Gooood night readers! Giving continuation. Two crazy guys, two bikes, 400+ km riding bikes, 12 days. Check this travel story.

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This is the PART 7 of a story a friend and I experienced this past february. We made our way to Montevideo in Uruguay, bought some bicycles and rode them back to Brazil. An amazing experience full of overcoming situations that I'd like to present through this texts.

If you are landing here now consider checking PART 1, and moving from there. Link presented below:

[PART 1] Travel Story: Coast of Uruguay by Bicycle | Planning

In PART 1 I talked about the motivation behind the idea and how simple it was to plan everything. It gives you and introdution to the main idea, preparations and the basic road map for our trip. If you like my work please consider checking that out, it'll be much appreciated.

In PART 2 the initial steps of our trip were presented, how we failed to hitchhike and the solutions we found. I also try to give you an idea on how you can find positivity, always, everywhere!

In PART 3 we wandered around Montevideo and drank beer to pass time. It was carnival holidays and we were not able to buy our bikes.

In PART 4 we actually bought the bikes and started our way back to Brazil. In this part you'll discover how the first 50km were.

In PART 5 we found a little counter wind and I talked a little about the routine and how it'll be in every aspect of your life. Even when you are travelling.

In PART 6 we sufered with the counter winds and the hot sun, but in the end we enjoyed a perfect wild camp.

Hope you enjoy reading this continuation and the ones to come, feel free to leave your feedback down below!

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The Murphy's Law

Feb. 19th, 2018. Last night we did a wild camping near the lake in the middle of some bushes, those for wind protection and to hide from view. Uruguay is usually super safe, specially in the midle of nowhere, but we were still camping on a public place near the road, one can not be too careful.

That nigh I wanted to sleep as simple as possible, with only my sleeping mat and sleeping bag on the floor, unfortunately the mosquitoes strongly wanted my blood that night, forcing me to pitch my tent. The surface was soft sand, thus I've improvised a replacement for the tent pegs by putting heavy objects on each internal corner of the 'bedroom'. I also wanted to appreciate the starry sky, since it was not going to rain that night I left the tent uncovered, with only the mosquito net separating me from the enviroment. André followed me on the idea.

Sadly my idea to appreciate the stars was frustrated by my solid sleep, even André's snore was not capable of awakening me that night. I woke up early that morning with the first sun rise giving it's show to the east, to the Atlantic side. It was chilly as usual and surprisingly there were almost no wind, making us happy. No more fighting that day.

We performed our morning routines; breakfast, dishes, pack and load everything. When you travell with only the essentials in a backpack you learn what works and what doesn't. You also learn to be minimalistic, that means carrying only what you are really going to use. It's interesting how simple a human being can live, with only a hand of usefull items. After some days you are expert on packing and the order of everything, each item finds its place. 

It was early in the morning on that Monday when we've slowly hit the road, our goal for the day was to reach La Paloma nearly 50 km away. That meant following the coast on Ruta 10, entering the Laguna de Rocha ecological reserve and crossing on food the connection between the lake and the ocean. That would save us 30 km, besides being the coolest path we would pass.

After some kilometers the newly asphalted road gave place to a gravel road, the only cars passing by seemed to be local farmers, some of them curious to see two crazy bikers fully loaded. Long dirt roads cutting green fields, some parts protected below the shade of eucalyptus trees. To our left the vast farms, to our right the blue ocean. What a place to be! I was enjoying every meter, the wind was not killing us that day.

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A curious farmer and his four legged bicycle.

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At a place called "Las Garzas", a fancy private residential area, we've stopped to refill our water supply. The doorman was really friendly and patient to give us 3 liters of fresh water.

- Ola que tal! Where are you coming from? - He asked.

- Montevideo. - I said.

- Montevideo! "Locos"! - He was surprised. It's always funny to see people's reaction when you comment about an adventure. Some of them tell you are crazy, some wish they could do the same.

- To get to Laguna de Rocha, is it far? - I asked.

- Ahead 10 km. - He said. Giving me the last bottle of water. 

After some chatting we couldn't thank him enough for the water, we had to leave.

- Good luck on the journey guys, take care! - He said. And so we kept on going.

The 10 km of dirt road continued, one peaceful road with little ups and downs. It was getting close to 1200 hour noon and the sun was starting to burn, the only thing I could think was "what if the lake is connected with the sea". I knew that some days before it had rainned a lot in Uruguay, thus the lake could be high. If it was the case we'd have to try the depth and cross like that or go back to ruta 10. The excitement was the surprise.

Laguna de Rocha has  72 km². It formed from the sea level elevation during the last 6000 to 8000 years and is now a protected area being home to more than 200 bird species. I wish I had had more time to camp there and enjoy the great galaxy without any interference, no lights to obfuscate the stars. Unfortunately we can't have everything in this life; the lake was giving us passage and we didn't know how far La Paloma was. We enjoyed some crackers with dulce de leche before entering the desert that separate the lake from the ocean. I was happy to be able to cross.

