When I got up the next morning it was still drizzling after having rained again over night...
Not a good sign!
But there was only one item on the menu where I stayed, and it was pizza... And very bad pizza at that, so I decided Id ride on :)
So on I went, but it probably was not the best plan because the riding conditions were really bad!
I had 350Km to go to the next town, and only 50Km of it was paved...
Off I went.
Initially it wasnt too bad, but the drizzle continued on and off and the road was getting wetter and wetter... This was compounded by the fact that the dirt that the road was made from was increasingly made of clay!
Now, this road (ruta cuarenta) is a bit of a legend for motorbike tourers. Its very long and unpaved and the ripillo combined with the insanely strong winds in Patagonia causes people on bikes lots of problems. The wind regularly exceeds 100Kmh... from the side (winds are usually westerly and the road runs North-South). And I was getting strong winds too but locally speaking they were quite mild... In the day before´s riding, on sections of road "going with the wind", I noticed that if I rode at 90Kmh that I was passing the cloud shadows, but if I rode at 80Kmh, they were passing me!
But the real problem is not the strong wind - you can compensate for that; Its the strong gusts that get you. You either get blown off the road entirely (for an "impromptu excursion into the scenery!"), or you just get moved sideways by 30cm or so... Which puts you in the middle of one of those 30cm high lanes of loose gravel... and then you lose control and crash :)
But, Oh no! Thats not hard enough for me! I had to go and choose to ride the longest and worst part of it in rainy sodden conditions instead...
And as the water was pooling in the wheel ruts and the clay became loaded with water, it turned into an "all out slime fest"!... This was seriously sticky mud too. It was the sort that if you step on it, you see your foot settle gently into the surface by about a cm or so, and you think "oh, thats not too bad". But then you pick the foot up, and 5cm of mud comes up on the base of your shoe... and then another 5cm with the next step etc!
Now, this is a bit of a problem for the bike. First off, you have basically no "grip" at all, and with anything but the gentlest movements of steering or throttle or brake, you just slide. And, even when going dead slow and paddling along with your feet down; if your 300Kg bike gets just a little off balance and you try to hold it up with your feet... Your feet just slide out from under you and then your left with that 300Kg bike laying on its side (if not on top of you!) in the mud, and wondering how you are going to stand it back up with NO traction for your feet to grip...
Through the day, at particularly muddy sections, I did in fact find myself in this exact situation...
And what you do is you take off the tank bag and the top box and move them aside (in the mud). Then you walk around repeatedly in the place where you want to lift from so that all the REALLY slimy mud in that little area has stuck to your boots and then been "kicked off" away from that area and there is now at least a bit of traction for your feet... Note this has the reverse effect if it is actually raining at the time, and makes things slimier! Then you attempt the lift... And after a few goes at it and some adjustments to technique, you have the bike upright again ... and you are puffing and wheezing like a geriatric at its side! :))
And when youve done that a few times, you find that you, your luggage, and the bike are all a uniform shade of orange-brown that blends perfectly with the road... But thats OK, cos itll just get washed off when the next shower comes through in half an hour or so :)))
But there are another couple of issues...
If these very sticky/slimy patches occur on level ground, then its not too bad and you can in fact paddle through them at less than walking speed (occasional toplings aside). But if they occur on an uphill slope, then its a much more challenging game. You have to try to go through them (10-100m sections are about normal) with a bit of speed to get to the other side. And the speed is a problem as far as balance is concerned, but it clears at least some of the mud out from under the spinning back wheel which is good... Well, its good until the sticky mud that has been clinging to the front wheel manages to clog up under the front fender and your front wheel stops turning... Then you have absolutely no steering or control... And you are back to picking your self and your bike up out of the mud :)... Oh, and now of course your bike also has many added kilograms of mud in the fenders (and everywhere else for that matter too!)
Fortunately, the slopes on this particular road are not steep and I just barely made it through two such uphill sections (down hill you just "sled" down and try to stay in a wheel rut)
And so the day goes on.
And after a few hours you reach a short section of pavement!... And you ride along it happily at all of 90Kmh. But then the pavement ends again and you are looking at another long play in the mud for another 150Km or so :(
But, on you go...
