March 12, 2000
Day 142 Free Camping on the way to Uyuni: the road is a river, we ride the rails
Patrick works on cleaning the bikes, while Rachel goes in search of leche and agua and bananas, our staples. She returns only with agua. There is no leche in boxes, only powder.
We set off on the road out of town, only on the edge of town, the road becomes the riverbed. Patrick removes his shoes and heads off. As Rachel gets out her teva’s, a local man shouts and points toward the railroad line. So, we retrace our route back to the market to get on the local side path following the tracks. We reach the cemetery and there are railroad workers, across the river we see a nice road. So, we cross to get to the road which after a couple km’s, the road goes into the river again. We see a local cyclist on the railroad. We find a spot that we can cross and return to following the railroad path.
We can cycle, but carefully, occasionally there is soft soil or narrow path next to an edge and bridges with only the sleepers in place. The bridges we have to gently walk our bikes across the spaced railroad ties. After about 20 km’s, we come to a railroad station that looks abandoned, and we can see the road again. We hear voices and knock and say “Ola”. A man comes out followed by kids, we think we've interrupted their lunch. The man we recognize from sharing the truck ride yesterday! We ask whether to stay on the railroad or the road. He says the “linea” is better. The road will again cross the railroad in about 30 km’s and we can make another decision of what to follow.
The railroad is gradually climbing. We continue to have to sometimes push our bikes. At one point, we get a glimpse of the road that is still at the river and we have gained several hundred meters already. So we are happy that we kept with the tracks. But with the altitude gain toward the Pampas, we start to go through sand dunes that is impossible to cycle. Our arms and backs are hurting from constantly lifting the bike over the rails, pushing through loose sand, and over the railroad tie bridges.
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The train finally passed us this afternoon.
We meet a local from the other way. He says it gets better in a couple of km’s. It’s 5:30-6:00, it will be getting dark by 7. Patrick goes off the tracks over the dunes looking for a spot to camp. He comes back and says there is a real nice spot. We can see in both directions and will be high above the river. We have rice and grated sardines (yuck) and carrots for dinner. On the southern horizon is a large thunderhead that catches beautiful light from the setting sun. As it gets dark, just after seven we finish cleaning up the dishes, heat some water for a minor sponge bath and get in the tent. We are way above 3000 meters, about 3500, Patrick thinks, and it sure cools off as the sun disappears.
Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 4,683 km (2,908 miles)
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