The day’s track
The familiar long haul north
There’s one stop. A gas station with shade. Lots of people resting here
Re-load, more in the left pannier
Hours of this. We wouldn’t miss a second of it
Then we come to a sign: Tropic of Capricorn.
Wow. This brings back strong memories of other milestones on this ride. We crossed the TOC going the other way in Argentina.
It was memorable because we’d just left Bolivia, had arrived in the 2nd world after a year in the 3rd. I parked Lucinda next to the sign they had there as well and thought about all this for a while. Back on that day, in the near distance a black storm was approaching and we watched it for a while roll along the mountains just a mile east of us.
We found the equator in Ecuador on the GPS as we headed through a rough village. We parked and wondered how long it would be before the angry dogs barking around us got their shit together and attacked.
So I parked Lucinda under the sign and thought about the previous milestones, then thought about this one
Across to the east a huge white silver tunnel extended up from the desert floor. Maybe 500 to 1000 feet high, just a glimmer of dirt being sucked up at the bottom. It was beautiful. An Australian willy willy and a very big one.
Then it changed direction and seemed to grow in size and before we knew it was headed straight at us, like it had been looking for us all along.
I was so fascinated by this huge silver tube I didn’t start taking photographs until it came up from behind Lucinda
Then it slowed
Then it was on Lucinda. A fraction of a second after this shot she was obscured
The base wove slowly some more, the tube still focused on Lucinda
Then moved slowly to the left of her and started dissolving, after crossing the desert to us here
The sound quieted
And the bottom vanished and we watched the tube spinning in the sky above us, huge, hundreds of feet tall, and then that disappeared too
There’s a lot to think about after that TOC moment and not much to say.
It was a shorter ride today and we found a place immediately in Coral Bay, a tiny town. We were hot and I changed into my shorts and headed to the water, swopping the little Sony for the waterproof Lumix
Walked in
Beautiful just under the surface
Below
Comments
That was fantastic! Very happy for you Jeremy. I wish you many more moments like those.
I’m in Calgary till Thursday when I’ll pick up a couple of cases (wine) & head home.
On the 5th I’m going to the 4th annual “blow up your Ducati” ride for a weekend of riding and telling lies :-)). About 10 bikes of different vintages (3 916s)
Hoping to be able to fly to Bangkok Nov 25th for 7 weeks
Don
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