Rio Simpson To La Tapera To Rio Cisnes Free Camp

Leaving the refugio it was raining steadily, the forecast less than ideal for the day, we opted to head east and go to La Tapera….there was not a lot there but the ride up the valley was nice.

Some other hardened soles (silly buggas )

P1240521 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Heading up the valley, stopped for a pee stop and stretch, welcomed sun too

P1240493 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Beautiful clear water rivers much like New Zealand

P1240510 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The only hostel open there wouldn’t let us bring Maya in off the street and we did not want to leave Maya out there so we opted to head off and find a camp site.

As we rode back down the valley the weather started caving in, sometimes windy and sometimes wet but we looked at a number of sites that were either exposed to the wind or too close to the road.

Finally we found a place that I had seen on the way up, it seemed pretty good and there was plenty of wood for a fire for our asado and warmth.

Setting up our tarp and tent quickly as snow laden cloud was hovering above us we got our fire going and tea cooking.

I decided to swing on the new Chinese rubber while waiting for our tea to cook, spooning off the MT 21 and changing the tube back to the heavy duty we were on it.

The new Chinese tire went on ok but was tough on the last bit, the temperature at this stage had plummeted too so I was weary about getting it done quickly.

Pumping it up was a mission, something weird was going on with the valve, also our pump was squeaking so we decided to lube it.

Being very cold now and only having 17 PSI in the tire was not ideal then the worst happened, the plastic part on our pump shaft broke off, I think a combo of cold, use and being brittle it just snapped off….fuck!!!

At this point we were up a side road with little to no traffic camping in the rain and wind with a broken pump and half flat tire … wasn’t totally how we wanted it to be.

To finish off with this nights winning streak I felt an itch/biting on my right leg just above my boot, on pulling my pants up there was a worm half buried into my leg and digging himself quite the tunnel … Ellen quickly grabbed it and carefully pulled it out.

As I gave birth to this alien out of my leg it felt really weird and it left a sizable hole which then bleed so we let it bleed and bleed to flush anything out, I was worried I would get pregnant and have alien babies blow outa my guts in the middle of the night …. that wouldn’t be good

ALIEN by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The saving grace was our asado meat grill so not all was lost.

Finishing tea we packed our tarp down as it was almost dry because the wind had picked up and the rain temporarily stopped, finally we hit the sack early cos it was dark and the rain was starting again.

No sooner we closed the tent and bunked down the clouds opened and stayed open all night, it blew like a bastid and pissed down, our jackets and helmets in our waterproof bike cover outside.

This was our greeting on the morning ... more to come.

IMG_7864 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr