December 16, 1999
Day 55 Gravel pit 15km from Junction 40 & 37:
Today we ride in the ditch and sleep in a gravel pit. How deep have we sunk?
We wake up early to find our bikes and everything outside the tent covered with brown dust. The wind is still blowing but not as fierce as yesterday. We decide to move on. We start with a hill we have to walk up, but then get a long stretch of road we can cycle. Partly by riding in the graded ditch beside the road. It's profile slopes down so when the wind tries to blow us into the pampas, it also pushes us up a slope which makes it easier to recover and steer back to the bottom of the ditch.
This fun doesn't last long though.
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After about 30km the road turns a notch further southwest pitting the now strong westerly wind against us. We struggle on a while longer, but eventually have to admit defeat. After we pass Estancia le Dolfin, the wind gets so strong we have to walk. Patrick curses the wind many times as so did other cyclist that long before wrote his dismay on a concrete post at a cattle guard.
Days like this sometimes make one wonder why we do this, why not take a ride? We'll maybe because all day only two cars travelling together passed us and a motorcyclist from Germany went by in our direction, neither stopping, making the temptation irrelevant.
And there are rewards. We see a magnificent group of guanacos by the side of the road and Patrick was able to get some good shots with the telephoto before they spooked and took off crossing the road single file.
Also, we surprised a fox stalking sheep. The sheep back off on our approach and the fox comes up from behind his hiding spot, mad at us of course, staring after the disappearing sheep. We were totally ignored until we were at 50 feet away.
At about 5pm, we sit huddled behind a culvert to shield us from the howling wind. We have walked the last 3 hours maybe gaining 10km and are tired. Our goal today is to reach Hotel Las Horquetas or at least the point where according to our map, the road should turn a bit to make cycling feasible again.
About a km further Patrick sees a 10-foot-deep large gravel pit by the side of the road. Deep enough to pitch a tent. The wind is too strong to pitch a tent exposed, this is our best opportunity, and we grab it.
After pitching the tent, we fix rice with soup, onion and tuna. A quick wash up and into the tent.
It's so nice to be out of the wind!
Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,425 km (1,506 miles)
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