The Ascent

Sunday 13th

Sunday - a day of rest... well for others maybe. Into the canyon for us.

The descent is easy, as is the river which is more of a stream. Michael says bridges are for wimps as he is the mountain man.



But the ascent is tough.
If you are hiking.
With bikes and gear, it´s really tough.



We push the bikes between 2 as far as we can, then remove all bags and carry bikes on shoulders to the top of the cut. Then we form a 4 man, one woman human chain and throw bags up to each other as far as we can. Then the chain forms again slightly higher up and we repeat.

Many times....



I try to take the odd photo, but for some reason get objections. Something about "put the camera down and push" type comments, but it may have been stronger - Spanish not that good yet.

4 hard hours later - this is the view back to the hut where we started.



The 30kms on a drovers track is a breeze by comparison after that and Michael getting a puncture just as we hit the paved road of route 40 as the sun sets is good reason to make camp.

For me and Michael anyway.
We are a couple of kms ahead of the rest and by the time they catch us, there`s a conflab and the other 3 decide to carry on in to the night and try and make Perito Moreno - 50kms away in the dark.

The breaking of the fellowship - and so soon. We opt to stop and catch them on the road tomorrow as we go way faster.

Rabbits to chase down.... I like it.