Wedding anniversary on the road
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Durango was yet another decision point. The experience of cycling Mex 40 lived up to all expectations and Durango itself was lovely. However, most cyclists we have heard of typically head south rather than eastwards which we had been considering. In addition, iOverlander was not showing many options for camping in the route towards Torreón. Also the FCDO map of Mexico which shows green and orange sections indicate the southward route goes through orange areas. Our travel insurance would not cover us if we were in an orange area. Thus we decided to stick with our original plan to head towards Torreón before looping southwards meeting to green sections.
As ever, once the decision has been made, life gets easier as there is no more pondering to do. We have been super glad of our decision. The route has been lovely and we have experienced some wonderful things.
Our first day out of Durango began with a visit to the purificadora. I can't say enough about how wonderful they are. Our bottles get given a thorough wash and filled with clean water all for a few pence. They also mean that we are not reliant on bottled water with its associated plastic waste.
We rode out past the Wild West Village (see Rachel's Instagram post). This was interesting but slightly awkward in the way it continued to promote outdated tropes of native Americans and cowboys/pioneers.
The next delight of the route was spotting an abandoned restaurant with a shady veranda where we decided to stop for lunch in the middle of nowhere. No sooner had we settled down than a bus pulled up and two Señoras got off and came our way. It turns out they used to run the restaurant and still live just behind. The older one was delightful. She had some English so between us we had an interesting and funny English/Spanish conversion that covered my height, how long she had lived there, the weather and the fact that we were most welcome to eat our lunch there.
We stopped in Francisco Madero and checked into a hotel (complete with toilet seats, towels and copious hot water). The local purificadora tried to take advantage of 2 gringo tourists but our Spanish is now good enough to challenge prices and haggle. There was a burrito stall just round the corner. The food was so good we just kept ordering more and more until we were full to bursting. For cycle tourists, the sensation of a full belly is one of the joys of life.
The landscape was a mix of farmland, ranches and mountains. Everywhere was very green but the plants were all ones that cope with arid conditions. Stuff like aloes, cacti, creosote bushes etc. It looked like the Mexican landscape of my imagination.
A result of this landscape was that we would have to be canny with our choice for a campsite. We opted for a drainage tunnel under the road. This might not have the glamour of a night among the cacti or deep in a forest but they are favourites among cycle tourists. It is hard to convey the sense of security in knowing that you are completely out of sight of traffic and they are surprisingly quiet. We slept really well. I wonder what passing cars think when they see us emerge in the mornings.
This day took us through Cuencame. It is located on a busy intersection but the main street is closed to through traffic. This meant it had a bustling local feel and we were warmly greeted by everyone out and about. This included two women who ran a restaurant. It did not take too much thought to repay the generosity of their welcome by providing them with our custom. Yet another tummy busting, delicious feast for less than £5.
We were heading to the Cañón de Fernandéz (a state park) for the night. The route profile of this shows that we are gradually getting our payback for all the climbing we did up the Devil's Spine.
Downhill days are great. When we stopped to ask for water before turning off we had a lovely chat with the store owners covering three generations (the youngest of which was only 6 weeks old). We were humbled when they refused to take any money for the water.
The canyon is amazing. There are towering cliffs that reveal a huge fold in the rock strata (Peachi - you would love it). We camped right by the river, under the cliffs. The camping is free and we had the place to ourselves.
We opted for a rest day to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It might not take too much imagination to consider how delighted we were to find warm springs just along from where we had camped that we used to have a rudimentary wash. Spending the day doing nothing other than enjoying the tranquility made this an anniversary to remember.
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