September 16, 2010
Uruguay day 4.: An average day on the bike.
Sun 12th Sep. Camping near Carlos Reyes to camping behind palm trees km156 route 5. 88km
Woodland not only provides discretion when camping wild the forest floor is also comfortable after years of fallen leaves. So it was when I awoke so relaxed and snug but there was a disturbing spatter on the flysheet like rain drops. I's relieved to look out and see it was fog which had wet the treetops so that they dripped down on the tent.
The road which ran along the back of the wood was a much quicker way out on the road than having to haul my bike and Bob-trailer over the branch debris left after the clearing to the main road. It still nevertheless meant the uncoupling of the Bob for the lift over the fence.
The fog lifted quickly and was gone completely by nine when I reached the village of Carlos Reyes where the road joined national route 5, a busy road but it doesn't much matter as there's a two metre wide paved shoulder. A safe distance away from passing vehicles. I've noticed in Uruguay though I've only the little bit of national route 3 out side Paysandu and today's route 5 to judge by that there's allot less trucks on the road. A great thing as I saw way way too many in Argentina which is truck mania. There I think there's too many haulage companies competing for the same business. The beauty of the free market leaving it to the market to work and sometimes it simply doesn't for example the deeply cut up rutted state of many of the roads there resulting from the constant pressure of these heavy weights. There's an awful lot of trucks on the road in Chile too but there there's a wide shoulder most of the time and the authorities seemingly care for the up-keep of the roads.
It being a Sunday morning quite allot of lycra clad racing cyclists whizzed past me often wearing yellow windproof tops as a cold wind was picking up from the South East. The next town was Durazno where I planned to stop early as my map indicated a camping site but when I arrived in the central plaze I found the tourist info shut. I didn't want to be wasting the afternoon cycling around looking for the camping site so it was time to keep going. Before leaving town though I found a supermercado and stocked up just as they were putting off the lights because they shut at one. There was a shop where I checked emails, there were none and my heart sank because I's expecting one from my friend in Salta. Significant because on days when it's cold or things don't quite go to plan or for whatever an email from a friend is a great comfort.
Eventually on the way out off town I's stopped somewhere or other for some reason and on two occasions people came up to me and asked where I'd cycled from and where I's cycling to. I didn't mush mine as I had seen few people all week and people are generally a little reserved here in comparison to Argentina where people are extremely extrovert. I was quite willing to past the time though, though it can become a little monotonous after a while in my bad donging Spanish. Usually when I'm asked how long I've been in South America, I limit it to the time from Salta, 'seven weeks' I say otherwise I end up monotonously donging on through Patagonia, Mendoza, Northern Chile etc and it can be quite tiring at times.
The South West wind had increased in strength since morning and it brought with it a chill in the air necessitating me putting on my warm fleece underneath my windproof jacket. It was still a bright sunny day though and at three thirty I enjoyed a stop eating a Alfarjor sat on the grass verge looking across a green field full of sheep and the bleat of new born lambs. Beyond that there was a hilly fold of cattle pasture with rocky out crops. Uruguay looked and felt like Scotland on a raw Spring day.
I didn't cycle mush further as a little distance on I found a perfect shielded roadside camping site behind a clump of low growing palm trees. There was the noise of traffic and the headlights but I could live with that. However after midnight the traffic ceased and it was almost as quiet as being camped a long way from any road.
Today's ride: 89 km (55 miles)
Total: 2,040 km (1,267 miles)
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