Loreto bound, the sun smells too loud

Feb 21st

It was so beautiful in the bahia, that I was tempted to stop and spend the day and night at the very next beach, the isolated and beautiful, El Requeson, before pointing Magnum back into the desert. I ended up continuing though, partly because I was trying to get through Baja quickly now, but also I just had this strong feeling that I should be on the bike that day, and get to Loreto. Which I did, but not without some drama.

El Requeson in the afternoon...

...and in the morning

Yet another random beautiful beach. No-one there.

The road left behind the stunning bahia, and turned inland, back into the desert. The pointy, pointy desert. The road climbed through the red hills, and wound its way through yet more vast expanses of cacti. Though still amazing to cycle through, it was hot and it was dry. The mercury pushed up to 32 degrees. As the day leaned towards sunset, the winds picked up and tried to push me back, while the ground tilted up in front of me, with the same malintent. The environmental conspiracy began to take its toll on me. I wondered if I would get to Loreto in time, knowing there was pretty much nothing on the road until then, and that cacti would be my only company that night if I didn't make it to town. I had enough food and water to desert camp, I was pretty sure, so it would probably be fine... But I wanted to get there nonetheless, feeling the same urgency as I had in the morning about being on the road.

Teeth were gritted and pedals were mashed and things were looking ok time-wise, even when the overly chatty soldiers at the military checkpoint seemed more interested in delaying me to talk about what I was doing, rather than actually inspecting my bike or what I might be carrying. Thanks guys. However just a few minutes after the checkpoint, I noticed both my tires sagging. With only about 45min until sunset, and around 17km to ride into the wind, I knew I didn't really have time to fix them both. So I decided to pump them up, keep going, and see how long they kept their pressures for. About 5-10min as it turned out. It looked like I was going to have to stop, pump, and roll my way to Loreto.

Limping along like this with some 7km to go, once again feeling confident, once again, I was forced to stop. This time because I had let myself get a little too hypoglycaemic, and I had to sit and wash down some biscuits with water loaded with 10 or so spoons of sugar (my cycling hypo kit), just to continue. It worked well though, and I was soon back on my bike - soon enough to see the sun set just before the gentle downhill into Loreto, tires sagging and energy flagging.

There in Loreto I found a good taco stand, and even a spot on the beach to camp again. It was near a hotel, but in a construction zone, so it was nice and there was no-one around except a friendly security guy, who said go for it, and that he'd keep an eye on me during the night. What a dude!

That night the beach was lit up by a waxing moon, and as I watched the waves under it, I wondered why I had felt the need to push the whole 100km to Loreto that day.

You might need a dark room to see this properly.