Leaving town there was evidence of the recent Dakar visit. We headed south to find the famed Ruta 40. But with the late start today we ended up just going 187 km in Malargue and finding a small hotel just off the highway exit.
Now the challenge begins for the RUTA 40. We just had 333km to get to Chol Malal right….
The wind here is legendary and there were some pretty strong gusts at times. In typical new to the 40 fashion Dan stopped at the sign to get a photo, I stopped behind him and was promptly blow over by a gust of wind. Dan got off his bike to help me get mine up and while doing that his bike was blow off the stand. Ahh lesson learned. No stopping on the roadside.
The road south from here has a bit of construction, but there are two large sections that are not yet paved or maintained. Most of this is good dirt or gravel road, but there are a few parts with deep gravel and sand. For Daniel this is no challenge, but for me it was a mental and physical one. I managed with “more gas and speed”, but was glad to finally see pavement again. Luckily in the worst parts of the road we had little wind.
The wind did finally break enough for a photo op.
I stopped feeling sorry for myself when we saw a ton of these guys! The one pushing his bike in the deep gravel was my hero.
We finally pulled into Chol Malal after only 333 km at 730 pm tired and sore. There is one restaurant in town and it was not open today. Luckily the grocery store was still open.
Lining up for gas in the morning we noted the sign that says they don’t sell you gas unless you re wearing a helmet.
What a difference a day makes. Today it was 420 km of good paved road and almost no wind. The scenery was much nicer and we could stop for pictures.
Just joking!
Arriving in Zapala at the half way mark we found at the La Imperial bakery café next the gas station.
There were some police checks, but only 1 stopped us to record our passport numbers.
Driving into Junin de los Andes we say gas and got gas, which is the rule down here and added our sticker to the collection.