From where the road ends cars are not allowed to pass, to preserve the environment. That meant we had to push our bikes through the desert of soft sand formed between the lake and the ocean. The sun was hot, our feet digging the sand to force the twenty something kilos of equipment forward, on the horizon we could see another person coming the other way and far away some strange object lying on the desert.

-Do you see that thing? - I asked André.

-Yeah, what is it? Looks like a barrel. Let's check! - He said.

And so we went directly to the strange thing.

-Dude, it's a rusty sea buoy! - I said.

-This is so Mad Max!! - André said laughing

I had to laugh by how excited he was with the Mad Max idea, but I couldn't agree more. How have that buoy ended up there? How high the sea level had to grow to bring a sea buoy to the land? It was incredibly curious.

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The desert buoy.

André enjoying his Mad Max moment.

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By the time we were taking pictures the other adventurer coming the other way aproached.

-Ola que tal? - He said in spanish.

-Bien y tu? - I asked. We had chatted a bit in spanish when I asked him where he was from.

- Soy de São Paulo. - He said.

-Ahhhh! Qual é cara! We are speaking spanish, I'm from Brazil too! - I said in good portuguese.

His name was Pablo, from São Paulo. A friendly brazilian guy travelling by bike solo. We've talked about our trips and the route each one of us were going to face, one of those small conversations to share knowledge. Sadly we were going opposite ways so we said good bye. I wonder where he is now? It's incredible how adventurers are always optimistic and happy, even when you are in the middle of a small desert below a burning sun.

André and I kept on going until all the desert path had been finished. Half of our water had been consumed, luckly we've taken more at Las Garzas - thank you doorman. It was 1200 hour noon when we spotted a restaurant.

-Coooooooooke! Come to us! - André said. 

We speeded our bikes to the restaurant by the lake, dreaming with a fresh coke just to find out the restaurat was closed. Can you imagine the disappointment in our faces? After many kilometers of dirt road and a desert, we were not able to appreciate the gods' liquid. And we had at least 10 more kilometers to go. The sun was so hot that our decision was to do nothing, just rest below the shade. Surprisingly the restaurant's internet was working, good opportunity to send news to our families and friends.

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View from the closed restaurant deck.

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Without being able to drink our cokes and fed up of doing nothing I proposed to rush to La Paloma to get some proper rest. What else could we do? What else could go wrong?

Remember the Murphy's Law? - If anything can go wrong, it will!

Back to the dirt road I felt my bike softer than normal, I looked down and:

-No way! Not now! - I said loudly. I had a flat tire. It was slowly loosing air, but still flat.

-Do you want to change? - André asked.

-We have only 10 km to go. Hand me the pump, let's go like that. - I said.

-Right! - André Said. He handed me the pump. I pumped some air and we rushed more than ever. Our bikes were eating dust for breakfast that day. On our back some dark clouds following. Let's go, let's go! We finished that dirt road in record time, finally we were back to the asphalted road, that leads do La Paloma. The clouds getting closer and closer.

-André, we are not done yet! It's gonna rain! Let's rush to the city. - I said.

We barely ended our snacks and back to the road. La Paloma was not far away, but the rain was close. First meters and *Kbaaaaam*, loads of rain dropping on us. I had reasons to be angry, but it was impossible. Day had been so hot that a rain shower felt like a gift. Water was so cold and relaxing.

We finished that day at a camping called La Aguada, right in front of the beach. We took the well deserved hot showers and then a pizza with some Patricia beer. The best way to finish yet another part of our journey.

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Journey Map

Route done by Bus.

Total Kilometers Travelled: +/- 600 Km

Total Cokes drank: 9 L

Total Beer drank: 4 L

Route done by bike.

Total Kilometers Travelled Overall: +/- 860 Km

Total Kilometers Travelled by Bike: +/- 254 Km

And you? How to you deal with unexpected situations? Have you ever tryed some crazy adventure?

If yes, leave as comment telling what you have done, I'd love to read. If no, what is holding you back?

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I'm Arthur. I blog about Brazil, Travel, Camping & Life Experiences.

Follow me to stay tunned for more info and tips.

LATEST RELATED POSTS:

[PART 1] Travel Story: Coast of Uruguay by Bicycle | Planning

[PART 2] Travel Story: Coast of Uruguay by Bicycle | D-Day - Going to Montevideo from Brazil

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[PART 3] Travel Story: Coast of Uruguay by Bicycle | First Day in Uruguay - Montevideo

[PART 4] Travel Story: Coast of Uruguay by Bicycle | The Grand Beginning

[PART 5] Travel Story: Coast of Uruguay by Bicycle | Ouch My Butt

[PART 6] Travel Story: Coast of Uruguay by Bicycle | The Counter Wind

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