We pretty much all started together in what is very sparse country. The rain shadow side.
The big swirl and trees the first for some days
Sealed rd up a steady hill & I wait at the top and Anna & I slog it out into a wind. As we get higher up the wind increases and from the side in very unpredictable gusts. Occasional cars and trucks passing.
From the desert country we have been used to for the past week it now changes to monkey puzzle trees and real alpine country with snow covered peaks surrounding us.
Sphinx !!!
Didier Looking at Sphinx ??
Anna now ahead and I get off the bike and walk as gale force winds blowing me across the road. Don’t want to end up road kill. Beautiful country apart from the wind. Dick catches up and we ride together until he gets off after almost being blown into the river. We walk until the rescue truck picks us up 1 k from the lunch stop.
Rock on
Lunch inside and talk to one of the road working gang foremen. This is the windiest spot in argentina.
I bail for the afternoon as 80k on dirt downhill. Anna takes off at high speed. We get a big rock stuck between the tires of the truck. Our Forman friend turns up unannounced with a length of steel tube which he puts between the rock & the road. The truck reverses & the rock is prized out. Clever.
Great views on the way down with snow covered mountains and the first sight of a Pategonian lake. The monkey puzzle trees give way to pine trees and some plantations. Following fast flowing river down all the way. The first real flowing river on the trip.
Collingwood mountain
Camp beside the river cold but fine. Lots of locals celebrating the start of the fly fishing season. Put up anna’s tent beside the river which she promptly moves. Must have been premonition as high winds and torrential rain overnight. Pack up the next morning in the wet. Really great!
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