And I discovered also that when the mud is that sticky, it can stop your brake callipers from releasing when you let the brakes off... Now you are really stuck there, cos there is no liquid water in sight with which to wash the brakes off! (Its one of the few times when actual water would have helped!)
But your still having fun, cos this is exactly the sort of thing that you go "adventure touring" for :)))
Anyway, I made it through about half a dozen topple overs, and numerous mud zones and about eight hours of on and off drizzling rain, and about 348Km of the 350Km to the next town.
And things were "more rideable" for about the last 10Km... And Id got the speed back up to 70Kmh or so. The wheel lanes were mostly clear of water and the mud patches were much fewer :))
And a building had appeared ahead a few Km!... I must be nearly there!
So, Im squinting at the building through my muddy visor to see if its a farm or really the outskirts of the town... and I spend a couple more seconds than I should looking at it... And when I look back at the road, there is a rapidly approaching "possible muddy section"!!!
ALARM!!!
I immediately go to "maximum slow down" - which amounts to letting off the throttle, not touching the brakes, and bracing my arms hard to control the steering...
But Im carrying too much speed when I get to the slippery stuff!
Its only a short section and I might be OK... But the bike starts to squirm immediately and theres not much I can do now other than try to ride it out... But before I can even think about starting to add a little throttle for stability, the bike "fish tails" twice, and then I make an immediate and personal and very intimate inspection of the road surface at VERY close quarters!
... Which is to say, I crashed!! :)))
And it was a doozy too!
The bike high-sided as is normal... But I was still going about 60Kmh and as it went over very suddenly, I was ejected forward of the bike (well, actually quite sidways to the bikes alignment but forward in the direction of travel), but my boot got caught between the road and the bike as well as my left hand jamming on something on the handle bars. And the combined effect of these two "anchoring" points was that my momentum that had been more or less horizontal and would have sent me skidding along the mud, now had a much more "downward" aspect, and I "Body carved" down into the mud/gravel with my shoulder first... Hard!
And it hurt, and I felt/heard something in my upper body "crack", and then my foot came out from under the bike and the side of my head in my helmet hit the road, And I rolled over once and came to a stop...
Then I rolled around in pain in the mud, cursing at my carelessness and seeing stars for about thirty seconds till the pain subsided a bit.
Then I just lay there still and tried to figure out how bad I was hurt...
I was still seeing stars and my shoulder really still hurt a lot... But, actually, It all seems to move like it should and I could still feel every thing...
So, I stagger to my feet and hobble about a bit... Im OK pheeeew!
And the bike was there in the mud with me too. It was definitely a hard hit... I can see that the pannier on the impact side is badly buckled and out of shape, but other than that it looks OK.
I try to lift it back upright once, but my shoulder really is not gonna "take the load" at the moment. So, I decide to wait till a car comes along to help me lift it.
It turns out I am VERY near the town, and a small truck comes by in about five minutes. He helps me lift the bike, and it starts up first time. I gingerly get on the bike and after saying my thank-yous, I ride (more slowly this time :) ) the last couple of Km into town and find a gas station to assess the damage at.
When I get there, there are a bunch of about ten other riders and their bikes there washing off the mud out the back... They are an organised tour and their bikes are all BMW650s without luggage. Id seen a few of them on the road that day and nearly caught up to them but then the mud jammed my wheels and brakes and I had to spend an hour or so working on that.
Anyway, I pulled in next to them and waited my turn with the water to get myself and the bike washed off.
Then, I stripped off my jackets (Fortunately I had just about all the layers of clothing I possessed on at the time of the crash, so I had plenty of padding and armour) and let one of the other riders have a look at the shape of things (collar bone issues?) - He was a doctor... No surprise to me that at least one of the tour riders on a BMW was a doctor !;)
Anyway, after a minute or two of "do this", "twist that way", "does that hurt" etc, I was proclaimed as OK though probably separated the clavacle, but its all back where it should be now..., Which is what I suspected :)
At this point, it was about 6:30pm and I decided to ride on (on pavement) for another hour and a half to get to a nicer town where I could rest up and do a day hike or two for the next couple of days ...
... I think thats "plan H" :)))
