Carmelo to Dolores

Today I had another about 70km on my bike, from Carmelo to Dolores. I again left early - again at about 8am, but this time without breakfast - and was out of Carmelo quickly. The road was easy going initially, and again there was little traffic. I crossed through some wetlands again, and after a bit more than one hour and 20 or so kilometres I reached Nueva Palmira, where I managed to find a cafe to have some fried egg, toast and cafe for breakfast.

Again, it was cloudy, but there was very ittle wind. Nevertheless, it didn't feel very hot, although it probably was. I set off from Nueva Palmira shortly before 10am, for the 45km or so to Dolores, knowing that there wouldn't be much in between.

The road first went through some farmland - after all, Nueva Palmira is the centre of Uruguays wheat industry - and then I crossed some wetland, before I again came through farmland.

The 45 or so kilometres went quickly, and I arrived in Dolores before 1pm, not having used the 2 litres of water I had as a reserve, and they came in handy to pour over my head to cool down a bit (and get rid of some of the sweat). I rested quite a bit on the town square (Plaza Independencia), had some ice cream, and then went in search of the campsite. While I found it, it is no longer a proper camping, but rather an open space where camping is allowed, but with nobody there I didn't feel this would be a particularly safe space for the night, especially travelling alone. So I made my way back into the centre of town to go to the only affordable hotel, which is also not cheap for my standards.

During the day it was again to hot to do anything, so I just did some shopping in the supermarket nearby to have something for lunch, and then I went back to the hotel to have some rest. In the afternoon, I went down to the rambla at the riverside, but besides some young people having a swim or otherwise some fun, there wasn't much there (no cafes to sit in). I slowly went back to the town centre, and you all benefit from this when you read this blog entry...