilizer

Tough ride, however still very pretty. Didn’t stop too much was getting tired.

Late snack, the hard boiled eggs for a protein boost.

The descent down, nothing beats the mountains in your view.

Dora‘s house, combination dining area for guests and her own dining area. Also totally off the grid.

Our bunked cabin, complete with a hot shower.

Getting settled for the evening, before the sun sets, since no hydro. We used our head lamps in the middle of the night. Of course we slept in our sleeping bags.

Some bus, that serves as a restaurant, well this is where the seats end up.

Our host feeding her hens, ducks, and roosters.

Okay, still trying to figure out the lock on the outside of the bathroom door.

My daily dog picture, they have 60 head of sheep, I’m sure he keeps busy.

The rooster I’m sure will wake us up early

Sad news David’s cell phone died as in died, we think the wind and sand did it in.

As I’ve commented before learn Spanish ! Again google translate works great if you are online. Sometimes you won’t be, everyone knows yes/no so even if you write common questions on a piece of paper like , do you have a room? They can answer yes or no. Make the questions where the answer is a simple yes or no. The numbers you can type out and most places will have a calculator where the display faces you when they add up what you are buying. Don’t bring US or Canadian money to pay, I probably said this before, they want their pesos. Most larger towns have ATM’s so a debit card will work, some max out at 20o,000 pesos and charge 8,000 in fees. Find a real bank you can take out more than 200,000 at once. A good dinner or lunch for 2 is 40,000 pesos and that is without alcohol. That is why camping and making lunches and breakfast even the odd dinner is economical. There is always a time when a good dinner and cabana trumps a tent !

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,009 km (627 miles)

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