"On the Trail"

The Journals from the Road

Thursday, November 16, 2000: Sand and Wind, Sand and Wind, Sand and Wind - Somewhere in the Sechura Desert to somewhere else in the same desert - 73 km

Video:
The most desolate part of the Sechura Desert

Francisco here...

We got up with the sunrise. I found it interesting that there was dew on our stuff. I didn´t think that would happen in the desert.

Some bees got the sense of our marmalaide that we were having with our breakfast bed. Then they sensed the grapefruit peels, then the guabas too. It was not pretty. Tad did his best to get out of there as I waited 100 metres away.

The wind was light at first but then gradually picked up by mid morning. As I was fixing a flat another cyclist, Herbert from Holland caught up to us. Like the other world cyclist we met last week, he had a much lighter load. I will have to try to let go of some stuff.

We rode together for about 20km then Herbert went ahead. The wind continued, then the sand began to blow across the road again. It was relentless. Then we came across the most barren part of the ride. No brush, no cactus, only the colour of light brown, flatness, pelting sand and wind were our company. It was so strange to see on the side of the highway, a florescent coloured car tire on a pole. It was in the middle of nowhere.

After fighting to maintain a 10 km/hr pace we came upon a slightly vegetated area - enough to find shelter from the wind and from the passing traffic. We carried our bikes over the sand to try to avoid the two centimetre long thorns and the bikes were too heavy to simply roll over the sand.

The night again got cool again. It would have been colder had we been in the wind. The tent needed both of us to be set up because of the wind, but we managed.

I found out later from an archeologist in Trujillo, that the Sechura Desert is known as being drier than the Sahara.

-Sharing your feelings of anger might make you more content due to the release of your frustration, however it could simply transfer the bad feelings to another person. Acceptance or at least tolerence should be strived for to lessen the chance of anger.
-Frank Pollari

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