| Jeff Poulter & Graham Tillotson: 6th November 2004 |
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Chanaral to La Serena
Leaving Chanaral and its pollution was going to be a relief, so we rose early, breakfasted (where the waiter tried to charge us 1000 pesos to fill our vacuum flask) and were on the road by 7.45. Well, 8.45 actually as we discovered that we had passed another unmarked time zone and we had already lost an hour that day.
We rode along the coast for the first 100km so it continued grey and cold, although the scenery would have been lovely with a little sun. We swooped up and down and in and out of the coves and cliffs as the road shadowed the coastline but there was little memorable about it.
Passing by Copiapo
We passed Copiapo and the official end of the Atacama Desert. The road curved inland around the top of Copiapo so, blessedly, we had a tail wind for a few miles instead of the sharp cross wind and head winds we had been experiencing for the last several thousand kilometres. Almost immediately we left the coast and entered the Copiapo valley, vegetation sprung up all along the road: first just patchy grass, then small shrubs, then small trees until, after less than 10km, there were vineyards and fruit trees growing happily alongside the road. Such abundance lasted about as far as the southern outskirts of the town, though, when we found ourselves back in semi-arid desert. This quickly turned to sparse pampas and then the most extraordinary thing happened. We breasted a hill and splashed before us, as if across the bottom of a shallow valley, was the most vibrant fuchsia pink carpet. Shocking pink, quite literally. It was as if Barbara Cartland had smeared lipstick across the landscape. We stopped and were surprised to find billions of tiny four-petalled flowers, surprisingly, without leaves.
It subsequently turned out that this is a rare occurrence in the desert and that it last happened four years ago and then seven years before that. It only lasts a day or so - and we arrived just as it got into its stride. Magical.
And that, really, was the overriding highlight of the day. We arrived in La Serena to be pleasantly surprised by the sophistication of the town. Our hostel is small but comfy and we bumped into three Irish folk there. Brian, his sister Amy and his girlfriend Caroline were great company and sufficient beer was consumed to satisfy Irish sensibilities. So we slept a little late and looked forward to tomorrow when we ride to Santiago where May and Flip are flying out to join us!
Jeff 06.11.04 |
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