January 21, 2011
The Chubut valley.
Here I am tonight, as I write, another day in which I have neither gone backwards or forward. Though, I have rode in pleasant countryside, to, as planned, Gaiman and back. This evening I'm full after eating at a Casa de Te Gales. And full too of satisfaction at such a nice relaxed day.
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Gaiman is West of Trelew, about 15km on the main road, Route 25. I started out on this road from Trelew. It was a sunny blowy morning as is the norm here. The traffic was busy and there were alot of grains of sand hitting me in the face due till grading machines working on a dust parallel service road. There was a bit of a narrow shoulder which varied in width as it was broken away on the inside and discontinued at the entrances to works where the gravel flowed out into the road. I soon had enough of this road, of cars continually passing me and the dusty air, so I turned off to a place shown as Treocki on the sign post which I thought sounded Polish, but of coarse the TRE is Welsh for town even if the end looks Slavic. The road ran off at a right angle and went downhill away from the scrubby margin of the valley to it's green cultivated centre. Here, there was shelter from the wind. The land was divided by straight lines of tall popular trees into square fields. The ash-felt had ended by now and the road was now small stones, but the resulting slow pace I didn't mind, as the countryside was timeless. There were no cars. The road whined it's way past fields of purple Lucerne, pasture with Hereford cattle and Merino sheep. There were fields of beans and other vegetables. There was also the sweet smell of hay in the air and rows of it in fields, some of which was baled. And I met a farmer on a tractor with a trailer load of bales, which I regret, not having my camera ready as it would've made a great photo.
The road eventually came out on the main Provincial road between Trelew and Gaiman which is paved. It runs in a straight line, then periodically curves round at a right angle where it runs straight again before turning again, seemingly passing around square plots of land. In any case it takes the road a long time to reach Gaiman.
Therefore it was well into the afternoon when I cycled over the bridge over the Chubut river into town. I asked a young English couple that emerged from a path, "is that the way to the Bethlehem chapel?", and they looked at me strangely before answering as it was a bit of an unlikely way to a place of reverence. They then pointed me back over the bridge where the path to the chapel begins.
It follows the riverbank through long grass and passes an apple tree before reaching the chapel, a smart redbrick house with church windows. I also cycled to the other side of town to have a look at the old railway station before retiring to a Casa de Te. Thence, I and a middle-aged English couple were the only quests. They arrived in a big Toyota Hi-Lux thing with a local guide. They told me that that evening they would fly to Ushuaia, and therefrom cruise to Cape-horn. The young lady that was serving they thanked for all the delicious cakes, she looked Welsh and spoke English with a Welsh accent. Then, she explained that her Great Grandmother was Welsh.
The day continued pleasant. I returned to Trelew on the Provincial road through the Chubut valley. It's green and pleasant landscape which is man-made as all the lines of popular trees and greenery is due to irrigation. There isn't mush more to say as it's getting late and tomorrow I'm off. In the week to come I'll be riding Route 25 to the Andes. On the way, there are but a few villages, namely, Las Plumas, Los Altares and Paso de Indios, that's all in a stretch of 580km. Though the scenery is wonderful. It is a road I've ridden before and it's a road I don't seem to get bored with. But I'll stop writing now and write about it in forthcoming pages.
Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 9,088 km (5,644 miles)
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