Wild West Country

February 15th to 18th

Finally, it seems my healing hands do the trick and Sue rises miraculously from her sick bed. The lurgy is beaten!

We leave Parral heading South in to Cowboy country. Many a John Wayne film was created here and the land really evokes images of 4 legged transport and gun fightin' with them there injuns...

The terrain flattens as well and we begin to make some good time. Riding is a pleasure. We even contemplate stopping for a round of 18.... 

But the road goes ever on....

And we have a table booked for lunch....

The flatness looks like it's going to stop and we're heading back to our more usual style of terrain as we descend 400m or so into Rodeo, a small town set in a fertile valley. Fortunaltely the road veers off and parallels the mountains rather than climbing in to them...

Bemused onlookers - we don't get too many gringos in these parts...

It's true, this part of the world is sparcely populated; tourists extremely thin on the ground and it's a shame as the landscape is beautiful, the towns authentic and the people truly welcoming.

The land does begin to rise and break up in to a series of eroded, round topped hills.

With the ocasional outcrop of hard rock, resistant to weathering and forming characteristic table top mesas...

  

Passing Lake Santiaguillo before we arrive in Durango....