been through the desert on a bike with no name

Well, contrary to my prior belief, the Baja is not just a 1500km long beach. Unless, of course, water isn´t essential to your definition of beach. Because there is certainly a lot of sand. And cacti.

We were a little nervous setting off into the desert with 4 days worth of food and a day and a half´s worth of water. Not least because the day before (sit down, moms), we were pulled over by a very concerned mexican cop who told us that women can´t survive in the desert. Women specifically, since he was responding to my argument that loads of people bike the baja each year.

When our heart rates had finally settled back to normal (it´s quite a rush to be pulled over by mexican federalis with flashing lights and a loudspeaker blaring at you from the roof of their car), we started the long, twisty road up onto the desert plateau. And up and up and up it went, and even though it was our biggest elevation gain so far, it was also our longest distance day since we were pushing for a tiny little dot on the map where we knew we could find a place to camp and fill our water jugs.

The desert landscape was fascinating, especially once we got up on top of the plateau. You could see for miles in all directions, nothing but sand and cactus split by a narrow ribbon of pavement that seemed so out of place in a land where it really seemed like no one should ever have cause to go. Every time we went up over a little knoll into another valley, we were amazed to see another 20 or so kilometers of nothingness. Wow. But in a very beautiful and not at all boring way.

And all the vast nothingness brought with it some practical problems. Like where to use the bathroom, for example. Obviously there were no toilets or outhouses. There were also no trees or bushes or anything, really, to hide behind. So relieving ourselves was really a matter of just hanging it out there and crossing our fingers that a caravan wouldn´t come along. Weee!

Christine