The three lost amigos rock up and join us for a breakfast of fruit, black coffee, eggs, bread and cheese.
Long day today so we're supposed to be setting off early, let's see what happens...
We leave around 8:45, not too bad. It's a dirt/gravel road up into the hills. We climb higher seeing mountains to our left on the way up, some topped with snow. We're still in the trees at this stage but it's opening out a bit.
It's also cooler and on the slower sections my visor is misting up, I crack it open a notch to keep the fresh air flowing, but it's a fine line been ventilation and cold draft. It's also quite dusty, so I try to keep my visor shut when I'm following someone.
The terrain has opened up now and we're on a plateau at the summit over 4000m up. The trees have gone but unusual cactus like plants grow in the land around us. Steve whizzes by followed by Gerard.
Not long after that I find Gerard in the middle of the trail and all around are scattered objects. Over the bumps, his top box opened and spilled his belongings. Luckily he quickly realised, and didn't lose anything.
Further on I pass a bright silver plant on the side of an embankment. I stop and turn around, riding back to it. But when I turn again to return to my route, I topple the bike. Damn!
But it only happened if there are pictures... A few seconds later Ray turns up and captures my embarrassment for all eternity. So, it happened.
That's the fourth bike over and the third time it's happened while stationary.
I end up following Jeff, and a couple of times have to brake suddenly to avoid hitting him on corners as he slows rather than flows. We've not had a ride leader with so little confidence riding a motorcycle.
Suddenly the gravel road ends and it's asphalt, nice asphalt. The pace increases. And then, just as soon as it started, the asphalt ends. I look to see whether the road has been swept away, but no it just stopped. And it's not as if there was anything that the nice road was serving, it was in the middle of nowhere. It's the same with some speed limits that just appear, 40 on a straight road for no apparent reason, and then it's back to 60 or more.
As we descend from the sky the scenery becomes a little more industrial. And as we approach the next town I see two blackened faces. This must be coal country. The next town is Solda, another square another church, and indeed coal mining is the main industry in the area. This is our lunch stop. Taking off our helmets some also have black faces with pronounced dust shadows.
There a statue in the centre, a monument to a young woman, Matilde Anaray, who removed her clothes to give them to the army of Simon Bolivar that had just entered the town and needed clothes. Her resulting nakedness triggered the rest of the town to do the same. Nice story.
After we leave the lunch stop, two lads on a bike follow us for a while as we swing through the bends. They overtake some of us with gusto, but then ride within the group. Then I overtake, gesturing them on with a smile. They seem to be having fun. They peel off when we enter the next settlement
It's a fast ride down from the mountains: reasonable asphalt so we can make good progress. We pass through a few small towns that obviously developed after the road was built rather than being the the destination. These have large speed bumps, which we bump over on our off-road bikes designed for bumpy terrain, standing off the pegs, or compressing the forks with front brake just before reaching the bump, which then rebounds, lifting the front wheel a shade this making the bump less of a bump.
Just after leaving one of these towns, a few of us are stopped by the police... Oops! The officer asks something in Spanish and is met with a blank face. He tries again and so realises he's not going to get far. Pasaporte? I think for a moment and point to my bag; he turns his attention to the others and some realises we're a bunch of tourists. He waves us on. It was just a routine stop anyway.
Not seen Jeff since we left the lunch stop - are we even on the right route? Trust the system, we haven't seen a corner man so follow the obvious road. We catch up with him as we hit the traffic outside Diutama and then do the traffic thing into the centre. It's a city, not a town and it has none of the charm of the places we've been through today, you might even call it grotty.
We arrive at the hotel, and wait while Jeff checks where we can park the bikes. But it turns out that it's the wrong hotel, so we head off and arrive at a different hotel, and wait while Jeff checks where we can park the bikes. The gate opens bingo, we have a winner. I love it when a plan comes together, even when there seems to be no plan... 🫤
The challenge now is to find a restaurant that is, a) open, b) has a non fast food menu, c) has seats for 12. A few tables thrown together and we're at the Monaco. Only rated 2.9 on Google so it's a bit of a risk. We live dangerously. More rib trouble for Steve and side salads that turned up after we'd eaten🤦🏽. Steve gives it a 3 out of 5, about right.
Another 'long day', but for us this is our normal, a long day for us is 10 hours or more. None the less it was a good day of riding. 175 km.
More of the same tomorrow, but all asphalt.
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