Leg 1: Cachi to Cafayete

It took three long, hot, tough days, but we are ecstatic at having completed the first 160 km! Joking aside, we knew that cycling through the desert would be remote, hot, dusty etc, but we were surprised by how difficult some of the terrain was, especially as this is at the very start of the journey and we've spent more time eating empanadas than cycling of late. The Ruta40 here is no more that a dirt track with no public transport, and there is a section that is only really accessible with a 4x4 due to the deep sand. Cycling a bike that weighs about 55kg up and down hills covered in sand up to a foot deep, is like running up and down a sand dune all day with a jockey on your back. In the desert sun. Incidentally, we learned something new here: when you've finally pushed your bike up a hill for half an hour, through deep sand, there is no rewarding free-wheeling descent on the other side. You actually have to push your bike downhill again. Worth remembering. It wasn't all soft sand though. Sometimes we had corrugated hard sand, and sometimes, gravel. There were some occasional blessed strecthes of rock, but mainly it was a combination of the other 3. 25km prior to Cafayate however, an asphalt road appeared out of the sand. We were unbeliveably happy. The map tells us that we should have covered road for quite some time now so we expect more km/day from now on (and less tears)!

Dogs were also a feature. We occasionally passed an iosolated adobe house from which one (or several) semi-wild dogs would launch an attack and sprint after us. We can't cycle faster than dogs can run so the only two options are to keep going anyway and have them continue to circle you barking and growling, or as we later learned, dismount. Just getting off the bike seems to change their mood and they often just walk off. Some even start wagging their tails and start licking your legs (a bit unnerving given that the main breeds here are Alsations, Rhodesian ridgebacks, and some sort of Rottweiler crosses). Occasionally an 'owner' will come out and smack them which just makes you feel guilty.

Having said all of this we were prepared for this stretch to be one of the more difficult sections, so we managed to still really enjoy it, mainly because of the otherworldly scenery. The rock formations, the lonely stretches of track where you can see that you're the only people for miles, witnessing every colourful sunset (and sunrise), even the animals sniffing round your tent at night(!) ... all made this an unforgettable trip. This was also our first chance to try out wild camping in the desert. This will eventually become more and more common for us as it's free and practical, we can't easily plan to be in a particular place for nightfall each day. In this case, after lots of marching around checking the angle of the sun, where might get flooded during a sudden downpour, testing vegetation for signs of animal presence etc, we settled for a nice shady spot ... under a nest of bees. We may even learn to prefer wild camping as on our first night we camped in a small village called Molinos where the only entertainment was a 'babyfoot' table next to our tent - quite annoying trying to sleep with the rattle and screams of kids with no discernable bedtime. (Incidentally, yes Argentine table football figures do have hands as well as feet)

We're now in Cafayete, Argentina´s second largest centre for producing wine, although the town itself has a population of just 10,000. The whole valley is just vineyards dotted with huge etsates. They even make Torrontes and Malbec wine ice cream here which is delicious! We'll have a day of rest tomorrow and then get going south again on Friday.

Day 1: Cachi to Molinos - 50km
Day 2: Molinos to nr. Angastaco- 50km
Day 3: nr. Angastaco to Cafayete - 61km