Time To Stop And Move On

September 9, 2016

When I crossed the border from Bolivia back to Argentina, because there were only three passengers for Salta, the bus company put us in a taxi, handy as it had a trailer for my bike.

It has been quiet here for a while now. The reader must wonder what's going on.

I've agonized over it but the rim on my rear wheel splitting was the final straw for me continuing this journal. I wanted to keep journaling, but I've to face the reality that it's taking more time than I care to spend. I've decided to close the journal. However, I've come up with an alternative in the time spent between breaking the rim and sorting out a new wheel. I'll start afresh with a new journal for the short few months I've remaining in South America, only, I'll produce it post tour; though, in order to let folks at home know of my wellbeing and whereabouts, I'll be writing up a weekly summarized page. https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/patagonia16

As well as that the cycle every bit nature of the tour has been broken, you see, because, I was for ordering a new rim from UK online bike shop, Chainreaction, but they don't post to Bolivia.

So I took a bus back to Salta, Argentina; almost a thousand kilometres south. From a sunny 30 degrees in Santa Cruz, eastern Bolivia, to grey northern Argentina, when I arrived on Friday the 2nd of September, drizzling rain and cold with temperatures in single figures, feeling like winter in Belgium.

In Salta there's a decent bike shop, stocking wheels, so I can get back on the road.

The season here is early Spring, and so the weather should be improving, with longer daylight hours. At the moment it starts getting dark about quarter past seven, which means the day is plenty long for an eight hour cycle, followed by finding a place to camp with an hour to spare before nightfall. It's what I prefer, higher, or in this case lower latitudes (far south of the equator) which have distinct seasons; long days from mid Spring on. I care less for tropical places where it starts getting dark at six in the afternoon, and it remains similar year round.

I achieved part of what I set out to do on this cycle tour, namely to ride south to Ushuaia, the world's most southern city, and ride back north within a season. A goal, having ridden south to Ushuaia twice previously, but never turning round and riding back north. There is only a short seasonal window of pleasant weather to cycle both south then north, unless you go prepared for winter cycle touring. That far south, in the Province of Santa Cruz, and on the island of Terra del Fuego, the weather can remain wintery to after Christmas. In fact warm summer days in January and February are few, and even fewer by March. Indeed the words of a Dutch cyclist I met in January, near the Straits of Magellan come into mind and illustrate very well how cool summer is there when he said "I've come here to escape winter at home, and it is colder here than in Holland." But again, the plus side is it doesn't start getting dark until half ten. Long daylight hours when cycle touring and camping is a major advantage.

I see myself as a purest, cycle-every-inch-of-the-way touring cyclist. I'm the sort that prefers to put in a good day's cycle, rather than a slow day stopped looking at something, further developing a line on a map from the start point, in the case of this tour, Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires. And so it's a game of riding from point A to point B, more than bicycling from one sight to the next. A TranAm (cycle across America) must be the same. If a TranAm cyclist took transportation across Kansas other than cycling, for example, because flat terrain is boring in his/her mind, they can't later say they've cycled across America, well not the whole way.

So I started where I chose in the heart of Buenos Aires, and spent the first week or so riding what is called the pampas. It gave me a fantastic feeling to have so far to ride ahead. Then weeks turned into months as I progressed across Patagonia. The road south was so enjoyable. The road back north though felt like too much of the same, and at the time I's glad to cross through the Andes into Chile for a change of scenery. The one thing I missed out on doing is visiting the national park, Perito Moreno, which had been a goal.

Finally, this is my forth long visit to the southern countries of South America, and I think this is the last, having seen enough with plenty more of the world to visit.

The road to San Lorenzo, a satellite of Salta.

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