Km1814 to Km1760: Petrol stations
Waking up at the back of the petrol station I suddenly realised we had been camping between 2 large petrol tankers and a giant commercial gas bottle, relieved we had survived the night and hadn't decided to make a little camp fire we head off down the road. Soon we came to Zapala where we had planned to do some much needed washing and to spend a day or 2 resting and discovering our new home country. Sadly again we arrived during siesta time and after waiting outside a hostel for 3hrs for it to open we found it was not worth the money they were asking for so we decided to make our way out of town. We still had clothes that hadn't seen a washing machine since Santiago but we had no choice, they would have to wait until Neuquén 180km away for a good wash!
Again just outside town there was a petrol station with good facilities round the back and it was starting to rain. It was already dark so we went with the ask for forgiveness option and just slinked round the back and set-up camp. Once the tents were set-up it soon started to pelt down with rain so I don't think anyone knew we were there or could be bothered to care given all the rain. There is something quite comforting about being inside a nice cosy tent while its pouring down with rain outside. I now lie here in the comfort of my tent with the pouring rain outside and I find it quite amazing that I can be sitting here taping away at my keyboard, incredibly content and looking forward to another good nights sleep somewhere in the world I never imagined I would ever have been.
Km1760 to Km1650: 'Highveld' thunderstorm
Having slept that night like a baby, thanks to the rain taping down on my tent, we woke to clear skies and a nice dry tent. Given that we had set-up in the dark and in a rather big hurry we didn't really know what we had put our tents down on so when Mark got up first thing in the morning he discover he had been sleeping with used baby nappy just outside his tent, something which we found quite entertaining but weren't going to laugh too quickly at because we could never be sure what we would find lurking under our tents. We knew we would be staying in the middle of nowhere that day so we just made as much ground as we could. The weather was good, roads quiet and the scenery desolate with oil pumps jutting out of it every so often. We now knew why we had seen so many petrol tankers going back and forth over the border with Chile and could now confirm it was Chile that was doing the importing and Argentina doing the exporting.
Later that evening we picked a random desolate spot amongst the oil fields and enjoyed a dramatic sunset while cooking dinner. We were off to bed early only to be woken shortly after by a violent electric storm. Once I had counted the seconds between the thunder and lightning and had worked out the lighting was nowhere near I quickly nodded back off to sleep, it had been a while since I had enjoyed a good 'highveld' thunderstorm.
Km1650 to Km1585: Great steak and Malbec in Neuquén
Again we awoke to clear skies and dry tents but by lunch time the road into Neuquén had become quite unpleasant. It had had no hard shoulder ever since the border but there had not been much traffic so it hadn't been a problem but now we were starting to get into the outskirts of Neuquén and thus had more urban traffic to contend with. Traffic was pretty heavy in both directions leaving very little space for cars, trucks and buses to overtake.
Having only just surviving the road into Neuquén we were quite relieved to be at our destination and quickly started looking for place to stay. We figured we would spend 2 days there getting washing done and sorting out local SIM cards amongst other things. Everyone in Neuquén was very friendly and a lady even chased us down so she could provide us with some useful information about where good hostels etc and ultimately we landed up staying at the Hostels International hostel that the lady had suggested. Everyone at the hostel as incredible friendly, we had a nice room, they had facilities to do washing and the lady we met in the street even came back there the next day to a make sure we had found everything we were looking for.
The hostel was awesome and had a big fat braai place where Nick and I got stuck into some good Argentinian steak and Malbec red wine. Neuquén itself didn't have too much to offer but it was big enough for us to get done what we wanted t do and relax a bit. The people at the hostel were great to chat to and strangely enough mostly were Argentinian so it was good to get some Spanish practice in. Pablo, an Argentinian who was staying at the hostel, muted the idea of joining us on the bikes when we get to Uruguay which would be awesome especially since he speaks Spanish but we'll see if anything comes of it as it all depends on whether or not he gets a job as a life guard on the local white water scene.
