The track from Giron. The southern route option planned is 300 miles. I decided to wait until Puerto Barrio to decide whether to go east or south depending on progress.
The new version of Basecamp doesn’t allow me to show the track without including planned routes or previous days data (the pink lines). I’m working on it.
Lucinda spent the night hiding behind a potted plant in the foyer
A long day ahead so I went for a walk in the park looking for a coffee. Nothing opens in CA or SA (so far) before 7. There are rows of these food and drinks stalls in Giron. The best thing from them are chopped fruit for about a buck.
There’s a huge hydro project in the mountains outside Bucamaranga. A pic of the valley before it’s flooded for ever.
With a cool very long tunnel
The outflow side. If you click this you’ll see trucks scaling the huge wall
Quickly out of the mountains down to marsh plains
I see some large pink birds with a large group of ducks
I crop the photo and it looks like they may have weird bills. Click to see
I Google and, yup, they’re Roseate Spoonbills, very special. One of the downsides of riding alone is you just can’t leave the bike alone to get closer to these sights.
A little further along it’s thick with egrets. They’re even in the trees, which surprised me – I thought they were non-passerines.
It got hotter and there was maybe 70 miles of this
By this point we were committed to the longer route. Then there were glimpses of the Rio Magdelena we’d seen from the plane
A huge bridge crosses it. A great reason to let her rip. Which brings me to a point. You can ride as fast as you want in Colombia. I’ve passed cops at speed and they don’t care. This is similar to Guatemala.
Wide and shallow
A boat for scale
An unusually green little town
Lunch shot of Lucinda
Up into the mountains
Twisting riding for 50 miles through this
A village with a small church
Another great river, the theme of the day
And into Medellin. The longest days ride yet in SA. For riders, the southern route is 50 miles longer but in some ways easier. The twisties are 2nd and 3rd gear, rather than the tiring (but brilliant) 1st and 2nd for the last 30 miles of the eastern route. Overtaking is easier and traffic is less. Scenery wise, they’re equal.
There’s lots going on in the background, report to follow.
Saludos
Comments
We need more videos! 🙂
OK Eddie!
Hi J.
We are with you in spirit. I watch for your updates. Glad its going well. How’s Lucinda holding up? Seems to be ok because no mention of problems. Good.
Be safe, have fun.
Vaya con Dios.
Hugh