6525 km Antofagasta

24 juli 2017 - Antofagasta, Chili

Hi Everyone,

A quick update once more from Chile. A lot of cycling has been done since I left Valparaiso two weeks ago. The first few hundred kilometers were still fairly green and inhabited but the further north you go in Chile, the more desolate the scenery becomes. This means carefull planning of water and food supplies and also a lot more camping than I have previously done on this trip. It can get a bit cold at night in the tent but the views of the milky way from the dessert absolutely make up for that. The stars are absolutely breathtaking when your camping this remote. It took me about 4 days to reach la Serena from Vaparaiso. The wind changed directions frequently meaning you can have a tailwind one day and have a steady headwind the next. All in all things went pretty smoothly up till there. My legs are getting more used to the constant climbing here, which helps. I took a day off to check out La Serena. Quite a nice little coasttown with a nice city center with plenty of bars coffeeplaces etc...

Leaving La Serena I knew things would become tougher. Slowly the landscape became less green and more brown. Lots of windmills and solarfields here in the environment as well. It seems Chile is big on renewable energy. It makes sense though, because winds can get quite a bit stronger here than we are used to back home. There are still gasstations on the road every 100 km or so here and some small villages, so I could still get by with packing supplies for a day. The toughest part was from Chaneral to Antofagasta, where there is basicly hardly anything except some possadas on route. Luckily I knew all the locations and therefore how much to bring.

I did get a bit low on water one day though, when I faced the hardest headwind I have seen in my life. The wind was so strong and relentless that I only managed to do just 50km on a day. That was a full day on the bike from sunrise to sunset, but I just could not get faster then 6km/u. I started to worry a bit knowing the next waterstop was still 80 km away. Luckily the weather changed in my favor and the next day I only faced a midstrong sidewind. I also reached the highest point in this section of about 2200m altitude, which means the road was going down to Antofagasta, which is at sealevel. I managed to do the last 174km in a single day. So the shortest and one of the hardest days of 50km was followed by the longest sofar in this trip. It has been quite a rollercoaster of a ride. The temperature differences are also quite large in the dessert. At night it feels like your balls are freezing off, you start cycling in the morning with a jacket and gloves on and a few hours later your rubbing in sunscreen like no tomorrow to prevent getting sunburned.

I seem to be coping well though, so I'm feeling confident for the last 330km section of dessert cycling to San Pedro de Atacama. Heading back up again, so a nice bit of climbing ahead of me once more.

From there it's up even higher to the altiplano in Bolivia, i'll make sure to keep you posted.

All the best Erik

Foto’s

2 Reacties

  1. Peter Berry:
    25 juli 2017
    Fantastic effort Erik! That's an amazing amount of cycling you've achieved already. Well done!!! Nearly time for a major rest and a few beers. :)
    Good luck for the remainder of the tour.

    Peter
  2. Erwin:
    30 juli 2017
    Hi Erik,

    Well done so far, nice to be able to read what you are up to and that you are allright.

    If you wanr to read about what we' ve been up to, please visit

    http://famsusa17.reislogger.nl

    Rg. Erwin