Huanuco To Tarma

Saying goodbye we hit the road south, the day was stunning and warm, total tar so a relaxing ride apart from dodging the usual Peruvians who like our lane better than theirs.

For the most of it getting up onto the plato the twisting tar gave us a nice rhythmic ride winding our way up the valley.



Stopping at a waterfall we layered up a bit as we were at 4000 meters and just cool enough, across the road was a another cool waterfall .. well at least half a waterfall anyway with the water pouring out half way down the cliff, something we had not seen before.



Cresting the plato there were very ominous looking clouds, being right on lunchtime we fooded up on hot tucker preparing for some rain, wet gear on too in advance.

A small mining town



As we approached the bank of angry clouds there was a huge flash and the big fella took our photo followed by a large bang/crack ... we knew then it was gonna get ugly.

See to the left pf the picture Ellen just caught the lightening



Up ahead it appeared white but through my now wet visor I thought it was sandstone .... that would have been easier.

Hail, yeah, bouncing off everything every which way in all directions .... classic, at least it is dryer than rain.

The hail got heavier and heavier, the road was white with some wheel tracks creating a narrow safe-haven at least for a while.



A car was off the road and being pulled back on by a truck under the guidance of the police, one policeman looked at us like we were crazy .... I think he was right.

Our spot would not send any messages to the orange dot gods as the air was electric stifling any signals from spot, (we now have a straight line on our map) lightening was striking to our left and ahead of us giving us booms in stereo, this also meant that we would be riding into the stuff ahead.

Forced to first gear at one stage with about 50mm deep of hail on the road and no wheel tracks it was a game of lets try and stay upright, I won this game.

The storm veered right and our road veered left which was a welcome reprieve, however the hail then turned back to very heavy rain again, bike got another good wash.

We had visions of stopping in Junin but Junin sits at 4200 meters and it was bitterly cold, given it was only 1.30 we continued on with the last section to Tarma easy as just with lots of roadworks.

Small vid for fun