Day 53: A fun days cyycle in Baja!
I decided last night to put up my tent without the rainfly. Was my first time doing this. I presumed it wasn’t going to rain, and thought it would be cool to see the stars. Was correct on both counts. However, it got bitterly cold and the winds were wicked. This wasn’t helped by the lack of rainfly which would act as a windbreaker. Had my full cycling clothes on in my sleeping bag including a jumper and bandana around my face and was still cold! I probably need a new sleeping bag as my sleeping bag has lost a lot of its feathers/stuffing over the years. Multiple times during the night I had to starfish my hands and push my legs into a corner of the tent to stop the tent blowing away. Not that it would have blown away with me in it but felt the tent polls were at risk of snapping or something.
Woke up around 6am. Was still cold and windy but I got to admire a beautiful sunrise from inside my tent. The horses and sheep were out and about meaning my host, Pete was up so I decided to get up. After packing up, I walked my bike to the hut out front and Pete was already there.
Pete is a great guy and man can he talk! We learn around now that Trump won the election and he is very happy about this. And again I refuse to give political opinions or thoughts here on this journal or on this tour.
Pete roasts his own coffee beans on clay tables and makes myself and Blake coffee, while telling interesting stories from his past. The coffee is fantastic. He then brings us home made breakfast burritos. Because “you’re a friend of Kerry’s”, he then made us his speciality cinnamon, but only slightly sweetened, coffee. Was a treat! Could have stayed there all day listening to stories, but eventually hit the road at 9am.
Today was a great day cycling. Was uphill or flat for the first 3 hours or so but these felt like 20 mins. Was still sandy and rough terrain but not nearly as bad as yesterday. Where yesterday was rough, today was just great fun riding.
The 2nd half of the day was mostly downhill. Was still downhill on sandy/gravel type roads so needed to be careful but again such fun.
In the USA I was averaging 16-20 km/h over a day. On these roads, I am lucky to get half of that.
I checked into a campground tonight just outside some town. Was def a language barrier but eventually found the place to camp. Blake is here too so hung out for a while. Most power outlets do not work but found an outdoor stage type thing that had power so charged the power bank.
Had a little mishap today with my Garmin. I split this Baja Divide route into 200km segments and passed the first 200 km segment today meaning I had to move to the 2nd segment. During this process I accidentally discarded today’s Garmin ride which by that point was more than 50k. So I’m going to put today at about 65 km but don’t know exactly and don’t have the map to attach. Probably could work it out manually but couldn’t be bothered. Is already 6.30pm and past my bedtime. Oo and have good wifi at camp so I can watch some YouTube before bed.
Tomorrow the plan is to go into the local town, fill up on water, then cycle. I expect tomorrow to be harder than today but easier than the first day of Baja. Think there are 2 options. First is some town which is further away. The second is some abandoned house that is marked on the map, which I guess makes a good camp spot?
Goodnight
