AS THE CROW FLIES

I can't help but occasionally step off the main route and take some scenic detour through the mountains that will be so much shorter as the crow flies. But of course the flying crow doesn't have to worry about the state of those roads, the mountains on route or the limited options on getting supplies. I loaded up 4 days worth of food and considering I had the best road maps available of Mexico, I decided to check out its back roads. I know well enough at this stage that a secondary road in a developing country can be somewhere between a quarry entrance and a farmyard trail in Ireland. I left Torreon in a south east direction and after 3 days on dusty corrugated roads that shake the living daylights out of me and shake the blots out of the bicycle, I finally arrived out on highway 54 at San Tiburcio. In all, less that 40 vehicles passed me on these back roads. The locals were friendly and welcoming. Tourists are a rare sight in this part of Mexico. I saw a few ranch workers do their farm work from the original off-road mode of transport - the horse. The 'Luck of the Irish' certainly wasn't with me on St Patrick's Day. I got 3 punctures that day. That's a record for 1 day. The villages I passed through varied between abandoned and almost abandoned. Mini tornadoes spun down the road in front of me and each evening I camped up in Joshua tree forests while the sunsets were filled with the howls of the coyotes. I'm back on the main road now and in the town of Matehuala. I reckon I'll hit the Caribbean in a week or so. I can't wait.