Day 69 - 74. Volcanoes, but where's the earth shattering kaboom?

Day 69 San Carlos

140km with 999m of climbing.

Wilbert who has been leading the group since Quito is leaving us, and co-director Rob joins us after his scouting ride through North America. Wilbert parted with the comment "from here, leave your sunglasses in your blue tag bags (occasional luggage), and umbrellas in your white tag bags (camping gear bags)". Up until now we've had fine weather every day since day 1. The occasional cloud cover, a brief shower or 2, and high altitude chill is something we've had to deal with, but no real rainy days. As we head south, and especially when we hop over to the western side of the Andes in Chile, we should expect plenty of rain. Oh, and wind, lots and lots of wind. The sort where if it's behind you, you can happily cruise along the road at 50km/h without pedalling.

We leave with a cloudy morning, and scattered light spray of rain. A nice ride still through the many, many km of vineyards and orchards that surround Mendoza. Every day now the wind is making its presence known, and is a real factor with how the difficult the ride is. Not that we have the howling winds that in previous years have had people hiding behind boulders, and crawling along the road. We have those sort of winds to look forward to later. This day, the wind was gentle enough.

Looking at the map, we use the famous Ruta 40 for a little while, then ride a loop off to the side before rejoining the main road. It adds some distance and a climb, yet it also gets us on a quieter road for the majority of the day, and more scenery.

An enjoyable and otherwise uneventful day.

Day 70 Ruta 40 bushcamp

118km with 1177m of climbing, mostly on unpaved road with 18% of the road being paved.

The day consists of plenty of snow capped mountains and enjoyable scenery. It feels odd to still be so warm with days reaching 30 degrees Celsius or more, yet what seems only a few hundred metres higher, there's snow.

All was going well until my bike starting to make scraping sounds when pedalling after some especially bumpy parts of the road. At one stage it became difficult to pedal and had a notchy feel to it. I was thinking to myself the bottom bracket (the area where the crank goes through the frame) was history and imagined what was left of the bearing rattling around and fragments jamming everything up. This would have posed a problem, as it was a part I was expecting to last the duration of the trip, and so had no spares. I could carry spares for every possible part that could break or wear out, but that would amount to taking 2 bikes! I've found, most parts for my bike cannot be found in South America such as seals for the rear suspension. Oh the joy!

With the scraping sound making it sound like I was doing damage to the bike, I made it to lunch and ended my ride there. So I covered only 62km.

Later at camp, Richard had a look and found it was actually the screws that hold the guide plate and roller that keeps the chain from bouncing off the bike on the bumpy parts that had come loose. Tightened them up, all was well. Hmm...maybe not. He then had a look at the rest of the bike, and found that with me having to raise my downhill bike seat up to the height for cross country riding, there was so little seat post left in the frame that it was dangerous, and had the potential to snap the post, or crack the frame. This had already happened to Johnathan's bike where he'd cracked the frame. So the same solution was applied, a strap running from the seat post to the front of the frame to stop the bending force and stress on the frame where the seat post is.

Johnathan's and my bike with frame saving straps. My bike is the one at the front with the blue strap.

This photo was taken a day later in Malargüe.

A little about the camping spot. The name seems so bland. Ruta 40. Just a campsite beside a main road it seems. In reality it was one of the most beautiful places we've stayed at so far. A quiet dirt road, with our campsite up on a hill looking over the flat plains, snow capped mountains and volcanoes. After dinner at sunset, there was a thunderstorm in the distance that was great to watch before drifting off to sleep. A special place.

No photo can really do this place justice. To truly appreciate it, you'd need to see a huge photo with a panormamic angle of view. Better still, just visit.

Day 71 Malargüe

131km and oh so flat 494m of climbing. 84% paved.

After my initial slow start so not to provoke the usual choking with asthma, I found myself happily passing other riders until the paved section. I have an unfair advantage with the dual suspension. The bike soaks up the heaviest part of the bumps, so easier to pedal on the rough roads. I felt quite strong on this day as well.

