Day 6: to Puerto Guadal
Today was perfect weather. Clouds over the mountain peaks. But mostly sunny where we were. The first hour and a half was on paved roads. The rest of the day was gravel roads. The roads dried out. But the gravel was loose and not fun to ride on. The bikes kind of meander down the roads, not precise steering. Lots and lots of potholes.
We rode through the mountains on a paved road with snow covered peaks on both sides. Eventually we came to a sign that said "Grosse Curves 4 km". The road got much more curvy. Lots of fun to swoop through the curves. Then the valley ended and we saw this set of switchbacks with even more curves. There will be a video of this at the end of today's post.
A few Km past the curves we gassed up at this little town with the snow capped peaks right there.
After the gas stop the rest of the day was gravel and potholes. The scenery, however was beautiful. Very remote area. Eventually we arrived at a huge lake, and a small town that is there to give boat trips to something called the "Marble Cathedral." First we had to gas up. We have a gass kitty we all contributed to and pay everyone's gas out of it. Otherwise we would have 9 separate transactions, one for each bike.
Then we ate lunch. Several of us got these veggie frittatas.
After lunch we headed out on the boat trip to see the "Marble Cathedral."
Here it is. It's an area of limestone that is eaten away by water and a type of acid that disolves the rock. Here are some pictures from the boat.
More dirt road and we arrived at our hotel, in the middle of nowhere. We are staying here two nights. Tomorrow we will take a one hour ride to a town nearby, eat lunch, and ride back. It will be a rest up day since the next day is about 260 miles, about 100 more than our typical day. It also is looking like rain on the 260 mile day. So we will rest while we can. We are also heading into the region where gas could be a problem. We filled up the plastic Jerry Gas cans in the chase truck to use for those instances.
here are some videos. One is just riders coming down the dirt road. I am the second rider. This was a very good section. Most sections were much worse. There is also a video of of the curves from the top. And third is Juan's daily video.