October 6: Day 7, Rio Gallegos to Hostería Las Horquetas
Back on the road. It's a Sunday and the bakeries are closed when I leave town so I surreptitiously arranged some lunch from the breakfast buffet. That meant a dolce-de-leche sandwich and a banana, normally not a good choice but for cycling it's just right.
I'm heading to Hostería Las Horquetas today, it's a 6.5 hour ride and the route is pretty indirect and is on gravel roads for about 40km. There is a more direct road but it's a dual-lane highway which is not a place for bikes: Komoot won't plan bike routes on it, but interestingly Google will.
The gravel road goes through some extra run-down parts of Rio Gallegos, and then out into the countryside. Where there was a thin layer of trash - it looked like people had dumped rubbish out here, and the light stuff had blown away but the heavy stuff was still around. Not nice.
Got chased by dogs a few times. Best was when an old guy crossed the road, followed by about six dogs; they looked like they were his. I sailed past, gave a cheery wave and he went instantly from quiet old man to 100% enraged shouting at the top of his lungs ... because all the dogs decided to run barking after me. They did not listen to him. I had thoughts about taking a picture of the dog horde but if I dropped the phone or even a glove things would get interesting - stop to retrieve it and risk getting bitten? Wait until they go and risk someone grabbing it? So no photo, unfortunately.
The gravel road was heading due west, and a bit of headwind showed up. The forecast was for light westerlies, maybe up to 20km/h, increasing through the day. Still had a long day ahead so I just dropped down a gear and rolled with it.
Speaking of which: no gear problems! Ago-Bikes have done a good job, the back gears are working flawlessly.
The route went from a wide flat two-lane gravel road to a branch-off, a smaller access road for a power line. Two big tyre ruts and big gravel stones - riskier to ride on, and it needs more care. No mud though; there hasn't been any rain recently and everything was dried out.
Then it rejoined the asphalt road, heading back east - this was the roundabout detour to avoid most of the motorway. The wind was enough to be a helpful tailwind. I'd planned out this part of the route carefully: I needed to cross a river, there's an old and new bridge side-by-side so I had a route that meant I nearly completely avoided the motorway: it'd take a track parallel the highway until near the river, cross the motorway then get on the access road to the old bridge, so I'd hopefully avoid all the motorway traffic.
Well, the roads had been reconstructed and there was a barrier at the side of the road which meant I couldn't see or take that track.
From left to right: a random street in Rio Gallegos. Interesting power pylon. Long straight gravel road. Passed a railway line - looked rarely used. Taranaki gate.
There wasn’t anything else I could do except keep going - until I ended up at a motorway roundabout and the only way out was forward.
But it was a Sunday morning and there was almost no traffic! Also there was a nice wide fog lane/road shoulder for me to use. It was a kilometer or two to the bridge and a few things went past, but it was quite the anticlimax.
And that was the morning. The afternoon was uneventful: four people on road bikes went past, I swapped a few words with a hiker, the wind stepped up, and while it's still nowhere near as intense as it was the other day, it did slow things down. What was estimated as a 6.5 hour ride was turning into 8, which doesn't make me happy: I have a 9-hour ride coming up, so today's delay is a good guide to how much longer the big one will take. I was doing some glum maths when the sun came out from behind a cloud - it had been overcast all day - and I realized that cycling in the sun is something I'd happily do all day, but in grey cloudy weather I'm just interested in getting to the end quickly! So hopefully the long ride happens on a sunny day.
From left to right: great wall art on what looks like an equipment store, miles from anywhere. Shrine with many ribbons. Beware of the wind. The sun came out.
Tonight I'm staying in some rooms behind the restaurant "Hosteria las Horquetas" which is quite a long way from anywhere. The rooms are simple but so immaculate they must have recently redecorated. The bathroom is clean and modern and (unlike the place I was staying in Rio Gallegos) doesn't flood. For a 38-euro per night room in the middle of nowhere, it's great. In fact it's better than the hotel in Rio Gallegos.
Tomorrow is a shorter 60km ride, then I'm staying in a hotel which is also in the middle of nowhere. My guess is that most of their guests are from tourist buses...
