The road was party tar and partly a dentists dream, the second half of the day which is only 124 km turned into a 5 and half hour ordeal of seriously bad sandpits linked together by corrugations from hell.
A nice smooth bit
At the half way point I just wanted the road to finish as I had had enough and Maya felt like she was gonna fall apart at the seams, I know Ellens arse took a hammering too.
So much was the vibration that one of the screws in my new sunnies vibrated out and got lost, a self dental check count showed all fillings were in place ... that was lucky.
Upon reaching the Chilean border we found out we had a further 100 km of gravel to do and the border guard advising us of very bad sandpits ... ouwh no...this however does come with rewards
More OMG moments of treasure
Shadows getting longer
By this time it was getting later in the day, still at 4300 meters we were very keen to drop elevation as it was very cold, we punched through the 100 km of gravel road and sandpits knocking off when the sun knocked off so setting up in twilight ...easy done.
Not too bad when you have company and these guys rode with us for the last 100 km
Again sky TV sponsored by the Atacama Desert giving us a great view of the Southern Cross again.
Our campsite with a very orange Mars like tinge from a firey sunset .. was looking for the Rover but couldn't see it
Turn 180 degrees this is what we had to put up with.
The following morning we had to go back up to San Pedro Atacama as the Aduana is situated there rather than the boarder.
Legally back in Chile the road on the opposite side of the salar was appealing, it started out as a shocker, we use our 5 km rule and applied it here, most people tend to go about 5 km up a gravel road then say bugger this and turn around and the road gets better, today was no different and the gravel road improved....luckily as it was shaping up to be another horror.
Soon enough we had the place to ourselves, making a lunch stop amidst stunning salt lunar landscapes, the camera simply can’t capture the stunning starkness yet beauty of the naked meca.
Ever changing colours from Ozzie red dirt, white salt and grey schist turning to brown sandpits and dust, this is one road only
On completion of another wow road we hit the semi sealed mine road complete with literally hundreds of mining trucks and utes, this end of Chile is thick with mine of all sorts being pretty the single biggest earner here, down side is a lot of mining towns have no got money and the price of EVERYTHING is very spendie.
Antofagasta was in our sights for a new battery (still nursing it along) and a new front rubber, our MT21 turning into a winter tire with cords hanging out of it.
Three moto shops only in a reasonable size city and one front tire that was very road oriented so no good but surprisingly one small shop has a 150/17 -17 Heidenau so an oddity there.
Now we are at the Suzuki & Llamaha shop, the owner has a 990 adventure S, he didn’t have a new tire but promptly jumped on his facebook buddies list putting it out to the local lads and with 5 - 6 minutes a reply came in, yes I have a TKC 80.
He said 30 minutes ... perfect we were not really going anywhere so waiting not knowing if it were new or what.
Soon enough he arrived with an 80 % spent TKC 80 and gave it to us, perfect, plenty to get us to Santiago where our new rubber awaits us.
Picture here, dude on the left is someone, middle is Raul the shop owner and his good friend Mark have gave us the tire ... great guys
We decided to change it right there and then, unknown to me the shop owner went down the street to see if they could change the tire, mean time I had wrestled the front wheel off, whipped the tire and tube out, remounted the new (secondhand) TKC 80 and was starting to put the wheel back in the forks when he returned, this was the conversation that followed, O = owner A = Andi.
O...they should be able to do it
A....do what?
O....change the tire
A....already done
He looked again realizing the new tire was already on and going back in, next words were “do you want a job”.
He was quite taken that we just did it and in the time it took, 15 minutes.
For us this is the norm but seemingly not for them, now it is 8.00pm, closing time, he kindly took us along the waterfront where we could camp, talk about an outstanding moto service for no gain other than to see us right.
The spot was great, right beside the sea, the only bumma was some party animals who pulled up at 3.07am deciding the whole beach needed to hear their sounds and our ear plugs no match for the booming base that was enough to vibrate the whole place.
A quick chat and a pleasant ask to bring it down to about 120 db they obliged still no sleep until they moved on quite some time later.
Next ..... need another hand....
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