This was the final day of riding, again along flat, hot roads, but a bit better surface than yesterday. We left Tolu in two groups, the “slow” group first, which included me, 30 mins before the faster group, aiming to get to lunch at the same time. The day was in two parts, 94km of hot fast riding to lunch, then another bus transfer to the outskirts of Cartagena where we would ride into the city as a group.
The morning ride was frankly tedious. Flat hot roads riding as fast as possible, in line holding the wheel in front to avoid getting dropped. Led by our Colombian guide Tomas, who stayed on the front, dragging us “slow” riders along at between 30 to 35km/hr. No chance for any photos as stopping would mean getting dropped. A couple of quick water refills from the bus, and we were done in just about 3 hours. That may not sound that fast to some of you, but after 13,000m of climbing in the last 10 days of riding, and in baking temperatures with high humidity, it’s keeping a fair pace going!
After a lunch stop we got on the coach to transfer over more flat land to the outskirts of Cartagena. Most of us promptly fell asleep in the air on cool after the morning in the heat. We have transferred over a lot of the vast flat areas since we came off the mountains, which is the only practical thing to do, as it would add on at least 3 or 4 more days of hot flat boring riding if you were to try to ride the whole way. As it was the last couple of days have been purely functional riding in my view, just getting you from A to B rather than a great experience in the scenery as it was in the mountains.
Off the bus again and back on the bikes in the mid afternoon heat, we rode on mainly main roads again into Cartagena, which is on the Caribbean coast. It’s an old Spanish colonial town and was where gold was exported from Colombia to Spain. I’m staying on for a few days to explore this beautiful place. The end of the ride was officially on the old town wall, but it was a bit of an anticlimax, with the bar nearby shut, so a can of tepid beer from a street seller to celebrate the end. A couple of photos then off to the hotel. I feel the trip sort of peters out once you get off the mountains, so we were all glad to be done when we got to the end.
I tend to leave it a day or so and note down some reflections on the trip after a day or so, so maybe another post in a day or so. 13,300m of climbing and over 935km over 10 riding days to reflect on.
Stephanie in Colombia 2022 