Km1585 to Km1540: Rio Negro
Now with our mobile phones working on the local network, thanks to the very helpful Augosto at Personal, and our clothes clean we set-off on the bikes once again. The road was quite harrowing coming into Neuquén and only got worse as we headed out of town which confirmed our plans to get on to the dirt road as soon as possible that ran parallel to the highway we were on, but on the other side of Rio Negro. Only that evening did we get the bridge that would take us over the river and to the dirt road that would be a lot quieter but did not pass by any towns for the next 100km.
Realising that 100km on a dirt road was probably going to take us 2 days we discovered we were a bit short of food so just before crossing the bridge we decided to stop at a little shop where we could restock, but we had also noticed that they had a lovely piece of grass out front their shop. This would be perfect place to camp as the river was just down the road meaning we could have an early morning swim before heading off and to boot there were tables and chairs under the tree which would be perfect for preparing dinner on. The sun was going down fast so I was not going to mince my words and just asked the shopkeeper straight out if we could camp there. The shopkeeper was more than happy for us to camp there and once we had set-up camp under the trees him and his son joined us for a chat as the sun went down over Rio Negro. This is when we began to realise it was no longer a coincidence but that Argentinians probably are some of the friendliest and most generous people around.
Km1540 to Km1490: Campo, campo, campo
The following morning we had a great refreshing swim in Rio Negro and then headed off across the bridge and down the dirt road. We had been told that all the was was 'campo' (veld or grasslands) on either side of the dirt road interjected by Valle Azul 100km on but we had not appreciated how little there would be. Fortunately the road wasn't too bad but there was little really in fact nothing , no cars, no farm houses just a few cows some of who were now dry skeletons on the side of the road. According to the locals it has been raining for a weak prior but luckily the road had dried out quite a bit resulting in only few muddy spots that nearly took me for a muddy swim only just saving myself by bringing myself down in the grass next to me.
Just in time for lunch we came to an elevated point on the road where we could look down over Rio Negro which was magnificent. The scenery although dry and desolate was beautiful and that night we enjoined a peaceful night just randomly sleeping in the 'campo' with absolutely nothing to disturb us.
Km1490 to Km1440: Camping by Rio Grande
The next day we arrived in Valle Azul in time for a lunch and a restock. The people in this little town were again very friendly and we even asked by one of the locals if we could have photo with them. We even managed to rouse the attention of the police while we enjoyed our lunch under a tree, we were probably the biggest disturbance the poor policeman had seen in years.
After plenty more punctures, bruises, scratches and worsening sunburns we came to a little cow path where we could make our way down to the river, Rio Grande, to set-up camp for the night. I'm not quite sure why the river alternates between the names Rio Negro (Black River) and Rio Grande (Big River), but is does. Navigating our way down a cow path to the river's edge was quite treacherous but it was all worth it. Once we were down by the river we found a nice soft patch of grass to set-up camp, then it was time to freshen up in the river. It is so great just camping by a river in the absolute middle of nowhere.
It is nice and warm in this area so I decided to sleep under only the mosquito net part of my tent that night. I now lay here on my back typing this out on my phone with only a thin net between me and the starry sky above allowing me to spot the most amazing falling star I have ever seen just over the corner of my phone, it even had a long burning tail and everything! I just feel so privileged to be here under the night sky with the only sound of the flowing river and jumping fish to to disturb me.
Km1440 to Km1360: Ants
One of the great things about the dirt road has been the true desolation of it all. When going through the deserts in Peru and Chile we were mostly on highways so there was always passing traffic however, out here we were lucky if we saw a car a day. Sitting down for lunch in the harsh sun, as there were no trees to speak of, we have found ourselves beginning to appreciate the really small things in life, ants. As we sat there eating our bread rolls we noticed the little army ants marching off with our bread crumbs and decided to follow them to where they were taking them. These little guys were just amazing and so entertaining to watch. First we gave them bigger and bigger pieces of bread to see what they would do with it and when they became too heavy for one guy to carry they would team up and carry if off. Then we saw one little guy attempting to pick-up a little berry by it's stalk and after egging him on for a bit he just seemed to build up some energy and wham he whipped it up and over his shoulder, as if ant sized sack of potatoes – man were we impressed! Another little guy had found a small fluffy flower thing and too was carrying it by the stalk but the wind just kept catching and pulling it out of his hands. We just sat there laughing and observing these little guys' determination for over an hour. I didn't quite realise how entertain an army of ants can be when they're not ruining your picnic or trashing the kitchen sink.
