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Thanks for all the comments, all my photos are from an iPhone normally taken one handed as we ride. I flip flop between wishing I had a proper camera and being glad I can take pictures so quickly without having to stop riding.
Also if anyone is looking for an escape/life changing tour - come to Perú and ride the Divide. It’s incredible, maybe not the widest range of eco-systems or scenery but by far the biggest landscapes and you’re riding slap bang in the middle of them.
We’re about halfway through the route now and have had our arses kicked by consecutive days of 4800m+ passes. Until this point altitude hasn’t really affected us but damn it’s been tough. I felt nauseous and super weak on our first 4950m pass and although those symptoms haven’t come back since it’s so tough to ride at that elevation. Between 4500m and 5000m we’re crawling along at 4kmph and dragging ourselves over the top.
We’re also starting to experience our first bouts of nasty weather and have been caught in the hail and snow a few times. One of which got pretty bad and if it wouldn’t have been for a fortuitously located house and some friendly sheep farmers offering us a hot chocolate and an opportunity to warm up we’d have been in trouble.
Currently at 3200m and have 2 days of climbing up to 4900m before spending 100km on a 4500m plateau.
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it's got proper mega now! Have you developed a kind of constant routine this far in? or does it still feel really spontaneous? I'm guessing there's always new considerations that you have to adapt to depending on location? (amount of food you need to carry, where you can sleep, how far you can go each day, etc?)
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Every day is blowing our minds at the moment, Perú is incredible. We’re about 5 days off the end of the Divide route at the moment and enjoying some slightly lower elevations. Constant 4800m+ passes was a trip but it also killed us.
Each day has it’s quirks and although we can make decisions based on how we’re feeling/what we want to achieve I wouldn’t say spontaneous is the right word. The constant grind of staying alive is pretty exhausting. Things should get easier further down the road but the Andes are pretty all consuming.
Camp life is fairly easy now, we have a pretty dialled tent/cooking routine and finding a camp spot here is no problem. Water has been a little tricky a few times these past weeks which has meant we had to carry 6l up some big climbs and once we had to filter water out of a puddle (it actually tasted surprisingly fresh).
Last week we also had to carry 3.5 days of food but the next stretch is much more populated so resupply will be easy. It’s a bit of a lottery if the shops/restaurants are going to be open or what they’ll have in stock.
Always surprises every day, last night we thought we had a camp spot in the middle of nowhere with only alpacas for company. Cue me taking a much needed wash in the river, everything out for the world to see when the alpaca farmer comes over the hill to bring them in for the night. He seemed pretty unbothered by the naked gringo in front of him though. Asked some questions about our journey and told me to crack on with my river bath.
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Sawyer Squeeze, seems to be the most popular choice with tourers by a big margin. Needs fairly regular back flushing to keep the flow rate up but on the whole it’s working ok. We have a Cnoc bladder which you can squeeze but can also hang it as a gravity feed. It’s a bit slow like this but a labor free way to get water at camp in the evening/morning.
For 2 people it’s definitely a chore to get a full water reup, if you want to it to take less time I think x2 filters is probably the easiest solution.
We also have a Steripen Ultra which kills viruses (and all other nasties), we use it on its own if spring/tap water is clean or do a double Sawyer/Steripen treatment if the water source looks particularly gross.
Unfortunately I dropped the Steripen yesterday and broke the glass on it, the bulb is still working so I’m going to try and epoxy it but it looks like we’re probably just down to the Sawyer from now on.
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Katadyn BeFree is a lot faster but I don't know if it scales up from the personal 600ml one. I also don't know how long it lasts compared to Sawyer filters or quality vs. speed. But for what I'm doing at the moment - speed is better than quality. If I was going somewhere more remote I'd be looking for best filtering even if speeds were slower.
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The Sawyer lasts forever and I think the BeFree is only a few thousand litres per filter.
If you want the best of the best then an MSR Guardian is the one, as far as I know it’s the only portable filter that removes viruses. It also purifies to such an extent that all water coming out tastes good.
Although safe to drink if you put pond water through the Sawyer it comes out still tasting like pond water.
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MSR Guardian
£306
Maybe if I was doing what you were doing I'd consider it but for the duration I'm needing one, the BeFree will do. Maybe a larger Sawyer if we both go for a longer tour.
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After a few days off in Huancavelica, the halfway mark on the Peru Great Divide, we rolled out to tackle another 700km of mountains, alpaca herds and plates of rice and eggs.
Out the door was an 1800m climb over 60km but we called it before the top and slept in a village tambo (bunk house/rest spot), the temperature was single digits so we were glad to have a spot inside. The next 120km had us dipping up an down between 4200m and 4800m, fortunately the grades were easy and we even got a little bit of tarmac. A huge descent took us to a hot, cactus covered valley before we shot (slowly) straight back up to 4300m.
Our legs were feeling the strain by this point and we knew from friends further up the road that there were some nasty valley drops/climbs coming up. A few diversions to the route cut out 1200m of climbing and we took rolling tarmac roads to Vilcashuaman for a rest day.
We left ready for the last 220km of the route but 18km in my rear tyre went bang and there was a pretty big hole right in the middle of the tread. I’d got a Gravel King in Cuenca, Ecuador, not an ideal touring tyre but it was the best I could find and we had new Schwalbe Mondials waiting for us in Bolivia so was hoping it would last until then. I patched and stitched the hole but I didn’t trust it to last. After some sandwiches we admitted the inevitable and agreed that our time on the Peru Great Divide was over and we’d have to get a bus to Cusco. Initially we were super disappointed about not finishing the whole route but knowing that the last stretch isn’t very scenic and involves some very steep climbs we were glad to be getting to Cusco (and good food) sooner.
A few minivans and an overnight coach later we arrived in Cusco. The Divide route was incredible and our whole time in Perú has been the highlight of the trip but fuck me it was tiring. The first 3 days in the city disappeared in a haze, I don’t think we did anything other than sleep and eat. 2 weeks off the bikes with plenty of good food and hanging out with friends from the road was well needed.
We squeezed in a trip to Machu Picchu too which was unreal. All the logistics of getting there and tickets etc was a massive pain but it was totally worth it. We got good weather for our whole time around the site and it was an incredible experience. Quite often we miss big attractions because they’re too far off route or we’re just too tired to bother with them but I’m so glad we made this one happen.
eskay
Albb
JB
stephens
hippy
skinny
hvsds
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Alaska to Argentina – de arriba abajo
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