Unfortunately the weather starts to mess with my camera. I come across this ruin that has birdsĀ“ nests drilled into it in neat rows.
Then I reach a gate and battle my ass off opening it.
IĀ“m not enjoying the altitude. Riding makes it harder, because you are burning energy to keep the bike on the road. 50km later, Julio catches up with me and takes a shot of me at my best.
ItĀ“s not all that bad as it looks, just catching my breath!
Soon IĀ“m back with my feet on the pegs again. After a while, I meet this guy
He is riding out of a little village
There is a security gate for some or other mine and I have to sign in and out of the village. I think itā??s a hangover from the communist era. Access must be controlled. The gatekeeper is friendly enough, though.
The road beyond the village is faster, and we gradually descend towards La Oroya.
I meet a road construction worker in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
The road speeds up as I gradually drop in altitude and itĀ“s great fun to slide the bike through some wide twisties towards a large river.
Further on, the river becomes this large dam.
Beyond the dam a steep set of hairpins
Leads me to a dirt highway at 3,700m.
I come across a high altitude golf course and after a short tunnel
I hit the carretera Central again between LA Oroya and Cerro de Pasco.
Turning left I begin to climb gradually up
onto the ā??altiplanoā? which is the high-altitude plateau in the Junin Province.
The clouds race across the plains, dumping precipitation in the mountains I have come from.
ItĀ“s drying out here, so I race along this high speed road
and test the bikeĀ“s top speed at 4,100m. I wait till I get a nice flat straight bit and give it gas. I hit a speed wobble at 150, push through it to 170km on the GPS before hitting another speed wobble and slack off. Must be those two inner tubes I have in each tyre. Or it could be my top box. I donā??t like speed wobbles.
As I always say: ā??Pissies will never be heroĀ“s.ā? Not sure I always live up to that motto though, I suppose I could have gone faster, but today I am a pissie. Anyway it was good to know that the bike performed so well with mixed fuel despite all the concerns mentioned elsewhere in this forum. I must say that on the technical riding I did notice perhaps a 10-15% drop in power in the lower ranges. While I enjoyed the torque at the bottom of second gear big time at lower altitudes, I found myself dropping into 1st a bit more often high up on the tight bends.
Just as IĀ“m slacking off from my high speed test I look up from examining my GPS, and there in the middle of the road is one lone (white, not black) sheep. Holy moly
, I had let my concentration slip. I locked up the brakes and the shocks soaked it up. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to turn back on the ABS brakes when I got onto the asphalt. I had three choices before me left, right or straight for the sheep. I chose straight figuring it would see me and run somewhere. Thirty meters out the sheep heard me, turned and promptly had a panic attack. So did I because I was still doing about 100.
She darted right- Thank God! Then she turned and ran back left to her friends on the other side of the road!!!
Well I did sincerely thank the Lord, because I think I missed that sheep by a ball hair.
I was sure there would be wool on my foot pegs. It really was a close one.
I command myself to take it easy, but this is the home stretch and I am pretty tired. The last bit to Cerro de Pasco is an easy bit of dirt that cuts out about 15km. Gunning it along at speed, I come across a large pool of water which I decide to ramp. I know I wont mae it all the way accross, but my tired mind believes I can skim the back tyre on the water....
I hit the other side hard, causing a huge splash in the tail end of the pool/lake.
Unfortunately it is about half a meter deeper than I think. I bottom out completely on front and back shocks. The splash is immense and completes my soaking. The force nearly throws me clear but I manage to hold on somehow. I stop and thank the Lord Im still ok. Dripping wet, I scold myself and my stupidity aloud: "JyĀ“s nĀ“ blerry moegoe, jou windgat #$%&%$&ā?.
Thats over-confidence at the end of a long day. I have been asking for it. Fortunately I have only about two clicks to go to get to my house in the mining town of Cerro de Pasco. I arrive to much fanfare. Its not until I get off my bike that I realise what the fuss is all about.
:
My larney Hepco Bekker top box bracket broke off on the welds. Luckily it is still holding on. The round bars held, it was the alu plate that it was welded to that cracked. I must have hit the bike pretty hard.... (Anything else you guys think I should check for in term of damage??
)
I am pretty tired after this ride. No. "Bombed" would probably be a more apt term. Anyway I sleep from 8pm right through for the first time at altitude. Normally you wake up in the middle of the night. But not this time. Here is me having my nightcap, a whiskey & coke. ItĀ“s not pretty. We all try to be human I suppose.
Topic: Peruvian Andes (Updated again) (Read 6204 times)
