Last night we had to make a call, either spend a 2nd night in Puerto Madryn and then play tourist today and ride to the Penguin Colony and have a look at the sea-lion and maybe see an Orca, or, push on and make up a day and arrive earlier in Buenos Aires. We have not used the day we made up earlier in the trip as we have had no Curve Balls, until now. The dilemma is that the group is splitting up soon as 4 bikes continue to Uruguay where they can be stored for a year, but Pie, Tex and Dog are shipping their 3 bikes back to the USA. Monday and Tuesday are public holidays in Argentina, they have Carnival from Saturday right through to next week Sunday. There are street parties and parades in most of the suburbs every night from 19h00, and then the highlight is “Foam Fighting.” I guess that it will be similar to the water-canons they spray on the partygoers to cool them down because of all the dancing in the street. I am still trying to get warm after today’s ride and the thought of being sprayed with a Water Canon filled with foamy water is not very appealing. And then, even if it gets warmer over the next 1000km that we have to travel to Buenos Aires, what clothes do I wear to Carnival, its not like I packed beach clothes and swim-wear? I will look a real fool with my bike gear being foamed-up from the water canon that must cool me down from all the dancing, not like I am John Travolta !!!!!! On the bright side, the foam canon might be able to clean my Riding Gear which by now can stand up by themself.
So the 3 bikes going back to USA wants to arrive in BA as late as possible as they have to dance to the tune of the canon the whole of Monday and Tuesday. The other 4 of us on the 1190’s would like to arrive there earlier and do some tourist things in the day and slip-slip in the foam at night and face the canon. My family and I have been to BA and there are so many tourist things to see and do, so I could take the guys around as their guide? But as it is a long weekend and carnival we dont know what to expect, will the roads be open during the day? Will we be able to get accommodation or is everything booked up? Ideally the 4 x KTM 1190’s would like to take a ferry across to Uruguay on Monday and check out the storage, wash bikes etc. A further issue to agree on is which ferry do we take? There are two main routes, one is on a direct ferry across and then you need to ride a further 200km, this is what I would want to do, but then there is another ferry straight to Montevideo where we store, with no riding through Uruguay for 200km, But it takes 3 hours and not just 1h and 15 minutes like the other.
I am just going to sit back and let the others decide, I can do many things, but I can’t do everything. The only thing I have put my foot down on is that in future we need to book accommodation ahead with Booking.com. Last night we had a great hotel, the lap of luxury, with a breakfast that even included Bacon, the 1st we had on this trip. But tonight was a stuff-up, big time. We headed for the little town next to the mouth of the Rio Negro River, but when we got there it was a dump and the the hotel I saw when I planed the route turned out to be a Casino, apart from that there was one restaurant and just many holiday homes. So we had to back-track 30km and Peens led us along the river, beautiful, nice to see water and trees after more than 5 days of flat, ugly, dry nothing. Peens found us a hotel on the river and it looked old and dilapidated and cheap, so we stopped and set our hearts on it, until we all had off loaded and then the price they asked was the same as last night’s hotel. But it was late and we were tired and accepted the rate and all of a sudden we are back to Oros, at the price of SORO, the opposite of OROS. But Peens & I got the orange KTM Room:
Our TV Remote has been Sanitized :
Good thing we have a TV as our radio is broken and the speaker has been stolen:
But in the good old days you could listen to the radio before you fell asleep and then switch it off without getting out of your bed.
Luckily my wife did not see the state of the curtains, the back has been burnt to pieces, so now the sun shines through the curtains.
See Dog’s smile, the hotel looked good from outside. If you could zoom in on his jacket you would be able to see the blood, he hit a bird with a Death Wish which exploded on his chest and then for a split second he could see nothing as all the feathers flew past his vizor. He just told me he washed off most of the blood. To all you Vegans and Animal Lovers, the bird sufficed and is 100% OK.
We fought the wind only for half the day, the 1st half, and then we turned East and had the wind blowing onto our backs, Lekker. But today Millsy was blown over by the wind. A few nights ago I stopped at a traffic circle to wait for the guys, and when I stopped next to the pavement the wind blew me over just as I stopped, my left leg was trapped between the bike and the pavement, I could not get out and struggled, but the next minute two different cars had stopped and the 2 guys ran over and lifted the bike off my leg, the one spoke some English and he said that it happens often. I have the blue swollen, scars to show for this. The calf muscle on my other leg has stopped working, all of a sudden, not sure why, so for the past two days I have had a double-limp.
There was more Fuel Station Fore-Court Maintenance to the bikes and then we all looked at Pie’s tyre, kicked it, and this was followed by a long discussion, will he make it? In fact, if you go to BetAway Internet Gambling you will see a site where you can place a bet for or against him making it. All I can say is that Pie can be very glad we are not going to ride on a wet road, or, do more gravel, or, as his tyre is now square, go around a corner, so these straight roads are playing right into his favor. But, I once had my back tyre wear right up to the Cavas in Norway, and the last few millimeters goes VERY FAST !!!!!
I have a small slow-puncture, and my bike’s rear-wheel Pressure sensor has died, so I need to lie next to my bike at least once a day to use my Pressure Gauge to see if I need to pump the tyre, and as you can see below, the help I am getting is minimal, almost a continuation of the Anglo Boer War:
We were once again lucky to be spoilt with a culinary treat from the Fuel Station Pairing Menu where oily burgers are paired with a selection of Soda’s.
It was lovely to see water and a river and trees again, eventually, after how many days of nothing. I even saw some farmers and corn fields plus a few cattle along the way, I think we are over the worst.
We were reminiscing about the early days, 13 years and 10 months ago when we started this Adventure. Today we laughed about how we used to play pranks on one another. If you left your bike’s keys or wallet un-attended for a split second someone would take it and then only after running around looking for it did it suddenly re-appear. Pie said that he would like Peens to contribute 50% towards his next pair of Riding Boots as Peens removed the little rubber that was fitted on one of his Foot-Rests, but only one side, so that Pie had to ride with one boot on a rubber, and the other boot resting on the metal of the foot-rest without the rubber, a few millimeters lower than the other footrest. Peens was expecting him to ask who stole the rubber, but he did not, instead he rode with one foot higher than the other foot for 30 000km, over many Legs and probably 20 countries before Peens put the rubber in my tank bag and shouted loudly, “Pie, look who has been hiding your Footrest Rubber for all these years.” Here is proof, Pie’s boot soles are testimony as to why Peens will pay half of the new boots:
And the boot on the side where the rubber was stolen:
Some photos of todays road:
As we entered this town there was great excitement, not sure what they were celebrating, but a lot of people were cheering a guy who had a cardboard frame and he had some smoke-firework going off, will ask someone if they can make out what the celebration was for:
As we say in Afrikaans : Dis Min Maar Dis In. Sorry, not much happening today and not a Blog Post that will shoot out the lights, but I guess we have to take the good with the bad. Tomorrow we head for a town called Coronel Pringles, about 500km away, which is famous as Pringle Chips was found in this town in 1921. I hope we can find accommodation there, never mind some Pringles.
And just like that I have to sign off. By the time you read this it is Friday and you have your sights set on the weekend, be good, enjoy and dont do anything I would not do.
XXXXX
Fleisch
Lekker Dad!