Ripio vs Tarmac, 8th November

I learned in Wales that as soon as my bike sees a blade of wet grass, next to some mud, it will fall over.
So what the hell, we decide to go off the tarmac and ride 189km around the Peninsula anyways. Fortunately for me, it´s dry and there is very little grass. Still, I´m very nervous. First we hit sand. Funnily enough my bike doesn´t like this either, so the feet go down (rather than the bike and me) and I wait for Iain and Mike to realise that I´m not behind them. Mike´s bike isn´t too keen on the sand either so it´s u-turns back on to the gravel. I´m in front, just so the guys can help me pick up the bike when I fall over. 40km/hour seems way to fast but the tour buses fly past as do the hire cars. We do 79km to Puerto Delgado, only to be told when we pull up in the car park that as we´re not guests at the hotel, we´re not welcome. I´m exhausted by this stage and aching. It´s been hard work. And the landscape is flat and monotonous.
Iain gives me some pointers about the gravel and I am soon chanting to myself, ´Speed is my friend, speed is my friend´. We head off again and this time I actually hit 50km/hr. Things seem a little easier. By about 2:30pm, I´m starving and shattered. I notice as the road veers towards to the coast that there is a rather nice view. Maybe we should stop for lunch. We pull off the road, squeeze past a fence and nearly run over a strip of nails. That would have been fun all three of us with no puncture repair kits or spare inner tubes, miles from nowhere. What we should have realised is that we weren´t supposed to be there. However, in this National Park, it meant that there was something fantastic there that the tourists weren´t allowed to see. We stop above a cliff and when we (carefully) peer over, we are treated to a sight of thousands of seals sunbathing below. The beaches stretch on for miles and there are seals for as far as the eye can see. A perfect place for lunch. And it made the nerve racking ride there worth it.

'I´m not in a bad mood, I'm just tired and it's lunch time'

Lunch over we head up to Calafeta Valdez. I´m getting better at the gravel and I reach 60km/hour. The mantra is working and I´m feeling more confident.
At Calafeta Valdez, we are pulled aside by the National Park officer and are told off for stopping by the road. A tour bus operator had dobbed us in, seeing the bikes parked off the road by the cliff. Snitch. It didn´t matter though, the view was worth it.
Amongst all of the tourists (you are allowed to stop at Calafeta Valdez) we hear an English lady say ´Look, over there, whales´. We figure she is lying as we can´t see anything but more seals. But after following her and her tour group down the path to a look out, sure enough, there is a pod of about 5 Orca whales, seeming to cruise very close to the coast, sussing out the situation with what´s on the menu for dinner. Apparently these are the whales that jump out of the water and take seals off the beach.
5km up the road, we see penguins. We´re looking over a cliff edge again, thinking not a particualry close view. Then we realise there a few right by our feet. Friendly folk.
Deciding we won´t make it up to Puerto Norte, we cut back across the Peninsula. Despite being nearly taken out by a llama, I´m doing really well on the gravel road and make it back home in one piece, completely and utterly shattered, but very happy with the wildlife watching and riding. Good call on this one Mike!

'The llama I nearly ran over'