Wow, that San Juan ride looks and sounds amazing,(a real wild adventure) but perhaps a little out of my league at this point. I'll definitely pencil it in for the years to come when I've riden a few 7000 feet mountains, as there aren’t too many of those here in Australia.
I have to say that one of the many perks of my trip is that it allowed you to get fit. An entire month were the days progressively got longer, with a few rest days when you needed them most.
As many of you 'long distant cyclists' would know, it was a wonderful feeling when getting up every day, pointing your bike in a direction and pedalling 60 miles felt normal!
Not having luggage made life easier, but even so I sometimes found myself counting every kilometre to the lunch stop. Then there were of course those beautiful tail-wind days where if the food wasn't so good I would have kept riding.
I luckily I didn't have to face any of australia's creepy and slithery creatures although there were a few small fresh water crocodiles to see from a safe distance.
As for now, the bike only ever gets out in the early mornings or the evenings as it is starting to get real warm here. A not so bad 36C (96) degrees today. While you girls up north are all freezing your fingers off I'm melting the rubber on my tyres. Have a great New Years and look forward to hearing from you soon