Yes! No luck again! Well.. Stupid Georges thought there was no Stan’s liquid more enough so I had to find way to bring it in. It was not possible by inflating and having liquid so I had the genial idea I could slightly open the (tubeless) ventile – of course without letting it falling into the tire. Well, no I was not able to prevent it from falling…followed by loud shout (I will try to stay polite so I don’t write it here).
So, the ventile was “in” the wheel, I had to remove (partially) the tire and therefore break the vacuum. People using tubeless knows, that once the seeling is broken, you need a compressor to get the system back. A compressor…so between stones and rocks? I had to take my “emergency” tube…bye bye tubeless, from now on more air pressure to avoid snake bit (no real snake, just a special term for a given puncture). By removing partially the tire, I saw why air was coming out: the in wall was broken, may be a rough stone. Anyway, as the tire was not done yet, I wanted to reuse it.
I wanted to prepare the warm shoes and mount back the pedal fixations…guess what, one part must remain in Gérards car… I will have switch the parts when switch shoes.
So everything was set up, I could start. My legs were still feeling like lead. May be because I new what was in front of me: “la cuesta del diablo”. I knew from the map and from the backtrip with Gérard from El Tatio. What I had before was steep, yes (remember: 12-15%). Now I saw the maximum at 18% on a road made of earth mixed with sand. For every step (yes pushing!) forward, I felt 5cm back. But I made it! Cool feeling…And I don’t think that the offered Coca leaves help much. First they taste like gras and black tea.. Second, 30min later I had headache. Nothing for me. I had set my goal to sleep at the water we let with Gérard or better few km more were there is small river. It had to be a place where I could have a day off to allow cleaning myself and give my body some rest.
But before all that the road passed the old sulfur mine. Few houses falling apart. What I had forgotten was the following downhill of 200m, which I had then to pedal up again. Time was passing, the evening wind came quite fresh. At the “water” point, I decide to go ahead, even it was getting fresher and fresher. After 500m, the road went down, temperature as well. So after 2km my legs, feed and hands were frozen. I stopped to have throusers and gloves.
Finally, I make it to the “river”, built up the tent and slept into the warm sleeping bag from which I cooked some rice. Now I can listeining to the water flowing, the birds “singing” (more like a duck) and enjoy my good night, knowing that tomorrow will be an early wake up due to the tourist driving to the geysir of El Tatio.
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