October 15, Day 14: Las Horquetas to Baja Caracoles
Another horrible headwind. Komoot estimated today's ride to take 6.5 hours, I took 10, and it's all because of the wind.
Worst moment was about midway, when I saw clouds of earth being blown across the road. The wind here is continuously strong, so if anything's loose it gets blown away. So a cloud of dust means the wind is unusually strong! Why don't the forecasts say this? They're filled with "breezy" and "shifting conditions" and not "STAY HOME IT'S GONE UP A LEVEL".
After that dust storm the road went up a hill that wasn't especially steep, but the wind was blowing straight down with so much force I got off and pushed. The wind is pulling at my shirt and feels like it's going to dislodge my helmet and it's so loud in my ears I can't hear anything. At the top I tried riding, but had to use the lowest gear and could barely go walking speed. At this rate it'll be tomorrow before I get there, and I'm not kidding. It was not a good moment. It was so bad I was starting to plan how to flag down a 4x4 and ask for a lift...
But after a while the route turned right, and the wind became a sidewind. And sidewinds are what I was expecting from the routemap and wind forecast. It's not great but I can do 10km/h with a horrible sidewind, which is enough to get to Baja Caracoles before night falls, which is what really matters.
From left to right: the last time I looked upbeat all day. Very long straight road. 110 speed limit undone by the wind. A section of gravel in the middle of the road.
The wind was nearly as severe as the horrible days on the way to Rio Gallegos. Sometimes it got so strong I started doing swoops, to avoid being blown into the gravel. But on reflection, it was just like that briefly, and not for the whole time.
So most of the day was spent trying to do 10km/h and often not managing it. 108km, 10 hours, no fun. Might be picking up a cold.
Fingers crossed the wind is calmer tomorrow, for the final section to Perito Moreno. Where I’m planning to take two days off.
