Fray Bentos - The eighth step ... Patagonia etc once more. - CycleBlaze

March 8, 2020

Fray Bentos

With only a short ride planned and with the a forecast of kinder wind, although still high temperatures, we only got going at about nine o'clock after making sure we got our money's worth from the breakfast buffet.   Warm it was but the wind came lightly from our right hand side keeping us a bit cooler.  Most of the ride was on Ruta 2 with a very good and smooth shoulder and with many of the bigger dips and rises filled in or excavated out so it was a pretty easy ride.

The first toll booth we have encountered in South America. Bicycles, motorcycles and tractors go through for free.
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A rather forgotten monument to the Batalha de Rincón (Battle of the Corner), fought on the September 24, 1825 between Brazil and Uruguay.
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As I cycled past I though I saw a small snake curled up on the road but on turning back to have a look it turned out to be this beautiful moth. Postscript: Bill Shaney has told me this is some species of Rothschildia giant silkworm moth. Thanks Bill !
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Bill ShaneyfeltMagnificent! Some species of Rothschildia giant silkworm moth.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/83223-Rothschildia
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4 years ago
Jean-Marc StrydomThanks for that Bill. By the way, my son is a big inaturalist fan. He is an environmental scientist and is fortunate enough to spend a lot of time in the field photographing plants, many of which he uploads to inaturalist.
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4 years ago
Bill ShaneyfeltTo Jean-Marc StrydomThat would have been a dream job for me! I ended up being a retired Explosives Safety Manager, and now a dozen years later, with bad knees limiting me to 10-20 miles a day unloaded, I spend a bit of time going along on other people's tours and using my Zoology degree background to help me search the net for nature IDs.

Yup, inaturalist is one of my go-to sites!

Keep up the good work! Enjoying your nature photography, even when I can't find a good ID.
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4 years ago

It was pretty hot by the time we got to Fray Bentos, the town's info display suggesting it was 34 degrees, so the first stop was for an ice-cream.  This seems to be turning into a habit.

Our apartment is between the river and the town square so it is quite nicely located.  We strolled down to the river later in the evening and had a few nice surprises.  The first was good views of a female Amazon Kingfisher although she never allowed us to get close to her.

Female Amazon Kingfisher. First bird we have seen with "Amazon" in its name.
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The second was that Fray Bentos had a demonstration on to use International Women's Day to protest against violence against women.  It was great to see a good turnout for a small rural city.

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Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 2,231 km (1,385 miles)

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