Tuesday 8 April “In Closing” Final Blog

Today Peens had to do his “Admin” after his Rest Day yesterday, but Pie and I could play tourists. We walked the city square and took a Tourist Bus.

I was not expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. The bus passed through many Parks and Plaza’s, important buildings and Historical Landmarks. The Argentinian’s got fought for their independence against the Spanish from 1810 to 1816. The Argentinians then went over the Andes and fought along with the Chilean soldiers to get their independence from Spain. Mendoza impressed me and we discovered a few places we will go and show our friends when we return in November, streets and straits with Bars, Cafe’s and Restaurants, they really know how to enjoy life here in Argentina, and we never felt un-safe here, even walking on the streets late at night, (which was late for us but the locals were just getting ready to go out for the evening.

Seeing how clean Mendoza is just put Peru in perspective where litter is a big problem. I know it is not fair to comment, but why is the poorer countries always so much worse with littering, is it a cultural thing or maybe they dont teach their kids not to litter. I know the stupid answer in South Africa when they litter is that they are creating jobs to pick up the litter, what stupid way of thinking.

While we were on the Bus, and Tex was in the air flying home, Rocky was presenting his dog with the Gangster Chain, and poor Milsy who “acted suspicious” was being stripped searched at the Airport in Johannesburg, being caused of being a Drug Mule.

Then we went on a Wine Tour which included some Olive Oil Tastings:

I am so glad we finally found the Wine Part of this city, which is famous for its wine. They do the whole Wine-thing here so different to us back in South Africa. Here the Wine Region is about 45 minutes out of the city, but it is flat, there are no scenic mountains in the back-drop, or an ocean, or a valley. But they have wine and vineyards and wine tourism is very big. The area is also vast and we met several tourists exploring the Winelands on Bicycle, with a map as it is flat and you can cycle from one Bodega to the next.

The olive oil tasting was also good and I learnt a lot. Pie and I also got into this whole tourist thing very quickly, and before you could say Malbec, we were buying wine, oil and chocolates for our wives which we were missing a lot by now.

Olive Oil Tasting after going through the Process to Cold press the oil :

Many different oils, some infused with Orange, Lemon and Rosemary:

They pour the oil over fresh bread, some bread are spread with either a tomato or olive paste before dunking the bread in the oil.

We were part of the English Speaking Group and were separated from the many Spanish Speaking Tourists. I was surprised how many local tourist there were from Argentina, but also many from Mexico, Uruguay, and Brazil. In our English group there were a couple from Singapore, another from Ireland, and at some wine farms others were added to our group, like people from Germany and others from Holland.

Apart form visiting 3 Wine Farms we also visited a olive farm and a Bottling Plant.

We also visited the oldest Bodega in Mendoza, they dont make wine on the premises anymore but still show of the cellar and let you taste their wine, now made 15km away on another farm.

It is strange how our pale differs form theirs, sweet white and sweet red is much bigger here than their dry white and dry red wine.

Pie and I spoke a lot about how traveling has changed in the last 13 years since we started this Adventure. In the beginning we would all follow our GPS’s into the town we chose as destination right up to the point where Garmin has determined is the centre of the town, usually a church square. Then we would all arrive at this point and look for Peens, he always had to be there 1st, like some competition. He would have found a street cafe or little restaurant and we would have a beer or coffee while one poor sucker was voted to walk around with the GPS looking for hotels, then going up to a room for inspection, before deciding it was affordable enough yet cockroach free.

Your cellphone was pretty much useless in the early days as you could not afford to switch on its Roaming as it was just to expensive. Later years we got wise and bought a local SIM card. WhatsApp was still new and we as a group battled to communicate with each other if it was not verbally.

And now, Roaming is no longer expensive, we chat to each other using our WhatsApp group, we can spy on the hotels by going into Booking.Com (this only works in towns and cities, we still have to do the manual inspection-thing when we arrive in those very small villages, like we so often have to stay in.) We can now navigate using Google Maps and communication with locals are no more done using Hand Signals and drawing of pictures on paper, we now have a Translate App. No more losing each other around a square or a plaza, simply send a Location and all your friends arrive at the restaurant you found within minutes, coming from all different directions.

