Malargue to Buta Bilton

Today was bloody tough, but the scenery was just so enjoyable.

Essentially rather than being troubled by the route profile, which included a rather impressive climb in the middle, it was the wind that caused the most chaos. Seriously, it was blowing constantly at 70-80 Km/h and is apparently a bit of a precursor as to what we can expect to endure once we get into Patagonia tomorrow.

The climb, well perhaps apart from the final couple of kilometres was the easy part of the day, something you'll rarely hear me say.... The wind at my back was virtually pushing me up the mountain. It was the descent however on which I (and I believe a number of others) had the most difficulty. Now a descent with a 5% gradient is something that normally one flys down at a great deal of knots regardless of whether one is pedaling or not. Today however given that the wind had now become somewhat of a headwind meant that I could get my speed into double figures by pedaling like crazy.

At this point I have to confess that I had a bit of a scare in trying to cope with the wind and found myself being blown across the road on a couple of occasions, including into the path of an on-coming fuel tanker on one of them. 

In taking evasive action, cause I didn't really want to become an ornament on this guy's grill, and don't laugh, I fell off.

It wasn't anything serious though I've now got some sore ribs and a couple of bruises on my right shoulder, but I'll live! 

Despite my fall, I managed to dust myself off and continued riding, even over twenty odd kilometres of unpaved road before finding myself turning into the campsite with only four or five of the faster chaps in.