Day 38 – Thursday, March 5, 2026

So, according to the truck driver, nobody would show up. At 4 am, I woke to go to the "ban̈os", i.e. the beach next to the shed. As I was getting out of the tent, I saw car lights. Darn! Am I in trouble? A car pulled up right next to the shed and out got a couple. I guess they were a bit startled, then quickly saw what I was doing there, i.e. crashing in their shed. They just waved and said I might as well go back to sleep. The reason of their coming to make an early start to collect sea weed which was washed to the shore by the tide (and then probably sell it). What a difference to back home - I think I would have been yelled at! I wanted to leave some money, they would not take it.

Already awake, I decided not to go back to sleep, so I started riding in the dark. Quite a bit of heavy lorry traffic- we did not become friends. Thr thought never occurred to them that they could slow down. The road itself was not the best, the shoulder was either pathetic, or non-existent. It was not the safest of all places to ride on.

Every 20 km ir so there were some sort of settlements - definitely more populated than some of the other areas I had ridden on earlier. One of these thanked someone introducing electricity to the houses. Later, it got a bit foggy.

Not sure who Rohel is, but the town thanks him/her for introducing electricity there

See the truck riding into the fog

Visibility was not unlimited

Vendors selling cold soft drinks

It was a relatively flat terrain, with the exception of one bigger elevation, which the dropped into the town of Chala. A few kilometers outside town, a lot of lorries stopped at a restaurant - so did I. It was a huge serving not of KFC, but CFC (Chala Fried Chicken) that I got.

Not KFC, but similar

This is the only positive thing I can say about Chala. It was probably the ugliest town I had ridden through on this trip - with dust, dirt, demolitin - depressing, to stay with D's.

I would not have preferred staying at the hostel

Pedestrians have a hard time

A mega ascent started outside town, but even that was better than staying there. I then reached the Sahara: it truly felt like being there. What diverse landscapes! One could hardly see the road from all the sand.

This really felt like in Marocco - in the Sahara

Eerie landscape

Apparently, a red truck had had an accident there

My final destination of the day was Yauca - just before reaching town the tire of a lorry fell off and exploded with a loud bang. Hmmmm. The real surprising thing is that this village, next to beinbg green - is growing OLIVES. Yes, in the midst of this the barren deseet, there is an olive-growing region, with dozens of vendors offering their goods.

Not only did he lose a tire, half of the road is covered by sand

Olive vendors, sellign everything from oil to tapenade

The settlement itself is small, not the prettiest of all places.

Well...I have been to prettier places

Who has the right of way?

I found the crappiest accommodation on this entire trip.There is a family on the corridor making lots of noise. I should have crashed again in a shed on the shore.

The staircase of my crappy hostel

The data for the day was 110 km of ridign, with an ascent of 1,200 meters.