By midday it was pretty hot and the sand on the road was begging to get a bit too soft so we had just about had enough when it prematurely turned to tar. We had almost forgotten what it felt like for the bike to just keep rolling once you stopped peddling. A little way down the tar road we saw a police station in the middle of nowhere and wondered what on earth the people there did and soon we found out. Just as we came past the station a cop on a motorbike went the other way but then a few minutes later he came flying back past us flashing his blue light indicating for us to pull off. I wondered what on earth now what law can we have possibly broken. Apparently, we hadn't broken any law the guy was just so darn bored that he decided to exercise his blue light powers so he could pull us over have a chat.
After passing through a small town, Fary Luis Beltran, we came to Choele Choel where we had hoped to restock and keep going. However, we had done our same old trick and arrived in town during siesta time except this time it was a Sunday and the shops would not be reopening until the next day. On entering the town we had seen there was a camp site in the town but on an island called 'La Isla' (The Island) so we decided to cut our loses and camp the night there and head off in the morning. What we discovered is that camping in Argentina is a lot cheaper than in Chile and that the reason all the shops are closed on Sunday even is because everyone is at the local camp site hall doing some crazy drunken dancing. 'La Isla' was literally an island sat in the middle of the Rio Negro river so it was pretty awesome camping there except that they had chosen a rather strange tree to plant all over the camp site, Mulberry trees, which were now baring fruit by the bucket load!
Km 1360 to Km1220: The beautiful girls of Rio Colorado
Waking up on 'La Isla' Nick and Mark had a swim to wake themselves up for the day while I enjoyed a lie in. Once we had scraped the mulberries from our tents and bike parts we set off to do our shop planning for at least 2 days of food as the next town, Rio Colorado, was over 140 away. The road to Rio Colorado was dead straight, had no towns and intersections and was pretty much flat all the way but what was even more fantastic about it was that the prevailing wind headed straight up it towards Rio Colorado. The wind was strong that day and in our favour so we hardly needed to peddle when we were in our top gear, and we estimated that we must have been averaging about 30km/h which is pretty impressive when your packing over 100km on your bike. So, in under 5 hours we arrived in Rio Colorado with a whole lot of unnecessary groceries.
Oddly though Rio Colorado is a very awesome little town which seems to be quite wealthy. Rio Colorado is quite aptly set on Rio Colorado but there is nothing else from there for miles besides farms. Cycling onto town the first thing we noticed was that all the girls were beautiful and cycling around a bit we this was confirmed from parks to shops most the girls you saw were just simply beautiful. We also noticed that the streets we very clean and seemed to have some rather upmarket restaurants including a very nice Panaderia (bakery) with a girl serving you that was the hottest girl in the world, according to Nick. This town also had a very cool bar done up with lots of antique things including road sighs and number plates from all over the world. Most of the number plates were from Argentina, South America or the USA but then we notice he had an actual number plate from my home province in South Africa, Gauteng, how bizarre!
After enjoying a good evening at the bar and the Panadaria we made our way to the camp site which was apparently very nice and on the river. On our way there we were came across a large group of kids, the kind of kids had I seen while cycling through London I would given a large birth to in fear of my life. However, these kids were the polar opposite to London kids they were just so polite and all they wanted to do was chat with us, quite oddly no one had the impulse to shout out 'wot you look'n at' or swipe our mobile phones at any stage, which was quite a pleasant surprise. We landed up chatting to these kids in the street for ages before we took pictures, shared email address and then received further directions of how to get to the camp site.
