After I did the Blog last night I found the guys sitting almost in the street drinking beer from beer bought at Reception, they were having a great time, not Classy, but nobody in Mendoza knows them.

I rest my case.

I quickly convinced them to go out for dinner, we went to an area for that we did not go to last time when we finished Leg 21 in Mendoza. It is not a tourist area and we had to take a taxi there. I think we chose the wrong restaurant as the Asada (mixed meats cooked on open fire,) we ordered was not as tender as the previous times we ordered this dish. The secret of Asada is that cheaper cuts of Beef is used that needs a long cooking time at low temperatures so that the meat gets soft. These cuts are more tasty (Chuck, Short Rib, Skirt Steak etc.)  but tougher. I suspect the chef sold more for lunch and by dinner the “new meat on the fire” was pushed with higher heat to cook in time for Dinner. But we still had a good time.

Some Empanadas for Starters:

We decided to leave late to give Dog time to try and get his bike, so early this morning he taxi-ed to the customs yard to try and get his bike released, all the drama was about wether his bike was wearing a nappy inside the crate the bike was transported in, true story.

Rocky and I went to change money while the others did more work on their bikes, Pie was fitting Flickers and Tex had some repairs to do on his Panniers and Peens was working on his GPS Bracket and few other things. So already late in the day, after 10h00 we decided to split the group in two, Pie and tex would wait for Dog and the rest of us would take the very adventourous gravel road option, BIG MISTAKE !!!!!

It was a big mistake for 2 reasons, firstly they ate big steaks for lunch and we ate peanuts and dried fruit. Photo of their lunch:

And secondly, our 100km gravel road was a disaster!!! It started well, not too bad surface, I was optimistic, it should improve, gravel roads usually gets better further out to town, or not.

It got worse, more big stones and rough surface, and then some loud screams in my helmet as the hard stone surface made way for soft sand patches. Lucky for me the soft sand patches were only about 5m long before it became hard and rocky again, thank God for this as I was already having a proper “Head-Shake-Wobbly” by the time I hit the hard stuff again. We eventually found a road that turned left back to the Tar Road, which I took long before the discussion between us was reached to take the escape route. And I am very thankful we did as the landscape changed to sand dunes and a few rivers to cross. On the tar road there were bridges, on the gravel road I dont know what we would have to cross over, probably low level bridges with lots of slippery stones.

This Leg 22 is going to be all about Patagonia, but to get there is going to be a few days of riding through very arid countryside, like what we know in South Africa as the Great Karoo. here are some of todays photos:

Note the Andes’s snow capped mountains on our right all day.

If you are old enough you will remember there was a phase in the 80’s when you had to look at a Poster and put your eyes out of focus and then suddenly you would see a 3-d image hidden in the poster, well for those that remembers this, do it now and see if you can see this 3-d image hidden in this road sign:

We had about a 100km to do without any town or village and we felt rather alone in this world, no cars or trucks on the road, the occasional Adventure Biker Group, but very desolate area. So when we found a little Spaza Shop along the road we stopped for a Coke. The lady who owned the little shack-shop cut up one of the sausages she made and offered it to us to taste, clever move, as we ate the entire sausage and then had to pay whatever price she made.

Should have made a note to bring Sticker, instead I have half a Pannier of socks and underpants, GREAT !!!

Another person also made her price today, a police woman who stopped Millsy and Rocky and told them they were speeding, took their documents and told them to go back 200km to Mendoza and pay the fine, then return to collect their documents. This “trick” we suspect they learnt from the police in Mozambique, or maybe they learnt to from Argentina??? However, Rocky was aware of this move and explained he did not have the time to turn around, pay the fine and return for his documents. So the police-woman was kind enough to negotiate a “speedy resolution” which included a “special Hand-Shake” (with some Dollars exchanged in the handshake. )

Tonight we are doing it proper Oros Style, the rooms are “Cheap & Nasty” and I hope the Fan will keep the Mosquitoes at bay.

 

 

 

Here are some Google Map Images of where we are, note how far we still have to go to reach the most Southern Tip, we are now about in line with Cape Town, still got a lot to go, and the weather will start playing a bigger and bigger role as we head South.

 

Tomorrow we plan to do this route, staying on the famous Route 40

Luv Ya Madly !!!

Fleisch