We had a fantastic day cycling across the salt flats - sparkling in the sunshine - our first day to cycle over 100kms - many more are needed if we are to make our plane in January!
We were recommended a map which we bought in the UK, however it has proved to add to the challenges. We cycled over 30 miles on a dirt road into the desert, towards a string of little towns marked on the map. The first one didn´t appear to exist, and the second was just a single house with no roof and more importantly no water supply. There were similar towns marked further along the road, but with only a litre of water left between us, it was a difficult decision as to whether to carry on in the hope that the next town existed, or return the 30 miles that had taken us about 4 hours of cycling back to the main road! Having not seen a vehicle all day, 3 lorries came along at once, and gave us water, oranges, chocolate and coke which we consumed instantly to their amusement!
Catriona´s front wheel has been of no problem since the amazing dutch repair, however with all her load on the back, the pannier rack sheared off the connection to the frame. After some very entertaining charades in the town centre, she was wisked away in the back of a 4x4 with her bike, leaving me to hope she hadn´t been abducted! Luckily, she was taken to Gabriel´s house, an extremely talented artist, metal sculpter as well as musician, and on the side a welder! He did a perfectionist repair of Catriona´s bike, including spray painting it purple to protect from rust! His girlfriend was equally talented, insisting on having us for dinner before we headed back on the road.
Since then we´ve headed east again, across Paso de Sanfrancisco - it's been totally amazing, with multicoloured mountains from the many minerals, and yet another border post offering a place to sleep that has sheltered us from the perpetual winds - they call them white winds because of the salt!
It really has been stunning, but one of the most challenging few days - again struggling with deep sand, breathlessness from exercising at altitude, and also bitterly cold - cycling in a down jacket, whooly hat and balaclava around my face, and waking up in the morning to find a thin layer of ice on my sleeping bag! The challenge of water, this time rather than the lack of it, was the fact it was a 10kg block of ice, and the fuel was too cold to be able to light! So a diet of cookies again to keep us going! However, the scenary and feeling of wilderness has made it all worthwhile!
