It started to rain gently during the night and was still misty at
dawn. John was up early writing emails. When I climbed out of bed it
was just 6am. We both did Internet work. then melted some chocolates
together for our evening treats.
We headed off at 10am and continued on cobblestones until the Red road, which we will down-grade to an orange. Lots more road works in 1 – 2 years this will be a sealed red road but at the moment just dirt and in places narrow.
When we joined with the other major red road ( -santacruz) it was at least sealed but with many potholes and uneven surfaces where some pipes had been buried.
Waved at all the
truckies as we over took them. In one small village we stopped and
bought a water melon and rock melon $2 each. Some of the truckies
passed us. We passed them again and when we pulled over for lunch
lots of toots as they went past again.
We turned onto a short cut. 26Km of white windy road instead of 45kms of sealed potholed road with trucks. As with all shortcuts we got more than we bargained for. The road followed the gas pipelines and progressively got narrower and less used. Only one set of tracks now. Met a guy on the side of the road with binoculars around his neck. Stopped and asked if we could pass and he said yes but windy and a barrier we should go around. So all good. Most of it very steep in low range second we crawled up the first section. I got greedy and went for third thinking I could stop and start in first only problem brakes did not hold so handbrake. With John working the handbrake (I could not pull it on hard enough) we took off in first. It then became more steep and we just mosied on up trying to miss most of the washouts and rocks.
At the top we found a wonderful camp on an abandoned (green with grass and shrubs) soccer field; on a slope, not level. We dug in the top side and blocked the bottom – level. Our first green camp since Ecuador. Really surprised no-one is farming it. Although it does get grazed by cattle.
Sat outside to write and have nibbles and wine. Birds singing away. A lovely evening.