Last big mistake following last big ride

Ahoyhoy,

Maybe not for the last time I`ll be blogging but the ride is done. This morning I arrived back in Buenos Aires (the air isn`t all that BTW). Guess that makes it a sucess but the wind is not in my sails at the moment. Last night I decided I could not afford the nice hotel with the parking guard and all the car parks around the hotel I found were closed. The most dangerous parts of any bike ride are the first and last 5miles, especially the last as you relax and drop your guard. I did and I left Sir Humphrey chained to a lamp post outside the hotel. This morning the remaining contents of the panniers were in the gutter. All of the souvenirs I had bought were gone. My bag of useful odds and sods, the linings to my bike suit and most importantly my two diarys of the trip were all gone. I feel like I have lost everything. I have a terrible memory and those diarys were the only way I had any hope of writing the book you asked about. I deliberately left out loads of stuff from the blog to keep the book miore interesting. I am the most stupid person I know. A week ago I would not have done this think. The theiving bastards left my 160quid riding gloves and took the diarys! I am sorry Sam. I really did buy you some lovely stuff but you`ll just have to make do with me. Poor compensation I know. If I was you people I would be more scared of NHS hospitals knowing they let numbskulls like me work there. How could I have been so stupid after so long? Why didnçt I at least take the bag with the souvenirs and diaries into the hotel? The answer is I am an idiot and I just didn`t think. 8pm after 650miles in the saddle is not my most astute time of the day!

Anyway in the cold and near dark, for I was up before Apollo, I bungeed my Ortlieb bag to where the tent used to be and set off for Colonia. The plan to sail from Montevideo got scrapped as I had to be in Buenos Aires before two o`clock to stand a chance of getting home for the weekend as It takes a few days to sort getting Sir Humphrey home and Argentina again has bank holidays Monday and Tuesday. On the way I soon realised that my mood on seeing a raped Sir Humphrey had temporarilt made me immune to the cold. It was a couple of degree´s above freezing and I had to resort to singing and jiggling about on Sir Humphrey to distract from the pain in my hands despite having the heated grips on. I have no idea what the scenery was like on the way. My mind was elsewhere but the road was good and well lit.

I arrived in Colonia, found the booking office of Buquebus and bought our passage to Argentina. I also managed to get 900 US dollars out of a hole in the wall in preparation for paying Sir Humphrey`s ticket home, cash only apparently. I`ll need more tomorrow. The boat was a Seacat type of thing and had me across the Rio de la Plata in an hour.

We seemed to have collected another hitchhiker and I finally figured out where the bird hit Sir Humphrey yesterday and splattered me with blood and guts.

I made it to the covert Dakar Motos in time and Sandra ran me though the slightly complicated two day proceedure of getting Sir Humphrey on a plane back to England. Maybe they should get a sign?

Apparently shipping by aeroplane is cheaper than boat as by sea I would need to stay for two weeks in BA and pay 1000 US dollars port fee. The bill by plane is around 1700 US dollars all in. This means that I could be home for Saturday morning and Sir Humphrey not too long after assuming I can get another 900 US dollars out of the hole in the wall tomorrow. I DID IT and I hope that the sour note I`ve finished on isn`t always my first memory of the trip. 

I don`t want to think what this trip has cost but it feels worth it when I earlier forced myself to remember some of the highlights like penguins, meeting Jean, the road to Ushuaia, the Perito Moreno glacier, completing the ruta 40, the Andes and their snow capped peaks seen from the Atacama dessert, the road to San Pedro de Atacama`s gysers, the Gran Salida salt lake, riding the road of death twice in one day and not dying when I was knocked off on it, Machu Pichu, riding through snow in the Andes, flying over the Nasca lines, teaching in Prof Alvaro`s English school, the underground salt cathedral in Columbia, all the wonderful amazing people I met in Venezuela, Iwokarama forrest and its Morpho butterflies, Sir Humphrey crossing to Oyapock in a boat not much bigger than himself, crossing the Amzon estuary, Brasilia, all the wonderful amazing people I met both times Sir Humphrey feigned death, Foz de Iguacu and the Itiapu Binacional hydroelectric dam. These are just the big ones. I hope that I will be able to remember the small ones otherwise whats the point? I guess this is why an afterlife is a more popular believe than reincarnation - whats the point in living if you can`t remember it? LOL - this from a commited aetheist!

I hope to arrivehome at the weekend and after this and I have slept for a week at least I will need all of your help. I`m sure I`ve already mentioned about the Grand Charity Ball on 19th October. his is what the whole trip has been leading to and it is my one hope to raise some real money for Magpas. Can I count on your help? I need help selling tickets mostly and it would be great to hear from you if you have any ideas. The contact page on this website goes straight to my personal email account. I hope to hear from you and thank you so much for taking the time to share my adventure with me. I hope I entertained you a little with the happenings and shocked you a little with my monumental idiocy. Thanks especially to all those people of left me little comments on my blog postings. they really helped me feel less alone in the wilds.

TTFN,

A Travelled Tigger