Brain fried

November the 12 1997


Tomorrow I'm off to Chile after nearly 4 weeks soaking up the Mendoza sun and travelling far and wide on weekends. Last weekend was a goody, and as Narch had just returned to SA after 6 months here (I'm missing her already) it gave us the chance to do one of those silly things that Rob had been keen on doing with me for a few months. There's this big dry pan 150 km north of here, and Rob has been really keen on popping a tent on it for a while So after we saw Narch off at the airport, and Rob finished a days work and Rob and I went out to Barreal and camped on the pan. The pan there is about 5 by 9 kilometres, and we got there at night. It was a clear moonlit evening, and we popped Alex in the middle of the nothingness of the pan. The moonlight clearly shone off the western snow covered peaks, and cast black shadows on the beige desecration cracked surface of the pan. U2 at full volume completed the picture, and we decided a good cycle round the pan at 11:00 would be a wonderful way to pass the evening. It is the strangest sensation looking over your shoulder cycling away from the camp. It’s exactly like panning back with a camera in a movie. The landscape gets bigger and bigger and the 4x4 gets dwarfed. Anyway, off we sped drifting across the pan. It was one of the most surreal cycling experiences I've had, and that is in a career full of surreal experiences. After about 15 minutes of whirring around, we decided to head home, and after another 15 minutes realised we'd misplaced a 4x4 and tent on a featureless pan. It may sound very silly, but trust me is all too easy to do. It took another 15 increasingly anxious minutes to find the blessed car. At the time it was beginning to get worrying, but on arrival at the 4x4 we were laughing merrily at our stupidity. The things we do.... Anyway, the next morning saw the Salon Barreal, with master coffuirist Roberto Gold, handle its only client. Rob performed a tasteful random layering of my hair by happily hacking away with scissors, before we pulled out the razor, and went through 3 blades, shaving me as bald as a coot. Unfortunately this took the better part of a morning in the hot sun in the middle of a desert pan, and my newly shiny scalp got thoroughly sunburned. Yesterday saw me waking up with blisters pooping up on my head. Skin cancer of the scalp here we come. Personally I think it looks fairly good, but would look a lot better if it wasn't secreting fluid everywhere. The rest of the day was spent driving, with a good deal caution along a nearly 100km mountain pass. You really have to see the Andes to get any idea of scale !!!