An Acident, But I'll Survive: Salta to km55-route 9

July 6, 2016

You perhaps wonder why I keep this up. I wonder myself often.

I could write close to a thousand words each day and as a result be over six weeks behind actual time, so this page here would be dated "May 27" and we're now July the 8th, a ridiculous delay not always explained by poor or lack of internet access. But in reality I only write a single leaf in a small notebook of an evening. I don't have the inclination to sit crouched in the tent for much longer than that takes after a day on the bike.

So from here on, I plan to keep this journal as current and ongoing as possible by writing a short daily update concentrating on only significant happenings.

Like today, I was riding north on route 9, the same road I rode south upon on the 7th June when I arrived in Salta. The plan was to have a short day, stopping early somewhere along the way to camp. I had in mind a picnic table rest-place at the boundary between the provinces of Salta and Jujuy. I get to this point about half three, but decide it's a bit open to the road.

The boundary between the two provinces being a high ridge, there follows a few kilometres descending when I come to a gate at the top of a laneway, but with a gap to the side for walkers to step round, which has a strand of wire across the top that I duck my head down to clear while wheeling the bike through.

I cycle a couple hundred metre down the hedgerow enclosed laneway, seeing a lake further down and hoping to find a lakeside campsite, when I come to a farmhouse. There are no dogs nor people about the farmhouse, but the laneway suddenly seems a little too private, so I turn round and pedal back up the laneway, anxious to be out the other side of the gate before anyone come about. I don't think when I steer the bike into the gap to the side of the gate. I forget the wire and ride straight into it. It catches me in the bridge of the nose dislodging my glasses, which I think are broken; but they're unharmed, as I suffer smarting pain and shock, dropping the bike under me as my hands grasp hold of my face and my fingers drip blood.

I use a tissue to clean my bloody nose. I now have a bloody track across the bridge of my nose and a scratch on top of the right cheek. That'll take some healing.

With pride dinted I come to a layby a little further with a place in off the road where I pitch the tent.

So here I am sat in my tent listening to the constant shrill whistle of crickets as it gets dark.

I had a very overpriced lunch costing 170 pesos (£8.50), in La Caldera: you could say I was ripped off.

The picnic rest-place at the "Limit between Salta & Jujuy"

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 11,294 km (7,014 miles)

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