Once at the camp site, even though it as now going on for midnight, the site manager was still up so he came running out to meet us when his dog alerted his attention. We thought ha he's just so excited to make a quick but off of us gringos even through we're hardly going to be here 8 hours but no in true Argentinian style he just wanted to welcome us and when I asked how much we owed he said nothing for you because it's late, and then showed us to a camp spot explaining that there were ablution blocks with hot water if we wanted. In the morning I enjoined another early morning river swim and a second hot shower, just because I could.
Km1220 to Km1094: Waking up on a bar lawn
The prevailing wind was still going in our direction and there was not too much to see until we got to Bahía Blanca 170km away so we decided to do what is we have discovered is best on this kind of trip and that is to 'make hay while the sunshine's', which has now become quite synonymous with taking advantage of a good loo when its available but it still applies to most things we do here. When you arrive in a town and the shops are open then shop now don't leave it, if you see a chocolate is on special don't wait till the next town to take advantage of it even if it is in a big chain buy it now, if the sun is shining and you come across a river stop and swim don't hope in vain that you'll soon come across another river no matter how many times the map indicates that you'll cross that river again. All of this is dictated by Murphy's Law or 'Ley de Murphy' as they refer to it here, because the minute you take something for granted Murphy will be sure to be there to prove you wrong and that's why no matter how clear the skies are make sure the suntan lotion and sun-glass are hard to get to and the rain coat is at hand because then you're guaranteed it won't rain that day. We really have become quite religious about our belief in Murphy and what seems to be the only way to defeat him and that is to 'make hay'.
'Making hay' really did pay off because we after stopping briefly to have lunch in an abandoned old farm house we managed to make it to far poorer town than that of Rio Colorado called Médanos, 126km down the road in good time. We did not expect much from this town other than to do some shopping and catchup on a few mails then head a little out of town to find a camping spot however, Médanos had other plans.
Although the town was a little groggy and the people not quite as good looking as Rio Colorado we got a good feeling about this town when we entered it, yet it was a very strange town. Firstly we came across a Panadaria (bakery) called 'Paz Panaderia' which directly translated means The Bakery of Peace, a rather odd name for a bakery but pleasant none the less and they did have delicious bread, spreading peace one loaf at a time. Next we were reprimanded by the police for cycling the wrong way up a one way street. I really don't understand this, all the towns in Argentina no matter how small all have one way streets everywhere but to add to it the streets are wide enough to turn an ox-wagon, seriously they are about 4 lanes wide and there are about 4 cars a day riding down them. So, I really don't understand why they don't save themselves the trouble of ridding around in circles and putting up unnecessary one way signs, and then the police could do something else with their time instead of standing around waiting to reprimand the one gringo that comes into town every decade.
Mark and Nick found an Internet café to do there admin at but I preferred to sit in a coffee shop with my laptop so I went of cycling in circles around the town trying to find a coffee shop or restaurant where I could sit and use my laptop even if they didn't have wifi. Strangely though after asking around I discovered the only such place is the restaurant at the petrol station just outside of town . It quite sad to think that the only place these people can relax and eat a meal is at the petrol station on the edge of town but then had the bright conclusion that if they don't have a restaurant they must definitely have a bar. Of course, I was right every as self respecting town has a bar so off I went in search of it.
After cycling past the bar about 4 times 'contra mano' (the wrong way), which is what everybody on the side walk shouts at you if you cycling up the wrong way, I eventually found the bar but it was more of a hall than a bar. The bar had those bead things hanging across the door and as I got close I immediately heard the chit chatter of the local men inside the bar however as I cycled up and lent my bike up against the wall when I would be able to see it through the bar window everything suddenly went very quite. I walked through the beads and all the men, all 5 of them at this stage, stopped and stared at me. I had to fight the instinct to turn and run but just announced loudly to everyone 'buenos tardes señores, quiro cerveza!' (good afternoon gentlemen, I want beer!-now this may seem very direct but this is how you ask for things in Spanish you simply expressing a desire) this was warmly received and the bar man quickly appear from the back producing an ice icy cold Quilmes.