Traveling the world today has become much much easier.

So what is the Big Thing that had been stuck in my mind this trip………….?  I bet you think the main issue I was mulling over when it was just me and myself in that helmet is the state of the world today. Good guess as Trump and his “Mini Me” Musk has turned not just the USA on its head, but the entire world has been flipped. Stock Markets world wide are Blood Red, and the blood in the streets in many places keeps flowing, no end in sight the wars. Economies are sliding and “World Leaders” are scratching their heads wondering what to do next (or why they were slapped with a 60% Import Tariff in the 1st place.) But it is still early days, lots more to happen, so let’s wait and see how things work out 1st before I give my 2c worth of commentary.

What has been on my mind is much deeper. We can now see the end of this Epic Adventure,  we look at the map and see the Bottom Of The World where we know we will turn around and start heading North again, having ticked that box to have made it to Ushuaia, and when you keep in mind we also ticked the box deep in the Arctic Circle a the top of Alaska, the most Northern Point, it is a long way down to the most Southern. We can see the port in Buenos Aires where we know we can ship the bikes from at the end of Leg 23, only 2 trips away. When we started 13 years ago we were bullet proof, we were going to ride until our axles broke in half, but now we see the end, we might break before the Axles.

And that is the earth shattering realization I had on this trip, we can see the end of our own lives also looming up ahead, we are now entering the next phase which starts dealing with The End Game. I still have a lot of dreams and lots of plans, but I now know I will not live forever, I have always know that of course, but it has always been something for the future, but that is no longer far away.

As Tex said, ( he is turning 70 in November and he is still as strong as an Ox, much stronger than me, running a huge business and handling several private  building projects on the side as well,) and he said he was still feeling good, but he knows it could change in an instant.

And once I realized that it can all change suddenly, you think of things a bit different. I realize I can’t have my kids complete my dreams for me (if I can’t complete them) as they are chasing their own dreams. So I spent a lot of time on the bike thinking what are the other dreams I need to chase to “keep me young.” And I slowly got things sorted out in my mind, there are still many things I want to do during this End Game Plan Phase.

There are still 3 Continents to explore, but I think I will do them with my lovely wife who has been patiently waiting for me to  finish this crazy Adventure. She gave me the freedom to chase my dreams. Now I can invite her along, to climb aboard a 4 X 4 or Camper Van with me and join me on the next phase. I am truly blessed to have her in my life,  she not once stood in my way. Her sacrifices were big, dankie Thea.

So I guess we all need to face our Mortality and then make peace with it and make the most of the time you are spared on this earth.  Traveling has made me more compassionate for the plight of others, I see how we are all over the world just the same, we might look different or speak different, but we are in general “cut from the same cloth” as humans. Most of all it has made me realize just how “lucky” I am.

As the words of a South African Poet and Song Writer, Koos Kombuis goes:

Wat ek is, is net Genade,          (What I am is just because of  Grace)

Wat ek het, is net Geleen,      (What I have has just been on loan to me)

So with that I am going to love you and leave you. Thank you for riding with me and for being my outlet to speak my mind, commentate on things I see. Other people spends Thousands of Rands or $ going to Physiologists, I just ride my bike, speak to myself in the helmet and then tell you about it, and voila, my mind is clear and no shrink is seeing me any time soon. And when I get home I a a better person, my wife and  kids love me more, and life is just a little better as before I went away.

This evening Pie and I met up with Peens after his admin day, and what a surprise when he showed up for dinner with Jorge who disappeared a few days ago. He had lots of stories of Love Found and lost days later. And he did a Bungy jump and several other stories. Peens was so impressed that he has now, hours before his flight home, hitched his wagon onto Jorges’s and the two of them are off into the night for one last night in search of Mendoza’s Night Life, on a Tuesday. We may or may not see Peens tomorrow on the flight home.

We ride again from about the 17th of November, but only 2 weeks, and then just 3 months later we ride again in February (short weather window that far South.) Hope you will ride with me.

Luv Ja Madly

Fleisch