Day 64: Valley of the candles
Woke around 6am and I was very cold. Still had the feeling of creatures circling the tent so opened up the tent and looked around. Nothing. That alleviates concerns.
Everything was covered in a layer of frost. This made packing up harder. So I took the time to light a quick fire. Was eager to get going though so did cheat a little and used a drop of Petrol to get the fire going.
Got going around 6.45. Had my cycle gloves without finger covers so my fingers were very cold making it unsafe to cycle. Had about 2km of uphill left tho so pushed the bike for this.
Then my luck started getting better. All that elevation gain yesterday started to pay off. What goes up must come down I believe they say meaning I had a nice long downhill. Was still rough terrain so it required constant breaking and concentration but this was type 1 fun. I was going maybe 8 km an hour now. This doesn´t sound fast but is twice the pace of yesterday! Going was really good.
Because the day was easier than yesterday and spirits were high, I started to appreciate the surroundings much more than yesterday. The landscape I am passing through now doesn’t quite feel real. Feels like something out of an alien world from Rick and Morty or something. Will add pictures but they don’t capture the strangeness. The Baja divide route guide calls this area the “Valle de los Cirios” (valley of the candles) biosphere. Scrub and desert landscape with many cacti, which I guess are the Cirios.
I reached the restaurant “el sacrafico” in about 5 hours. Just as I arrived, Blake and Marcus from the last few days were just putting on their helmets to leave. So they were only an hour or so ahead of me. We caught up and bitched about the previous day cycling. I then said my goodbyes and entered the restaurant.
The restaurant is half family home, half restaurant. The lady of the home made me a great lunch, I downed a bottle of coke, enjoyed a coffee, used their wifi (not sure how they got wifi in the middle of nowhere), had a shit in a proper toilet after the coffee did its work, got caught up on social media and backed up some photos, refilled water back to 9ish liters, bought 6 mini burritos to go to have later which she made for me and bought some unhealthy snacks in their very mini store. All for 500 pesos (about 25 euro). Was great and a needed thing in the middle of nowhere.
Was tempted to camp there and come back in the morning for breakfast but it was only 1pm. So reluctantly said adios and was back on the road. And a real road at that. With tarmac and road markings and road signs and everything. And a tail wind to boot. This lasted about 20 mins. Then it was back off the road.
There was a mess of dirt paths meaning at times it wasn´t clear even looking at the GPS which path I should be on. One such time I came to a dead end of a gate that I clearly wasn’t supposed to cross. But I could see the correct path to my left just 20 paces away with clear ground between. So walk across or clearing or retrace who knows how much… I walked across. Half way across I hear a hissing sound. I stop and look at my front tire. It is full of sharp cacti needles. Fuck. I couldn’t go back now so I carried my bike the rest of the way.
On the other side, I sat down with my bike and pulled about 20 cactus needles from my tires, about half of which had actually punctured through the tire causing a little squirt of sealant to be released. But after removing the needless, everything was fine. Didn’t even need to pump up tires again. Tubeless tires are great! Sorry Phill for ever doubting tubeless!
Spent the rest of the day until sunset following the tire tracks of the guys in front of me. Felt like I was tracking them or something! And it was all nice cycling with very few stretches of pushing the bike.
All in, I did about 75 kms today. Was cycling from sunrise to sunset. Was tough but fun today. Not like yesterday which was just torcher.
Was a little late setting up camp and had to finish setting up in the dark with my headlight. I again took about 5 steps from the “road” and setup as there was no chance anyone would be on this path. Enjoyed some of the borietos that I got earlier and was in bed by 6ish. No creature sounds or worries this night.
Tomorrow I should hit some town called Catavina marking the end of this section of the Baja divide. And if the cycling is like yesterday, there are options to cut to a main road so I will definitely make it there tomorrow. Then I will have choices to make, but more on this in the next entry.