I knew I could hardly now ignore the men sitting at tables scattered around the room shouting things across at each other so I just sat quietly at a table sipping my beer engaging in some friendly banter across the room about our cycling trip. At one point a tubby gentleman cycled up parked his bike, ran up to the bar and ordered a spirit. The other men began to poke fun at him saying how far do you cycle everyday? The man very proudly responded saying at least 20km a day! They all laughed and pointed at me saying he has cycled 130km today! He quickly downed his spirit and ran off back to his bike. I now felt like I had their approval and soon after this I was presented with another bottle of beer but I hadn't ordered another one. Not sure why I had received it and wondering how things worked around here I queried across the bar 'quanto de debo?' (how much do I owe) too which I was quickly informed it was on them.
To thank the men for the beer I moved over to where they were sitting and offered to share the beer between us as is the custom here and they gladly obliged. The beers began to flow fast and furious from here resulting in both my understanding of Spanish getting worse and their ability to speak clearly quickly diminishing. I was quite relieved when the other boys responded to my text message saying they were on their way because I knew once they arrived it would take away a little of pressure off me to comprehend what was being said around me. Now with the other guys there and the banter flying fast and furious a few more locals arrived one looking and behaving very much like a true Scotsman which was quite entertaining.
All the gentlemen were very kind and by the end of the evening we had been offered a place to stay or a place on the lawn to camp outside and were also asked to stay on the next day to join them for a braai but we needed to get ot Bahía Blanca so we graciously declined. We however did land up camping on the lawn just the back of the bar. While we were setting up our tents Mark headed back into the bar and to his surprise a lady had appeared. I'm not quite sure what was said but Mark quickly returned to the tents looking for backup because it sounded like they were trying to hook the two of them up and the men just couldn't understand why Mark as not interested. Quite strangely here in South America infidelity almost seems to be the order of the day, if someone's 'novia' (girlfriend or fiancé)is not there it is almost as if they don't exist. Fortunately Mark managed to change the subject and after a few more beers and some banter we retired to our tents only to wake up feeling a little squeezy wonder what on earth had happened!
Km 1094 to Km1050: Manu Chao and Chilling in Bahía Blanca
Thank heavens we had only left ourselves 40 odd kilometres to Bahía Blanca because after an impromptu night at the bar no amount of bread from The Bakery of Peace could make me feel better. We had an incentive though that once in Bahía Blanca we would stay for a day or two and we would be getting to the the Atlantic Ocean for the first time since leaving the Pacific ocean up in Chile. The cycle was not easy and to boot the wind changed direction for the last 15km so we had a strong headwind coming into Bahía Blanca.
Bahía Blanca is not pretty as its name suggests, Clear Bay, and really is just a groggy port city but the people there are friendly none the less. Cycling into town opposite the central town plaza down another stupid one way street the man in panel van in front of me just stared reversing and before I could get out of his way he hit my bike and I went flying into the road. Fortunately I managed to slap has car as I fell so he stopped short of damaging me and my bike but I landed on the handle bar sprawled in the middle of the road. Luckily there was no other traffic and a hippy guy we had met back in Choele Choel appeared out of nowhere to quickly help me up. As soon as he knew I was all fine he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. I was fine and couldn't really say too much to the driver because he was already very apologetic and obviously could not have seem me though his van so off I went a little shocked.
For accommodation the tourist office directed us Bahía Blanca Hostal but they were all full due to a convention that was on in town but they very kindly did a bit of phoning around for us only to establish that everywhere else was full too. It had just started to bucket down with rain as we stepped in the door so being the kind Argentinians that they are they made a plan and said that we could sleep on the floor in the table tennis room for free after midnight. They had space for the next night so we decided to stay there and then at least we would have room in the morning sometime. The hostel was awesome with had very cool décor set in a very old colonial building. There wasn't much to Bahía Blanca besides the pretty town square so we were just enjoying relaxing in the enjoyable atmosphere of the hostel and took good advantage of the kitchen.
