The good, the bad and the soggy

It rained heavily for the first time on my trip on the way out of La Paz. The wind was blowing strongly from the left and the horizontal torrential rain turned to sleet and then hailstones. It was like a bad day on the hills in Scotland. My tried and tested waterproof jacket and trousers came out, my Orkney paniers kept the rain out as always, and some new waterproof gear got a first test. Some did better than others. My SealLine bag that I got in La Paz for just such an occasion kept my sleeping bag and fleece liner nicely dry. My ´Gortex´ Endura gloves soaked in water like a sponge. The 'W' letter of the 'Waterproof' written on them got washed off in the heavy rain. Luckily I also have a pair of unlined Gortex mits which do keep the water out, so I´ll be putting those on top in future. They were in reserve for the particularly cold days. My Lowepro camera bag leaked water and now my SLR is as dead as a dodo. 5kgs of camera and lenses on my bike and no use! Arse! I´ve emailed Nikon in Argentina to see if they can sort it. There is no Nikon vendor in Bolivia, so I´ll look for a temporary replacement until that gets fixed. It´s fairly cold most of the day at 4,000m, so I´ve found a hotel with a heater (most do not have one) and have left that on with the camera close to it to get the best chance of drying it out. Given that I switched it on before knowing that there was a problem means that I´ve probably shorted something inside, but fingers crossed, perhaps a day in a warm dry room will put that right. So, one extra day in Oruro to see if I can get that sorted out.