Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cover between 50 and 65 kilometres per day, every day I'm on the ice.
I want to show what I'm made of. When I finish this run I want nothing
left in my tank.
november 13
What a day. We decided to leave the Pan-American Highway at the
50-kilometre point in the day's run, at a town called Camana, and take
the coast road to Islay. This will reduce the distance I have to cover
between the towns from 200 kilometres to just 100 kilometres, sav-
ing around a day's travel. When we planned the run, we figured that
for safety's sake we should stick to the highways, but now that we've
acquired a little local knowledge I feel okay about getting off the main
road. Also, we can send one vehicle ahead to scout the route and so be
more precise and take into consideration traffic and terrain when we
are planning the next day.
I passed through many little fishing villages hidden in the rocky
coves, including a few where men were building boats by hand. It was
good to see old-fashioned craftsmanship. On one beach, four men
stripped off and waded out past the breakers with a drag net and then
slowly pulled it in to reveal a catch of fish and crabs big enough to feed
a whole village.
The crew went ahead to Quilca, to meet the guide who had been
organised by the local police to show me the way tomorrow, necessary
because the coast road we've taken as a shortcut is difficult to find in
places. He was a local man who would ride his horse and direct me
along the route. However, when I arrived in Quilca the crew told me
that my guide had had a bad fall that very afternoon and had been
rushed to hospital with a suspected broken collar bone. Now I have
three choices for tomorrow: I find someone else, I go back 40 kilo-
metres to the Pan-American Highway and lose another day, or I equip
myself with a compass and backpack full of food and drinks for the
next 80 kilometres, pick up the old track we were going to use and just
get on with it. We've tried to find another guide, but no luck: this is a
very small fishing village. Also, I hate going backwards. So the third
option is my best bet. I will start at five o'clock, just on dawn, and
hopefully meet my crew near Islay.
