Wednesday 21 May 2014

San Antonio To Cafayate To Salta To The Bolivian Border

Tanked, tummied and tuned we set off down the RN 40, turning off from the 51 road we had the place to ourselves, road conditions good apart from the mandatory corrugations that is pretty much standard issue in this part of the world.

The road wound up and up slowly taking us to 4968 meters...just couldn’t crack the 5 unfortunately.

Sorry for the shit photo, it was cold, high, miserable fine day etc etc so they are my excuses and besides you need glasses cos it is clear to me



It was fookin cold with the temp gauge showing just above zero, mind you we are nearly 5 km above sea level, quick photos and on our way.



Cresting the top we came across road works which made for interesting riding as the top 100 - 150 mm was soft and loose, further down many river crossings washing Antofalla off Maya.

Again view along the valley down did not let us down



Cachi was a nice wee town with a cafe called Olivers the is owner is a moto rider, we camped up at the municipal ground which was nice and quiet when we arrived, unfortunately that night right next door there was a huge party that went on most of the night with the base beating through the ground and our beds .... not much sleep was had.

Clearly going where no moto rider had been before except there guys on this door and all the others on the other doors



Next day was Cafayate with stop offs along the way, an uneventful day saw us arriving with plenty of time up our sleeves with some cool scenery along the way from abrupt rock formations.





Our intention were to camp but the wind was up and some ominous clouds were watching us, we managed to bag a good price in a hotel and it had stella wifi which was very cool.

While in Cafayate we meet two guys from Italy on two Africa twins so we had a chat with them exchanging info etc.

As it turned out the following morning we hit the road at pretty much the same time meeting the two Italians so we all rode together looking at the attractions, we then peeled off to Salta and they took the road to Cachi.

The first crack .....yeah



The twins



Check out our racetrack with a view .. .no more teeth chattering



The twins and Maya waiting patiently



The Italian lads and the New Zealand dwarfs



Massive caverns cut by water over a coupla years





The rest of the ride for us was beautiful tarmac all the way to Salta apart from the last 10 km when Mrs.Garmin sent us down a wet narrow farm track style road which was the shortest route ...made for interesting riding as it was wet and slippery but it bought us out just up the road from Loki Hacienda, our destination for a few days.

I was meant to fly to Buenas Aires to be an expert witness for a high court case in New Zealand however a few days before the case was settled which meant we could step on it and head to Bolivia as winter was chasing us up and hard.

We stayed only two days in Salta getting a few things done then B lined it to Bolivia.

Taking to golf cart race track the other way it was a leisurely ride to Bolivia allowing us plenty of time to cross the border later in the afternoon with ease.

Back To Bolivia ....

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