loaded up ready to depart
We set of from Dakar Motos (Buenos Aires) 7am, trying to avoid the Dakar race traffic, didn't happen, motorsport in argentina has a massive following, people were camping on the streets the night before to catch a glimpse of the final stage. Deciding to depend on the sat nav we bypassed the city, sadly a little to far as ended up on route 2 rather than 3, not to worry, this could be rectified. It was along route 2 that i managed to get my first official warning from the Argentinean police. There was a 20 mile tailback, with no room between traffic i followed other bikers in the hard shoulder, they all pulled in suddenly, i was to late and got pulled over - credentials shown, apologise and explain what i'm doing, agreeing that Manchester United are a good football team, we continued on route 2.
after being stopped by the police (police car in corner of pic)
Deciding to switch to route 3 shane asked a local the fastest way to get there, the directions took us through 100km of sand, dirt and rubble tracks, through fields of corn, sunflowers and wheat - the adventure had begun…finding route 3 in time for lunch!
on one of the dirt roads
As we hammered down the road evening was drawing in, as we were in between towns we asked farmers if we could pitch the tents on their land…one look at us and suddenly…no, not possible. Eventually with all natural light gone we managed set up to camp next to a toll booth. Finally all sorted…this lasted for an hour, just enough time to have something to eat and pitch the tents. Then, from nowhere thunder, lightning, wind and rain. Luckily one of the toll attendance ran over and offered us the store room to sleep in, as he did the wind picked up to a gail and torrential rain, the tents ripped up (poles now bent from where i jumped on it), people and bike rushed into store room to dry out and sleep, which we did, i think in part to the fumes from the desiel generator that kicked in when the power was lost.
the camp before the storm - just starting to rain
camping in the store room, everything hung up to dry
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