News flash: Last night Steve helped Edy fix his bike. Well, he held the torch while Edy fixed his brakes. But now Steve has a puncture!
While we wait for Edy to fix the puncture, Ray regales us with his tale of stripping a GS550 down to individual parts before a tour of Europe. Graham quips: who put it back together! 🤣
It's going to be a hot day...
We set off, and eventually take the wrong direction so do a U-turn. Later the same thing happens, but it's just a miscommunication this time, so we follow Jeff before doing another U-turn and continuing in the original direction. During the regroup I complete my daily Duolingo lesson: tres bien, encore une fois!
I have an off, when we stop, I brake and miss my footing, down I go; another stationary off. Ray captures the moment with glee.
We're off-road, or rather off-asphalt, these are all marked roads, just unmetalled or disintegrated. They're gravel, mud, and rock. In places the bare rock comes through, flat sometimes, but mostly end on layers that have worn unevenly creating a corrugation effect like a very hard rumble strip when you ride over them. The rocks also protrude and we try to avoid hitting those in unmovable objects.
We encounter our first mud of the day. I've been following Mark, and I've been impressed by his riding. But I have that thought too soon, as the next moment over he goes in the mud - the first of many today. Mark calls them UIDs (Unintended Instantaneous Dismounts). I feel slightly better about my stationary off now.
We pass many settlements on the road. Some of these are no more than a few shacks, sometimes perched over a sheer drop.
At one, a man sits in his underpants, while all around him his clothes hang on washing lines. We're constantly reminded that this is landslide country, on the road, and on the other side of the valley.
There are so many picture opportunities. I look in my mirror and see a stream of riders following me, perfectly framed by the magnificent Colombian mountains. I want to take that shot, but it takes too long to stop the bike and get the camera out: the moment is lost.
Later when I've opened out a gap behind me, I stop on a bend to catch the riders as they come around. I wait and I wait, but nobody comes. Eventually a rider appears, but not the one I expected. He gallops past.
At Quipama we stop for a break. There's the usual town name in big letters, but this one has a unique selling point, two even!
There's also a rather modern looking auditorium, which seems completely out of place in this remote town.
Gunshots, definitely gunshots. None of the locals duck, so it must be normal. At least they're not shooting at us, yet. A boy who is surely not even a teenager, rides past on his motorbike; an even younger girl is his pillion. Different rules here, or maybe no rules.
Setting off again we're back on the dirt road. There are lots of muddy sections, lots and lots; some quite long. Generally I always ride with my feet on the pegs, but in difficult terrain sometimes a foot is dabbed to the side, ready to catch a tricky moment. In mud, many of us paddle through with our feet either side of the ruts to avoid a dramatic and messy off, especially if there's a camera ready to catch the occasion!
I reach one long patch and after riding through, feet off pegs 💪🏽, jump off my bike ready to catch pictures of the next unwitting rider who comes through - the spider awaits his prey in the sticky stuff.
It's Ray! All my Christmas have come together! He paddles through the first section ok, then [excuse alert] hits a rock, which throws him off course and he ends up sideways, but still upright... damn.
His bike loses traction - there's still hope! - and his back wheel scrabbles spinning wildly (picture hamster on a spinning wheel going nowhere). But to his credit he makes it out unscathed. Drat! I'll mark that one down as an 'almost came off' moment. As he rides past me, the finger of victory is raised🖕🏼. Santa did not deliver...
Next it's Mick. He looks really tired. And he's not so lucky: over he goes.
I help him with the bike and then after a brief rest, I ride it to safe ground while Mick walks through. We ride the next few km together in case another section requires assistance. But despite some further tricky sections we regroup with the others at a rest stop. I race back to catch more riders in the muddy web.
While all this is happening, Mark has had an more serious off. He's sprained his ankle and can't ride very well - to clarify, worse than usual. He and his entourage arrive at the mud, but he takes the wrong track. He stops and gets off, while Gerard and Christopher walk him across the difficult section and Edy rides his bike through.
We meet up with the others to work out what to do. Meanwhile Craig's gear lever has snapped off (it had been welded, so is not an easy fix) and Mick has another puncture.
The police arrive, having heard of our difficulties from a local. They are really helpful and offer to take Mark to hospital/doctor/vet in the back of their pickup, while one of their officers rides Mark's bike. He's in a nicely pressed, pristine uniform and we doubt it will stay that way.
We follow behind as they go and I think the uniform stayed clean. 😱
Arriving in town, Craig's first stop is at a welder, who makes quick work of refitting his gear lever.
Mark is seen by the informal doctor (formal doctor may have ended his trip) who confirms no break and judging by the picture below, tickles his feet. That's good news.
And then he's dropped off by the police. They wave as they leave, I think we made their day, judging by their enthusiasm to pose for Steve's camera.
While Mark was attended to, we have lunch. One of the restaurant staff seems to have a thing for Edy and as we leave They want a group picture and they video us when we leave and then further up the road other staff take more videos as we ride past. We must be near royalty.
Mark rides behind me while Mick is ahead. I to keep equally spaced. At some point when we overtake cars I end up ahead of Mick.
When I reach the next town, Gerard marking a corner, tells me Mick has had another puncture (our third today). I mark the next corner after seeing an unmarked corner between him and Hugo. I wait there and watch the world go by, including a couple of local cruisers including tassels!
The tailenders reach us and apparently I'm the Master of Fucking Unilateral Decisions, but I have no idea why...
It's starting to get dark. We ride down the mountain making good use of the extra running lights fitted to our bikes, mine point in the wrong direction so I follow Gerard using his lights to guide the way. Great road in good condition. Would have been awesome in daylight, but it was stillgoid fun in the dark. We regroup before joining a motorway.
On the motorway the lorries are as fast as us or faster downhill, but we pass them uphill. The US freeway rules seem to apply, so we often overtake on the inside lane and then our European genes keep us there. Steve likens it to a game of Mario Kart. We regroup again after a toll booth (bikes are toll free) and discuss the difficulty of keeping together in the dark. It's easy to lose track of the rider ahead and behind, so we keep a tighter grouping from now on.
We reach La Dorada and park up. 160km today. Doesn't sound much, but they were hard km. Hard, but enjoyable. Three punctures, a broken gear lever, and a trip to a dodgy doctor in a police car - we like a challenge and we got one. More please!
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