February 13, 2018
Charles Fuhr, Rio Santa Cruz: What a crappy mess we got ourselves into
Neither Leigh nor I slept particularly well last night and woke up feeling that we could have done with an extra hour or two of sleep. We wanted to get going as early as possible to minimize the risk of strong headwinds in the afternoon so we got ourselves and we on the road at about a quarter past eight, about ten minutes or so behind Ninon who was hoping to get to El Calafate in time to hitch a ride to the Morino glacier that same day. Both of us felt pretty tired and although we could see Ninon in the distance she soon disappeared from our view. The first hill confirmed our suspicions that our legs were a bit flat and we struggled on to Charles Fuhr at the Rio Santa Cruz.
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Here I went down to the river to fill up our water bottles and we stopped a while to consider what to do next. There weren't many choices because we knew of no other places to spend the night between here and El Calafte. We could push on to El Calafate, risking our tired legs into the wind that might pick up as the afternoon wore on or stop for a while at Charles Fuhr for the night or even just an afternoon rest should the weather suddenly improve.
Although Charles Fuhr is listed on various maps, it is a just a broken down old house, covered with graffiti and full of old human faeces. It is probably the worst place we could have stopped but once we sat down it was difficult to stand up again. Both of us fell asleep for an hour or so. When we woke up the wind wasn't too bad and we wondered if we shouldn't have pushed on earlier. The broken down house was a dreadful place, full of litter and obviously a popular toilet for passing motorists. There was a flat area about half a kilometer down the river that seemed better suited to camping so we rode down there to find a place to set up the tent. This was easier said than done because it seemed that the eastern side of every tree (the side hidden from the road and sheltered from the wind) was a designated toilet. We found a flattish place a few hundred meters further east but as we setting up the tent the westerly wind came up with a vengeance. There was no way we could cook supper in those conditions and the tent risked being torn apart. We struggled back to the broken down house and tried to find somewhere in the mess that we could cook and sleep. Ironically we eventually cooked in what had been the toilets and ended up sleeping in the open because we couldn't put the tent up in those conditions.
Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 1,443 km (896 miles)
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