It was good to be back on the road again after what was essentially ten day break.  But it wasn't the easiest day and we learnt a few lessons along the way.

We were on the road by eight o'clock - at least an hour too late it seems - and the first hour or two made for some enjoyable cycling.  We stopped every now and then  to do a bit of birding and take in liquids.  The road was a real roller coaster but excepting one climb of ninety meters none were particularly long nor steep.  However, the temperature kept rising and, with very little shade available, we started to get really hot.

We got to Radial Conchillas about twelve thirty having just got over the big climb and Leigh in particular was feeling pretty stressed.  We stopped in at the local store and bought a 1.5 liter bottle of 7-Up and an ice-cream each.  The ice-creams went down like a treat but the 7-Up turned out to be "sin azucar" so the hoped for sugar kick was never going to happen.  Nonetheless, it was wet and very cold so it disappeared quite quickly.

We took possession of the local parada to have our lunch, although we did share its shade with a few dogs.  At this point the options were to turnoff to Conchilla where there is a hotel or to tackle the thirty remaining kilometers to Carmelo.  

Heart

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The sky started clouding over and the temperature seemed to drop by a few degrees so after about an hour we were back on the bicycles.  After ten kilometers we came upon another country store and bought some more ice cold gaseosas which kept us revived.  Another drinks stop in the company of a horse and the last few kilometers went by quite easily.

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With the weather the way it is there is little point in us camping until the temperature starts dropping.  The weather forecast suggests that it will remain in the mid-thirties for at least ten days so I foresee Uruguay being an expensive section of this trip.

So we checked into the Timabe Hotel once we got to Carmelo and I suspect we will be staying in hotels and hostels until we get back to the coast in a few weeks time.  Supper, in proper Uruguayan fashion, only started at eight o'clock.  We were too knackered to go out earlier but were now falling asleep in our chairs at the table.  It was hardly worth staying awake because here learnt our final lesson of the day.

The day's lesson's can be summed up as follows:

1. Be on the road before the sun rises.
2. Never pass a country store - it might stock cold drinks.
3. Apply more sunscreen than we think we need.
4. A Malenesa (found on every menu) is a breaded piece of poor quality meat.  Rather stick to soup and bread if we aren't able to read the menu..