Flood recovery.
Back to our ‘interesting’ night. It’s only now we have ralised how lucky we were to decide to pack up in the middle of the night and and in pouring rain, and move to higher ground. I had been making several trips to view the water level after getting into bed. during the earlier night. Also, I had taken the torch to obtain water for washing before bed from a pool close to the middle of the river. The thought of being caught short of the bank with water thundering down, is sobering.
With the wet tent bundled onto the spare wheel significantly reduced my vision so it was more luck than judgement that we found a small ridge that gave us some elevation and hoped, safety.
As Jen mentioned, from this elevated location about 50m from the original camp site, a flash of lightening briefly illuminated the whole area and all I could see was a sheet of water. The ditch in front of us was also filling. However, in the morning all was almost as it was when we set up camp. Why did we camp there? It was the only shelter from the sun. Very mindful of the risks too.
Our accommodation was adequate last night and we were on the road by…11am!!
It was another frustrating day but I believe we now have the measure of the Tom-Tom sat-nav. It has it’s uses but it’s far from perfect. From now on, where there is a main road, we’ll take that rather than shorter routes that purport to take less time. So today, the last day, I hope, we were fooled by it and found ourselves on dreadful rocky track that often reduced us to a crawling pace.
Today’s destination
Our destination was to be Barichaira however we were seduced by the road that would avoid Bucaramanga and paid the price. For much of the early afternoon we were on the Bucaramanga – Bogota main road and trucks coming towards were bumper to bumper, some trying to overtake regardless of oncoming traffic. I have never seen so many trucks. Must have been several kilometers long, queue.
So tonight we are the sole campers on the edge of a vast valley and being at around 1200m its relatively cool. Expensive at 40,000peso, about £8 or NZ$16. There’s still 112k’s tomorrow to cover the remaining 112k’s and then we’ll take a day’s rest as we’ve now been on the road 8 days.
There have been some interesting road signs. Snakes, different types of monkey’s and foxes. We have seen none of them.
Clumps of bamboo, some 500ml in dia!
En-route we crossed the Magdelana River, the largest in Colombia, but missed driving through the town of Puerto Barrio, on it’s banks.
The colour, intensity and variety of flowers, shrubs & trees is amazing.
Game 2 of the All Blacks v Bok’s series tomorrow.
Very inconveniently the game starts at 11am our time, so it’ll be another catch-up later in the day to learn the result. The downside of long distance travel..:(
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What a nighmare of a country to find your way around. The map I have been using to follow you is not detailed enough so had to use google maps to find you. Hardly a straight road in the country by the look of it. Disaster of a game, the boks just too strong up front. Mind you, not as bad as Oz, that was a real thumping.
Make sure you have spare power steering fluid. On that not imagine if you had the series 3!!
It’s a nightmare of a country to drive around…well the roads Tom-Tom has taken us. But it’s given us some amazing scenery. This sat-nav is not suited to South America anyway. Knows where the roads are but has no idea the conditions. As mentioned, we are learning..:)
Have just watched ‘Hi-lights’ of both games. The Argie’s were sensational in the 2nd half. We couldn’t cross the Bok’s line. Well done the Bok’s. We have selection issues, but am sure Razor will solve them, he’s ‘sharp’ enough…:)
Series 3, wouldn’t that be amazing..:)
I found that my Tom-Tom was sometimes unreliable even in Europe, so South America?!.
Google maps every time for me and real time with traffic chaos.
What sport are you guys referring to, all this talk about Boks, Argies, Oz and Razors all very confusing ;-))
Laughing, Mel. Keep up!
Yes, Google maps great for local stuff but often without wifi we have to resort to iOverland but we are working with the limitations of all.
Hope you are being good…:)