Good day sunshine: in which I mess up the pictures by not having cleaned the lens.

April 6, 2011

Having been in Chile many times it always strikes me as a country with more than it's share of grey overcast sky. Even in the North where it supposedly never rains, the light brown of the Atacama usually contrasts with battleship grey sky; and incidentally when Is up that way last year I'd one day in which there was mist and steady drizzling rain all day making it feel like Scotland; and another day in which it poured down persistently, resulting in a coast road which I had planned taking being closed due to landslides in the days that followed: so mush for "it NEVER rains". When a few years ago, I cycled over the Andes, a circuit in which I visited Valparaiso, the sky was a depressing grey most of the time until I returned back over the Andes and blue sky in Argentina.

Pan-Americana and grey skies in southern Chile: yes, I'm aware there's a smudge on the lens.

Cycling in Chile is easy though, if it doesn't rain, as there's usually a generous shoulder and the roads, shoulder included are smooth and well maintained. Unlike the heavily truck rutted shoulder-less roads on the other side of the Andes.

Here in Osorno, daybreak is at the late hour of 8am. And when I set-off at nine, I could have done with one of those flashing led-lights on the back of the bike to show drivers Is there as it was still a very murky grey morning with a few spots of rain, and cars with full beam head-lights.

After some deliberation on whether to cycle South to Lago Llanquihue and Puerto Varas and therefrom doubling back North, I decide to save myself time and a pointless loop and just cycle North. I'm now on Route 5 or Pan-Americana. It's straightedge straight and rolls gently with cuttings through hills to avoid steep rises. It's pretty monotonous at the best of times. Though, it's completely untaxing and I bowl along swiftly and let my mind wonder instead of having to look out for hazards like holes or too close passing vehicles. I'm on a nice wide smooth shoulder after all. Part of the time the view to the side is blocked out by the high banks on the many hills the road is sunk into. Where I can see to the side, the farming is like Europe not like the North American style farms in Argentina. Glancing through spaces between trees and hedgerow I see Friesian dairy herds on lush pasture. And there are many fields where gangs of workers are gathering potatoes. I sometime share the shoulder with agricultural vehicles, such as the big green machine with a long spout set-up for harvesting maize-silage which drove past followed by three big gleaming red tractors with trailers rattling along behind, each with a flashing orange light on the cab to warn traffic.

Another plus of the road are regular bus-shelters which are useful to stop and sit in to rest or to eat lunch especially if it should rain (thankfully, the rain has kept off). I stop at one mid-morning and have a look at my newly purchased map. I like it as it's in booklet form with sections of this long thin country in a progression of pages from Arica in the far North, South to where I'm now and so on. Anyway, I see by adding up the numbers between the stars, that it's a total of 104km to Valdivia, so decide on reaching Valdivia today.

Also listed is information on cities like the number of inhabitants.

Lunch I ate at a picnic table with a roof in-case of rain at a service-station. It was unsatisfactory as I'd bought jam and bread, but, the jam was too sweet so I end up not eating quite enough while what I had eaten left me with that sickly acid feel in the throat after eating too much sweet things, which I'd done.

Again, that smudge on the lens. I hope I'm forgiven.

While I sat having that horrible feeling and reading a chapter of my book, the sun began to break through creating nice distinct shadows and soon the cloud began to clear away completely.

I turn-off Pan-Americana soon after setting off again on to a 46km branch road to Valdivia. The first part of the road is flat with wooded hills off to the side. But soon I begin to ride up a long gradually climb and for the first time in a long time I feel warm enough to be only wearing a short-sleeve cycling jersey.

Another plus with this new map are the sections with information on cities, including the number of inhabitants, which is as good a guide as any to a city's size. I see that Valdivia has 356.396 inhabitants, so is the largest city in southern Chile.

With the sunshine there was good light for taking photos and the reason I'd stopped where I did was two other things other than to check the number of people living in Valdivia. Firstly; I was feeling slight stomach cramp from not having eaten enough and needed to rest. And because of a rusty old traction engine and an equally rusted old tipper-truck which I wanted to photograph.

They don't make them like this no more: notice the manual steering.

I spotted this wild-flower in the grass.

The last part of the road to Valdivia was across marshland with tall reeds growing out of water on either side. And after a long ride on the main artery into the city, I reached the city-centre without fuzz. Though this is due to having been here before. This evening I've booked in to a hostel called Alberge Lantino which is a colourful old house with the dorm rooms each named after a country in Latin America. I'm in Mexico tonight.

Today's ride: 109 km (68 miles)
Total: 12,432 km (7,720 miles)

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