Going The Distance

We leave the armadillos and head into town to wait out the worst of the heat with a bit of email catchup. During which time, a text comes through from Mark on our English mobile saying that he has broken a spoke 15km outside Santa Rosa and needs us to collect replacement ‘nipples’ for him (the bits that hold the spokes in place). Fine, glad to help. Except that all shops, especially in this heat, shut for a huge chunk of the middle of the day for siesta. Thankfully, as we ask for directions to a bikeshop, a man on the street says he knows of a shop which is right beside the owner’s home, so we can just ring the doorbell and wake him up. Which is what we do: Mike is asking for nipples from a man with his nipples out. (After Mike tries to ask for ‘pezones’ – nipples in Spanish – to the man’s discomfort, it turns out the Spanish word for bike nipples is “nipples”, pronounced ‘nipp-lez’).

We catch up with Mark – again! Shame! – about 30km outside town. Even with a broken bike, he can shift it. Mark, post-this Aconcagua climb, is a lot more like us in his attitude, and with the heat and the broken bike, we all decide to head to the National Park 5km down the road, write the day off and spend the day with some beer. (Well, we do. Mark has a glass)

Swimming in the disturbing cloudy pool, beer and chat. A great evening with the great company of Mr B – unusual for a man who spends months with only his own company to be so fascinating. Just in case we didn’t say earlier, Mark holds the world record for the fastest cycle round the world. When he puts his mind to something, he’s pretty damn good at doing it.

At one point, Mark says (to me), “Do you ever miss female company?” to which Mike replies, in a heartbeat, “Yeah”. At which point the two of them fell about laughing. Git.

The bastard was that both Mark’s bike and our own got thwarted by the espinas (thorns) which fall from the trees in the park so both of us have to replace flat tyres. Very irritating.

We leave Mark to finish his awesome feat and head off to the windy south.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.