Wednesday 21 September 2016

Last post from the States

After tough days cycling through the Gila Wilderness, plagued by punctures and fatigue, boy was I glad to make it to Silver City! More a bustling little desert town than a city, it has a charming downtown area with quaint cafes, a thriving art scene and a great library. If it weren't for my determined drive to finish the Great Divide, I could have stayed here for a few days.

I was glad to get here and so was my ailing steed. I put her into the bike shop for much needed TLC and the team at Gila did a great job. New chain, new cassette, new brake blocks, brake cables etc etc. I was particularly glad to get some of Gila's special two year guaranteed puncture-free tubes fitted: 40% thicker than normal tubes with self-sealing lubricant to fix punctures from within. Well worth the extra expense. I've also downsized from 2.25 inch to 1.75 inch tyres as I'll be doing more road work than tracks now. The next day the tyres felt so nimble and, with the refreshed drivechain, the bike was riding like a dream. The only issue I had with narrower tyres was that they sank into the very sandiest tracks so I had to dismount (or fall off a couple of times) and push the heavy bike through the sand.

Trish kindly hosted me in Silver City and I had a wonderful stay. She is a great cook, has a lovely pack of dogs and a very comfortable home. A Kiwi by birth, Trish has lived right around the globe and I enjoyed hearing her stories of life in Australia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and, of course, the States. 

As I said, the bike handled like a dream and I soon skipped across the desert south towards the Mexican border. I encountered a few roadrunners along the way but even they couldn't outpace the bike. A hurricane had reportedly hot Baja California and the fringes of the storm passed over New Mexico making for an overcast day with slightly cooler riding conditions.

Final crossing of the Continental Divide, #32. After weeks and weeks of riding at elevations of 7000ft + it has felt really strange to descend to 4-5000 ft. And it's certainly getting warmer at these lower altitudes.

Unexpectedly, my final night in the States was spent under a roof as the community centre at Hachita opens its doors to Great Divide bikers and Continental Divide hikers. For me, these basic conditions constitute real luxury. Not having to camp, not having to cook on a stove, not having to not wash - nice to have a break from these things. Best of all, there was a solitary beer in the fridge which I gratefully consumed in celebration of my time in the States.

The next morning the sky was clear and, travelling east, I had the breeze behind me. I made the 45 miles across to Columbus in just three hours and, after writing this post, I will ride the final three miles to cross the border to Puerto Palomas. It's tremendously exciting to be crossing into a new country and I'm looking forward to the challenge of speaking Spanish and navigating my way across a vast country.

Since riding south from the I-10 Interstate Highway there has hardly been any traffic except for border patrol trucks. This gives the area a slightly eerie atmosphere and I felt like I was travelling through a kind of no-man's land. At one point a helicopter passed over me and I feared they were buzzing me, a suspected Mexican migrant, trying to travel back south before Trump's dream of a wall is realised.
At this point I must repeat MY PLEA
Instead of building walls, dividing people and reacting to problems, OXFAM works in a proactive way to create sustainable livelihoods in impoverished parts of the world. This is what many of the places of origin of migrants have in common, poverty. If people can make a decent living in their original communities the motive for many migrations will be eliminated. Build communities not walls!

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