The tale of the B-245

Ahoyhoy to you and your dog,

San Pedro De Atacama is a pretty town (but exists for tourists now) of single story buildings, some mud brick. I like it. I´ve even got my washing done which is handy asd I used my trunks as pants today!

My plan of leaving for the Geyser field as soon as there was light to see by sounded good but alas, having mo alarm clock I was wake half the night wondering if it was light yet then I slept and missed it. Anyway it was only 90km so how long could it take and how hard could it be? the guidebook said it was a maintained road.

The views started well:

Here is a list of dozen difficult things to encounter when riding a heavy bike with too high a centre of gravity and you guess at which we experienced today:

1) Blinding sun in your eyes, 2) 10" deep soft sand, 3) the road had dissappeared, 4) Its below freezing, 5) Ice, 6) Penguins, 7) Crystalised salt, 8) Rivers, 9) rock fields posing as road, 10) Wet sand, 11) Massive dirty puddles/miniponds, 12) A broken bike.

Any idea? Well I did not see any penguins today. The rest we did. It took a little under 2 hours to get there and 90mins back. The sun and sand combined to cause a slight issue which you will see below. The rest were surmounted by the amazing Sir Humphrey - what an amazing off road bike he is despite how I overload him and ride him not particually well!

Firstly no road:

Then the sand and sun. I didn´t notice the altitude until I tried to pick Sir Humphrey up and was instantly panting.

The water was a tad deeper than one hoped:

The vibrations, so strong as to almost jar the grips out of your hands, caused a nut to leave the team and the pannier brace to relocate itself. My magic pot provided replacement. This was after Sir Humphrey bottomed out his front suspension the road was that bad but nothing original on him seems to mind a bit.

But you have to say the view made it all worth it, I love this photo:

So after all of that I collected my laundry, set up the tent, tightened every bolt I could find on Sir Humphrey (good call) and came to share my day with you wonderful peoples. Tomorrow back to Argentina and day after Bolivia. It might not always look like it but doing this on a very tight budget and time frame of 100 days is bloody hard work but I´d rather be here than being coughed on by little darlings! If any of you think I need more of a challenge then pledge some money and I´ll give it a go.

TTFN,

Tiggoya Tiggitis