Tom and Dave’s BIG Ride

Well, as you might guess by the title of the post, we´ve now reached Santa Marta and have finally finished the ride! Both of us are pretty pleased but i´m not sure it´ll sink in properly for a while yet.

The final few hundred kilometres were pretty dull with, as has become customary, a good headwind for the final 100km. Typical! However, despite the boring road we were bombing it along happily with the thought of cold beer, sandy beaches and a good break from the saddle constantly on our minds. Luckily there were no more punctures or problems to hinder us apart from my (Dave) snapping yet another spoke meaning that i had to ride with my back brake disconnected for the final part. That´s more than 10 spokes broken now!!

Arriving in Santa Marta we rode to the sea front and took the customary photo before checking into a hostel and having a nice celebratory beer. Bliss!! The real reward was to come the next day though when we went to Taganga then Parque Nacional Tayrona: a haven of beautiful palm-lined sandy beaches, crystal clear water and lots of sunshine We spent two days there with Danny, Matt and Carl, three guys we´d met in Cartagena. It was the perfect end to the trip, lying on the beach, sipping from coconuts that had just fallen from the trees and having an occasional dip to cool down once in a while. We also did a trek to the ruins at El Pueblito; a village overlooking the sea that once housed over 2000 indigenous Colombians.

So now we´re into the holiday after the ride and it´s time for Tom and I to part as Tom heads to Venezuela and I head back to Medellin to see Ann and to experience more of the friendliness that´s left such a lasting impression of Colombia on the both of us. It´ll certainly be weird not having to move on every few days and bnot having to worry about the bikes at last!

Fear not, though. This isn´t quite the last email… there´ll cretainly be a few more things to say after we´ve had a couple of weeks off of the bikes to reflect upon what we´ve just done. So until then, ciao!