Day 372 Friday 21 November Las Lajas to San Carlo de Bariloche 529km

Last night we ate Biltong, Chips and Peanuts, we drank whisky and beer out of Hand Made “Glassware” until we had the energy to go and tighten the chains, lubricate them, and do a few other things, like fitting a new pair of Flickers on Pie’s bike.

Millsy had the best “seat” in the lounge\kitchen\bedroom, not all the curtains he could oporate should he need something to do.

This morning we had a sandwich for breakfast and black bitter coffee, then hit the road, which was still very flat and dry and boring.

And slowly the landscape started changing, more hills, lots of Twisties (also my word,) green grass and a few Pine Trees started flashing by; even some pink flamingos on the 1st lake of the day.

Look at this clever “tie-down” Dog uses for his hat, it combines elastic rubber that is adjustable, like a Cable Tie Idea, just so much more versatile, Since My Life I have never seen one, (yes I know that is not a proper English Saying, its African Slang.)

Another clever plan is this Boiling Water Vending machine as everyone wants boiling water for their Mate Cups, even the youngsters are drinking it, and you need to top-up the water into the cup very often.

Dog likes Gimmicks and impressed us last night when he had a special gauge to measure if your chain has been tightened too much, or not enough:

And then, about 300km into the ride the road split and we went right, and within 10km we were in the Lake District of Argentina, with Pine Tree Forrests, Lake after lake after Lake followed, with beautiful wild flowers growing next to the side of the road. It was beautiful, and the flowers, un like our Cosmos which dont smell nice, these flowers had a very strong sweet sent.

But today was a Public Holiday, so every man woman child and their dog has come to the Lake District for the Long Weekend, so there was lots of boats being towed, caravans and trailers traveling real slow, lots of cars with bicycles on the back, Lekker Chaos!!! And then we rode into a bicycle race with cars in front and behind, and things slowed down even more, so the last 200km was beautiful but slow. Later there were just other cyclist riding, not part of the race, and there were hundreds of other Adventure Motorbike Riders.

This area reminds me a lot of Norway.

When we got closer to town it really became Bumper to Bumper traffic with lots of on-coming traffic, so we just had to sit in the string of cars and meander into town, which is situated on a lake.

We stopped for a beer and to re-group and look for accommodation on Booking.com. There was a lovely young couple from Mexico that rode down with a Honda. We started chatting and shared some stories of the road. they are thinking of riding through Africa, with the Honda. We tried to talk them out of it and I suggested some other places they might want to try. I gave her one of the Wire Animals I carry to give to people who we meet up with and connect with, or that helps us or just gives up good and friendly service at a Restaurant.

In her hands is a Lion, a little squashed from its travels in my Panniers, but still, a Lion !!!

The Honda :

Not for Africa.

Tomorrow we cross over to Chile:

My view of the lake while I am writing this Blog:

Myself and my wife and my two daughters stayed here in 2012, not the exact same property, but in a house with a few apartments,  just down the road from our Apartment tonight.

We need an early start tomorrow as we need to cross the border and hopefully meet the Old Car Colector in time for lunch and then view his Museum. We will probably take a rest day on Sunday to do some Admin as we need to pre-book one or two ferries as we plan to follow Routs 7 along the shore which is a very broken shoreline, like Norway, so lots of ferries along this route.

If you click below you should see a short video (or not) of how strong the wind was blowing on that Gravel Day:

IMG_9306

And that it from me, we chat again tomorrow

Fleisch