The next day we discovered that Manu Chao just by chance would be playing at a local venue that night, I had gotten some Manu Chao music from a friend before coming out here and had been listening to while cycling for the last 7 month so could not believe it when I found out they were playing in Bahía Blanca. Fortunately there were still tickets available and the cool hostel manager had offered us a lift with him and his wife. We really had lucked out with our stay in Bahía Blanca.
When we got to the venue where Manu Chao was playing there was a huge queue but we first needed to collect our tickets so were directed to the office close to the front of the queue. After we had gotten our tickets no one seemed to be too bothered by us being there so we just proceeded on to the gates knowing we would probably get way with it by pleading ignorant gringos. No one battered an eye lid not even one of the ten police that hadn't noticed that we hadn't been searched. Once inside we found we were one of the first few people inside so could get a spot right in front of the stage which we would later begin to regret. Strangely though they don't sell beer or food in their venues so we were quite starving and would soon find out why they don't sell alcohol.
Quite unexpectedly the concert started on time, around 9pm, and without any pre backup band. By the time Manu Chao came on the venue was packed and we were now quite tightly wedged near the front. The crowd went mad when the band came on and it pretty much got crazier from there. Manu Chao was brilliant, as the tempo went up everyone just started jumping and swaying into one another. Now, I had come to expect this if I was at a punk concert and I was anywhere near the marsh pit but here the whole venue just seemed to turn into one giant marsh pit. Everyone seemed to be jumping simultaneously and if you got your timing wrong you'd just crash into someone who would fly into someone else which would create one massive chain reaction of people flying across the venue. At one point I was being squashed so hard I couldn't breath in and was quite relived I was over a foot taller than the average Argentinian and could just pop out the top if I really need to. The concert was great and I can see that these Argentinians really do know how to party – I can't wait to go watch an Argentinian game during the South African Football World Cup!
Km1050 to Km1010: World Cup Draw
Waking up with every muscle in my body aching from the Manu Chao concert the night before I realised it was already 10am and was about the miss our free hostel breakfast so I upped ran through, smelling like a giant cigarette, to claim my spot in the breakfast area. It was the World cup Draw day and we had decide to stick around until 2pm our time (7pm in South Africa) for the draw. The hostel had already been so kind to us but gave us yet another liberty and let us keep our room for an extra few hours so we could get our bikes packed up before we all sat down to watch the draw. This was such a treat because all I wanted to do was have one last nice warm shower and get packed properly and not have to run around frantically still smelling like cigarette just so that we could be out of the room by 10am, which was now already long gone.
Since Argentina had qualified for the World Cup the local station already by 11am had a show building up to the draw. It was so exciting sitting there watching our country be discussed and scrutinised by the world and from what I could understand they kept saying 'Que impresionante, que fantástico!' whenever they cut to live footage of South Africa. Just about everyone in the hostel that stopped to have look at the tele as they went by were sure as can be to be told that we were South African and this was our country. When the draw show finally commenced and Johnny Clegg started symbolically walking down through Africa with his familiar tune blaring out of the speakers, and an annoying Spanish translator shouting over the top, I just smiled from ear to ear forcing a lump back down my throat. I thought the show was brilliant and very professional with one of my best parts being the old wise umkhulu sitting down with his grandchildren showing them the book, I just think this scene had so much symbolism in it, we have an abundance of history and culture but we can be modern and first world too. The draw seemed fair too resulting in relatively fair pools, I can't wait for the World Cup and truly believe it is going to be one of the best World Cups yet!
Happy that I'd been able catch the draw show live, and a little concerned about the kind of whipping I'm going to see Mexico give Bafana Bafana in the opening match at Soccer City, we said cheers to all at the hostel and set off on our bikes. We managed an easy 40km before the sun began to fall taking us comfortable out of town where we now camp fairly well hidden on the side of the road amongst some trees. Hopefully the wind won't be too strong in the morning and the rain forecast never materialises because the wind farm we cycled past about 5km back concerns me a bit. There are 3 beaches we hope to visit on the way to Mar del Plata the first of which is now 150km away so we should hopefully be there in the next 2 days.
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