Last night I met a couple on motorbikes. They were beyond exhausted having just completed what lay ahead for me. Translating that for me, I discovered today that means pushing – almost the whole way.
The soft road
Most of the problem is soft sand. At its deepest, you can push a few metres and gather your breath. The next level is its still too soft to cycle but you can push for longer without stopping. Then there’s a light sprinkling of soft sand over hard earth. This is ok for cycling (about 5km/h) if there isn’t a hurricane headwind. There was usually a hurricane headwind. Then there’s the hard earth – with rocks and corrigations, but cyclable.
Crossing between two tracks. The grass looks greener on the other side.
I had generously given myself 3 hours to get to Arbol de Piedra for lunch. Then another 10km to a ruin on the side of the road for dinner. I arrived at Arbol de Piedra just before 3 and decided to stop for the day. I couldn’t risk being caught exposed to the howling wind at nightfall.Arbol de Piedra means tree of rock. It is a place with lots of big boulders just standing there on the sandy plains. There’s plenty of places to hide away from the wind. It’s a pretty cool place.
Arbol de Piedra
A beautiful wind break at Arbol de Piedra
Reading the route description, today’s road conditions were arduous but not atypical. Tomorrow I have 10km of better road and 20 of shit road until the luxurious Hotel del Desierto. I fully hope to make it there tomorrow and spend USD120 on a room before finding a lift out of this place. It may all seem better in the morning, but holidays don’t have to be this hard.
arctic-cycler.com 
This is spectacular, but it does sound as if you’re doing it tough!
This day was one of the hardest I have had on the bike.. A beautiful place though.
Arduous is the word! Take it easy, Matt.
Arduous but worth it. 🙂
Keep riding. It’s worth it.
It’s a beautiful route!
Sounds like a very hard but nice route. I tend to think the same often… it is a holliday, no need to push so hard. End up pushing even harder haha. I’ve been waiting for the next post for some days. Hope everything is fine!
Hi there. Yep. Everything is fine. I’ve been in an internet black hole. More to come soon. 🙂
[…] The Ruta de Lagunas was tough. Deep sand and a constant gale force headwind meant that I pushed my bike a lot of the way. There were moments I just stopped and hung my head over my handlebars in despair. In the elements you can feel the force of mother nature, and you feel so small and insignificant. […]