A lovely warm morning. On the road by 9am. Our sleep was constantly disrupted by a bloody dog that would not stop barking. Why people let their dogs bark incessantly, is beyond me.
After the marathon drive to, and finding the property, leaving it was a piece of cake. A gentle drive down a narrow track for about 2k’s and we were on the main road.
Our camp for tonight.
Our destination today turned out to be a similar campground to the one we left. A private house with flat ground suitable to accommodate a couple of camping vehicles. The owners of this house, one that has been in the family for over 100 years, rent space for campers in their yard. Being close to the Ecuador border makes it a handy transition point, either way. The woman’s brother, lives in Christchurch, NZ and she told us she had just spoken to him. He was driving from Christchurch to Asburton. How about that!
Coming in to Pasto.
En-route
The only city we passed through was Pasto. My god, how people exist in these mountainside centre’s is amazing. There is nothing flat. People walking up steep hills, or down. Traffic everywhere.
A couple of observations regarding big trucks. The first was a giant Kenworth stopped at the roadside in a very remote location. On passing, I noted the sump sitting in front of it!! Clearly something serious had happened to the motor, and they were fixing at the roadside.
The second there were two similar vehicles at the roadside. One appeared to be on fire. The bonnet was up and smoke was coming from the motor. It had no doubt cooked itself and would have seized! The challenges of operating in mountainous country.
It’s approx. 80ks from Pasto to here, Ipiala, on a beautiful new double lane motorway, but forever upwards. An amazing piece of engineering. It must have taken years to build, with deep rock cuttings.
All day we passed recent rockfalls. Some, massive boulders. This one held us up for about 15min.
Our drive today, 280k’s is the most we have covered in a day, so far. What a drive! Looking at the map, we are going to have to get used to these mountain roads until we get to Argentina!! Poki only has a 2.5L motor and we are nearly 3 tonne all up and it’s a big ask for such a small motor. Consequently we spend a lot of time in 3rd and 4th gear. Whenever possible I use Maori overdrive on the downward bits. Jen’s not very impressed but it somewhat balances the fuel consumption…:)
Meeting a cyclist
On the way we pulled up beside a cyclist, grinding his way up a forever mountain. Without stopping I told him to grab on and we would pull him up the road. He was Canadian, from Alberta. He told us he had cycled the length of New Zealand. I don’t think he was very comfortable with my offer of being towed and let go after only a few minutes. Silly boy as he had many miles to climb.
Tomorrow we will cross the border into Ecuador. But tonight, we are at 2800m and it’s 14deg. We are going to see the sleep.
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