Last night we went to an Italian Restaurant, I had noticed signs next to the road advertising “Milanese or Milanesa” written outside some restaurants. So last night I saw in the Spanish menu they have a section for Pasta, another for Pizza, and then two pages for Milanese. I asked the waiter who tried to explain it is very popular here in Argentina and is basically a Schnitzel and then you have many many options of different sauces and toppings to go on the Schnitzel. So I decided to try it, the other cullanry infants chose pizza and pasta. Wise choice, as a Millanesa comes with only two Heart Attacks. Imagine, it is like a pizza, but without dough, only toppings and cheese onto of meat instead of bread. I successfully avoided cardio arrest by offering to swap fast pieces of my Milanesa for some of the others pizza and pasta.
It was the NFL Play-offs in the USA (American Football,) and it was being shown on TV, so Dog enlightened us about the game, the rules, The Who’s who, and I must say, it is far less physical than our rugby. Another thing is how long the game takes, mainly due to all the TV Advertisements they have to fit into the game, so lots of stoppages. Aparently a 30 second advert costs $ 5 Million.
Once again, a correction, I told you all that the interesting airline pilot was going to sail to Antartica one a type of boat I still can’t spell, I said the crossing would take 3 weeks when in fact the crossing is only 3 days, but the expedition there on the Pininsula of Antarctica is about 3 weeks long.
Even more, I also spoke at length about the piano wire decapitating the bikers in Brazil, and then Proffessor Google enlightend me that my facts are not 100% correct, although it does sometimes happens as I explained, the biggest cause of death or serious injury to the bikers are not from riding into a delibirate “trap” but it is mostly caused by the line from Kite Fighting. This is a very popular sport and pastime for the kids and adults, and you have to fly your kite close to your opponents kite and then dive over his line and then try to cut their line so that their kite falls. They use a type of fishing line, Cerol, and then they coat the line with crushed glass or an industrial powder which helps them to cut the opponents kite’s line off. The kite then falls and sometimes the line is tangled on the one side of the road and the other part of the line is on the opposite side of the road, and then bikers often ride into the line and then cut their throats, apparently many deaths are caused this way. In fact the government already made it manitory since 2001 for all proffesional motorbike tour opperators to instal a Corta-Pipa on all their motorbikes which is the antena-like device I spoke about that cuts the line before it decapitates the bike rider.
This morning we continued on the very boring, mostly straight, flat road, just like the piece of road between Laingsburg and Beaufort West in the Great Karoo of South Africa, except this carry on the whole day. It was just us, plenty of Alpaca eating the little green grass there is right next to the road as that section of sand next to the road gets more water as the little water that falls when it rains runs off the tar and does not get sucked into the soil like the rest of the veldt, so there is a little grass right next to the road, And today we saw how many were run-over by trucks, at one place there were 4 carcasses, two on the left side and two on the right side of the road, I doubt the trucks even attempt to brake, hopefully they do blow their horns at least.
The only other companion we could count on next to the road on this lonely day in the saddle was the Lesser Rhea, also know as “Darwin’s Rhea.” It is only 3 feet tall, has only 3 toes, It looks just like a baby Ostrich. There is another species, slightly larger, the Greater Rhea.
We took it slow today so that Tex could nurse his bike and be “light on the gas.” Luckily the road was flat and straight, and apart from a few other Adventure Bikers and the odd truck or car, the road was quiet. There was not much scenary to stop for and take photos of, and it was a rather boring ride, and the temperature started climbing to 19 degrees, which is much higher than the 9 and 10 degrees we have had for the past 5 days. Then the wind picked up suddenly and all of a sudden there was no more boredom as you needed to fight your bike all the way to keep in in your lane and avoid being pushed into the on-coming lane. I stopped for a photo of some flamingos and could not believe how hard the wind was blowing, I was almost blown off the bike.
Some of today’s photos:
We rode for 240 km before we got to our one and only “town” along todays route where we bought ice cream and a coffee and filled the bikes with fuel. We ran into a fellow biker we met on the ferry yesterday. He is from Argentina but now works and stays in Norway. His helmet had a problem and his vizor and peak had rattled loose and Pie saved the day by having the exact screws and plastic covers for an Arai Helmet.
Out little town is very small and only has one tourist attraction, an old sail boat you can climb on, and the beach is one of those beaches without sand, with pebbles, and in spite of the cold and wind, I saw a few people “sun” bathing, and could not help to notice that their skin color was very pale. and that the sun was no where to be seen, so I guess that Sun Block is not a big seller here in the shop.
The only other attraction is this:
As I told you yesterday, life is a learning curve my liefie. My lesson today was what is the use of the 3rd tap, situated in the middle. I knew left was hot, right was cold, but what magic happens with the middle tap? Well, as you lean over to open it, with your face over a little nozzle at the bottom of the shower tray, a stream of ice cold water squirts right into your face when you open the middle tap and instead of your face being there it should have been my bum as it is doubles as a shower and a Bide (wonder if I got this spelling right, A.I. has not suggested something yet, so maybe I got it right????
In my route planning I avoided a big city and planned to sleep in Caleta Olivia, but, instead, to seek a sprocket for Tex, we will have to continue 50km to this city below. Peens, our Navigation Specialist tells me this city looks bigger than Johannesburg and Pretoria combined, which is not what we wanted to do, but it is not like we will get a sprocket at another town, so the big city it is tomorrow, 427km away.
No sign off today?