14th Jan 2020
I left the El Cactus hostel in Susques just after 9 am.I said goodbye to 3 very friendly Brazilian bikers who were heading to Chile and Peru, then went for breakfast. The weather was looking a bit dodgy on the forecasts; thunderstorms expected pretty much the whole way. Ruta 40 is pretty much impassable in rain on the northern dirt bit. I was hoping to get to La Poma which reputedly has a fantastic municipal camp site which is also free. The weather looked ok so I decided to head for San Antonio de les Cobres and take it from there. The road was ripio (corrgated) most of the way. I hadn’t seen stuff as bad since Botswana 30 years ago. If you can get some speed up it’s not too bad. But there was a stretch of about 20km across a huge bowl in the mountains that was obviously uphill. It would take me about a mile to get up to a speed where the corrugations suddenly seem to smooth out, which was around 2300rpm in 4th, top speed on this section. Problem was, about every quarter mile there was a stream crossing the road, which meant slowing down again.
Watching the little fluffy clouds becoming big fluffy clouds, I didn’t stop much, though I did manage to fly the drone again. Eventually crossing the plain the road wound through some ravines, at one point becoming a narrow winding track on a cliff, with a huge drop-off to the right. Then I came across a strange sight, a huge curved railway bridge about 200 feet above the road. It is the Viaducto de La Polvorilla, the highest railway bridge in the world at 4182m above sea level. It is also the last stop of the Tren les Nubes, which makes it seem pretty pointless: couldn’t they have just stopped a bit sooner? The locals evidently don’t mind wrecking their cars as I passed numerous little cars rattling their way up the hillside. Two stopped me and asked how far it was.
At San Antonio de los Cobres I could see some storms buiding. I decided to see if the road avoided them knowing I could probably outtrun a storm back to town if I couldn’t continue. I followed Google Maps on to a bit of Ruta 40 which looked unused. After about 10km it joined a tar road. a new bit that I have subsequently found out has in fact been incorporated into Ruta 40. After about another 10km it turned off onto gravel. It was corrugated, not as badly as the previous stretch but I could get up a good speed heading towards some mountains and the Abra de Acay pass, at 4895m reputedly the highest pass on a national road in the world. Its certainly very high. There were two storms. The road seemed to be heading between them so I continued. Even when I reached the base of the pass it looked clear. But I guess sbout halfway up I came round a steep climbing hairpin in first gear, to be confronted by a wall of black! The gap was closing up. I turned round and scuttled back to Cobres. I didnt stop for about 10 km from the base of the pass, then I saw a bicycle heading towards me so I stopped and waited for him. He was French, about 59 I guess. When I pointed at the storms, he just shrugged his shoulders and said he was used to it. Wow. He also told me there were no hotel rooms available in Cobres, so evidently he had been thinking of treating himself to one.
The first hotel had no rooms. Second hotel had one room but it was a triple, I took it anyway. There is now a German couple hanging around hoping a reserved customer doesn’t turn up.
I took a walk after a shower. It was really hot. Its like you can feel you are closer to the sun. All the shops were closed.
There’s beautiful church here. I sat inside for a while enjoying the cool calm. When I came out a shop had opened. Using Google Translate I asked Lorenzo. the shopkeeper to let me buy the ingredients for a sandwich, and asked him to assemble it for me. He produced a huge butty and a sub. He asked me where I was from. The reply that I was English didn’t go down well. Turns out Lorenzo fought in the Falklands (Malvinas). Whoops. I said I hated war and that calmed him down a bit. He shook my hand when I left and wished me a safe journey.
I think I am Scottish now.
So tomorrow I will have a look at the weather and hopefully get to La Poma and points beyond. And I am glad today just turned out to be an acclimatisation trip.
It’s just started raining here.
