Day 679 30th May 2018
47 miles (Cuatro Bocas to Mocoreta) Average speed 12.3mph Top speed 23mph
I got up late at 7.40 as I couldn’t sleep during the night, kept being woken by lorries in the garage car park and I am not used to wild camping lately. Rain started as I got up so I packed up very quickly and brushed my teeth in the garage facilities. I had brekkie of leftover sausage and three pieces of nice bread I’d got from the chorizo sandwich stall the day before with coffee in the garage.
The rain had stopped as I left at 9 but the storm lay ahead as I could see the black clouds. Soon there was lightning all across the skies in every direction, but it was ahead of me. Although the road was wet at least it wasn’t raining too hard. I paused for it to calm down for a while under a farmers front gate which had a wide roof and I watched the cows and mooed back at them.
Brian the Snail taking shelter
I soon caught up with the storm though and now I was soaked. Then I got my fourth puncture of the trip as my rear tyre is now a slick and the heavens chose that moment to open up and made it hard, luckily there was a farm and the gate was open so I went in and parked up next to the farmer fixing his tractor, we didn’t say much, but I was pleased that he let me use his awning to fix the wheel.
Farm gate
It took a while and was dirty work with everything covered in road grit, mud and wet. I didn’t replace the tyre as it was all too messy but I managed to patch the tube and get enough air in it to get me to the next garage 5 miles down the road.
I was putting all my weight over the front wheel and trying to avoid most of the road debris. A gomeria was on hand to give me air and I had lunch of coffee with three empanadas while the rain finally passed and the sun came out briefly to warm me up a bit. The next 14 miles to here were even quite pleasant despite my wet feet and the disappearance of the hard shoulder. This was the first hotel I came to and the prospect of sandy wet roads convinced me to check out the price, which is pretty good, especially as I have a two bar heater to dry my stuff out. In the evening I went in search of food and as usual I went too early and nothing was open, but I found steak Milanese and chips for 170 pesos so all good.
Steak Milanese
The forecast is for more rain tomorrow so despite the poor WiFi I will stay and rest after 4 long days.
Hotel brisa 300 pesos.