Once on the paved road, with the tail wind I found even in the top gear I wasn't straining and needed more gears. So gradually other riders that I'd previously passed with taller gearing were passing me.

At the end of the day, I arrived within an hour of the leaders and ahead of the mid pack. This surprised a few people including myself. Malcolm suggested I had a rocket attached to my bike. He normally arrives before me. This comment about the rocket I found amusing the next day, because there was Malcolm contemplating changing the height of his seat. Coincidence after I'd been changing my seat height? Perhaps, but a less amusing way to think about it.

Day 72 Buta Billon

115km with 916m of climbing.

An enjoyable and unventful ride mostly. The day started with a climb that continued for just over 40km, and climbed over 600m. Back home in Australia, this would seem huge, but riding it here seemed like just another climb, and stretched out over a longer distance.

The day seemed ok enough, except after lunch where my left knee started to get pains as I pedalled. I was hoping that it was just one of those pains that develop over a day, and after a good sleep, the next day it will be fine.

Day 73 Barrancas

101km with 1208m of climbing. Well, that was the course.

My day was 13km and 500m of climbing.

That bothersome knee that was bothering me the day before, seemed ok enough in the morning. First we started with paved road, and most of rode together in a peloton at a reasonable pace. I was feeling quite strong, and moved to near the front of the group. On a couple of the short climbs I was quite happy to leave the bike in a taller gear, and use some strength to climb rather than dropping to an easier gear and pedalling faster. I have found that I keep up with the group much easier this way. It's a balance between pedalling too fast and running out of breath and feeling the heartrate go too high, or pedalling too hard with too high a gear causing the muscles to burn out.

Once the road became unpaved and bumpy, on the first climb I began to get sharp pains in my knee. Bugger. My ride was done so early in the day. Richard was yet to pass with his truck, so I went to the side of the road, put my bike upside down and sat so that some sun warmed rocks were pressing behind my knee which gave some comfort.

I didn't have to wait long and I was picked up. Kirsten commented it had been a long while since I'd been in the truck with them, enjoyed the day listening to music. It wasn't all bad, but still frustrating.

On this day we crossed over to the region of Patagonia. Famous for its strong, strong winds. Along with forests, glaciers and in some towns good chocolate. I think we'll get along fine, except for those days where there's a headwind, which I believe is most days! Hmm.

On arrival at our campsite, I was lucky to get an opinion on my knee as I'm riding with many professionals. A few of them happen to be physiotherapists, and one was kind and curious enough to find out what the problem was. The opinion was inflamed tendons, and tight hips and calves pulling my knee in an unbalanced way. I was shown some stretches, and my knee was taped up.

Day 74 Chos Malal. No earth shattering kaboom? No rumbles?

94km and 1424m of climbing and 8% paved. Although on this day there was an alternate route available which was longer and flatter, and known to be windier.

Not entirely confident in my knee, although feeling ok at first, I left early in the morning to get as much distance done to test how far I could go, and if all wasn't well, still have the option to be picked up before Didier passed in the lunch truck.

This was another day of climbing straight from the start. Once it became unpaved, in parts it became quite steep. I measured 11% incline at one stage, (further on someone briefly measured 15% which translates to bloody steep especially on dirt). My knee was being co-operative, although I was being kind by being slow in easier gears.

However by 13km I could see the truck approaching and I had to make a decision. My knee was giving some dull warning pains, so I decided on getting in the truck. If I'd continued and things had gotten worse, there would have been no way out besides riding or walking.

Still, the scenery was very enjoyable. Getting up close and personal beside a volcano (not active at this moment) along with a long cooled lava flow was a new experience. Again, the snow was not much higher above us.

After 6 days riding since Mendoza, we have a rest day waiting for us in Chos Malal. We only have single rest days from here onwards until the end of the ride in 6 weeks time.