Hittin' The Hills

Sorry that I didn't get a post up over the weekend, I was busy travelling the hills and valleys in the north of the province with my host family. I had a lovely time, however in an effort to keep these posts in something resembling chronological order, I might leave that until another post. This one is going to focus solely on a bike ride I took part in a week or so ago.

Mornings here are getting very, very, very cold. It usually warms up quite well by lunch time, however, as far as I'm concerned, the temperatures between 07:00 and 08:00 in the morning are far colder than any temperature I have ever experienced back in Temora. Not the ideal weather for this inexperienced Australian to go mountain biking through the hills with his host father and two of his host father's insanely fit amigos. I have come to learn that whenever I take part in exercise with Luis, I am going to be physically, mentally and linguistically challenged to a fair degree. This was no exception.


The original plan was to hit the hills near San Martin - "no matter how bad the weather is". However, upon assessing the torrential downpour occurring as we neared San Martin, we decided to turn around and try the other side of Junin - towards Chile. Incredibly well layered in biking apparel, yet still somehow feeling the cold, we set off at a fairly steady pace. We passed a couple of Swiss touring bikers (Swiss accents sound awesome in Spanish) on the way up the first climb. I recall thinking to myself at the time, that this would be an interesting occurrence that I could talk about in my next blog post. As it turned out, this meeting would fall into insignificance in comparison to the physical and mental onslaught that lay before me in the hills. A misunderstanding in translation on my part had me thinking that we were merely climbing to the peak that they indicated and then riding back down to the ute. I was sorely mistaken (very sorely come the next morning). I did quite well on this first climb, thinking it would be the only hard part. I managed to gain a considerable gap on Luis, who is not all that comfortable with steep accents. At times I felt that I was going nowhere, however I kept powering on, impressing the other two when I wasn't far behind them in reaching the peak. The shorter, stouter companion merely looked at my legs and said "Rugby, no?".

It was then that I was to learn of my misunderstanding. When Luis arrived, we almost immediately set off down the other side of the hill... in the complete opposite direction to what I had been expecting. The others soon left me behind as they flew down the winding dirt tracks. I have never been comfortable with riding a bike downhill at speed and was doing my best to be cautious. I soon realised that I had no choice but to let the bike pick up speed as use of the brakes was causing more harm than good, causing me to lose control of the bike. On top of this my fingers were so cold and the road so rocky that attempting to use the brakes was causing a great deal of pain. So I had no choice to learn to ride fast and  came to thoroughly enjoy the downhill sections of the ride (despite occasionally fearing for my life with the steep drops, narrow roads and passing cars!). We rested at the bottom and had a quick snack and a chat and then set off again. This is were things started to get really tough for me.

Unaccustomed to the cold or long distance bike riding in general, the extremely variable gradient of the trail became torture. Luis thinks that we rode a total distance somewhere between the 60 and 70 km mark - a far greater distance than I have completed before, even at a more leisurely pace. The two friends, very accustomed to the landscape, soon left Luis and I in their dust as we fell down to a gruelling crawl, dreading even the slightest of up-hills and striving just to reach the splendid relief of the down-hills. I am still of the opinion that I had never before been physically tested to such an extent for such an extended period of time. To some of you, I may seem like a bit of a wimp, however to me it was a very big deal. It took every bit of mental and physical strength for me to stay on the bike and continue to battle the cold, the undulating slopes, the exhaustion, and the wind (the kind of wind where you have to lean into it just to stay upright). My only energy source was the sugary lollies that Luis handed me every now and then. I also got some helpful adrenaline rushes when, on three separate occasions, we were chased by packs of dogs. When we weren't being chased by the wildlife, it was very tempting to simply roll from the bike onto the edge of the road. On the one occasion that my feet came from the pedals, it took every bit of will-power to push off and go again. At times Luis would ride beside me and place his hand on my back, helping me forward. In a humbling and strangely liberating way, I felt like a young boy learning to ride a bike for the first time.

Somehow I've managed to make it this far into the post without even mentioning the scenery! You guessed it - beautiful, breathing-taking, splendid, and all the rest of my usual scenery describing adjectives. To prevent myself launching into further detailed paragraphs I will give you the short version - just think winding, steep, dirt roads in the hills, the crystal clear river and luscious green banks, giant rock formations and circling eagles, lonely farms and beautiful horses of every kind you can imagine. I would love to have some photos to share, however I chose not to take my camera on this occasion. I didn't want to hold up the others, which I most certainly would have if I had had it with me - there seemed to be a perfect photo opportunity every hundred metres or so! Hopefully I will get the chance to ride the same path again by myself or with Luis so I can get some pics - the memories of that bike ride are ones that I want to preserve as best as I possibly can. It was another incredible experience in every way. To be tested to such an extent is always going to provide a massive amount of satisfaction and sense of achievement. Add to that the outstanding surroundings and friendships formed and you have one very fulfilling and rewarding bike ride.