April 16, 2011

The day starts grey and cloudy with a real chill in the air.  We wear our jackets on top of our long-sleeved tops for the first time since the start of the tour. 

We are astonished to turn the corner out on the road out of Yanguas to find ourselves entering a narrow gorge with towering rock faces and just enough room at the bottom for the road and a tumbling river running alongside.  Mother Nature is being kind to us today – it is downhill.  And what is more – it stays downhill – for the next 50 km!!  The gorge is an amazing geological feature;  it is an area where dinosaurs roamed and their footprints can be seen cast in the rocks.  The gorge opens out as we freewheel along and the rocks change from grey limestone to a bright red sandstone.  At one point we see vultures sitting on the rocks above the road – do they know something we don’t? 

The road is a hive of activity this Saturday morning and at one village there are hundreds of people with their trials bikes.  In another village we pass a natural thermal spring where you can ´take the waters’ (no time for any of that).  The open valley continues downwards but we turn off up into the hills.  Mother Nature really is smiling on us today, because for part of the time the wind is behind us – another first for the trip. 

We reach Estella and just as we spot the sign for a campsite, a motorbike policeman stops us – we wonder what we have done wrong.  However, it quickly becomes apparent that something is going on as more police arrive and they close the road.  A few minutes later the peloton of a cycle race whizzes past – they think that’s hard they should try doing it on 35 kg bikes rather than their 8 kg carbon jobs! 

The campsite turns out to be first-rate so we decide that now is a good time to fit in another rest day.