Hello everyone,
We have not heard much news of late so hope that all is well in the world especially where you are!
We are now whiling away a day back in Rio Gallegos awaiting a bus out this evening. We are still hopeless at Spanish. I spotted a Comedor (diner) here in Rio G that looked good. When we went in, it was full of groups of men sitting together eating and a few women. It was a while before the waiter approached us, and as he took our order, I noticed his shirt had a police badge on it. Looking around the room again, I saw that everyone had a police badge on their shirt, sweatshirt or jacket. We had a nice meal and left a healthy tip. We still don´t know if it was a police canteen, social club or just a restaurant frequented by the police. Maybe if we could have understood the signs on the doors......Oh, but we have a lot of fun not quite getting it!
We had to leave Ushuaia as we were in serious danger of damaging our arteries with all the meat, cheese and pastries we were eating. We are hopeless tourists and the list of things we did not do in Ushuaia is staggering. There wasn´t even anything on at the cinema that we wanted to see. But we did enjoy hours at the museum!
It was glorious to be back on the bikes clean, refreshed and the great expanse of Tierra del Fuego to look forward to. Now we were heading up the main route through TdF ´´against the flow´ and met a dozen or so cyclists nearing the end of their trips. We didn´t meet anyone who had started in Alaska, but from Cordoba, Salta and Bariloche. Three other people had Thorns, (we met Olie and Marion), which is a staggeringly high percentage of the touring bikes we saw on the road!! We stopped and chatted for a while with everyone, we had a common language, everyone wanted to pass on the information about the bakery in Tolhuin!
It was lovely passing through the mountains again. The Garibaldi pass is only some 430 metres high, and the surrounding mountains are 2,000-2,500 m, but it is such big scenery, chock full of glaciers, hanging valleys, truncated spurs, arretes, corries and U shaped valleys. I don´t know how old the excellent new graded asphalt road is, but the tortuous old gravel road built in the 1950´s is still accessible and gives access to some great camping spots. We spent the night at the top of the pass, simply because we could.
Just as we´d put the lights out, something came tripping through our guy ropes. Andy is much braver than me and got out to see what was happening. By the light of his headtorch, he spotted the eyes of a zorro a few feet away. We quite often see these little foxes along the way. To me they resemble a rather large tabby cat and aren´t very fox like at all.
We spent another night at the campsite in Tolhuin (also visiting the bakery). I love this campsite on the shore at the end of a vast glacial lake. The pitches have windbreaks and there are stacks of wood. It is the only place that I have been where they actually encourage you to use hot water! Just chuck another log under the water boiler and use all the hot water you want! The two guys who run the place as as chirpy, camp and friendly as can be and make you very welcome.
Once again clean and refreshed, we plodded on up the asphalt road towards Rio Grande. The weather was warm and for the first time this holiday, I cycled in shorts and short sleeves. We now understood the much heard ´four seasons in one day´´ as finally we encountered a bit of summer! The weather has been amazing with restless clouds that change from moment to moment, sometimes bringing stinging sleet and hail. Usually, by the time we had put our full water proofs on, drawing hoods closely around our faces as the hail really hurts, the cloud burst would have moved on and we would be back in bright sunshine. The wind was invariably very cold though and today was the first time that I had slicked up all over with suntan lotion and felt quite warm! Andy was optimistic that summer might stay with us for a bit and it did. Two days!
The road was busy and I found the traffic more wearing than the relentless wind. Cars hurtled past too fast and too close, not realising we could not hear them or that their draught as they passed would often throw us off the road. Lorry drivers were more considerate and passed on the other side of the road, but nonetheless we got a serous buffetting from them.
The traffic confirmed our plan to take the road less travelled and we wanted to turn west some kilometers before Rio Grande. We weren´t sure exactly how far out, so we were considering a night at the campsite in town, a meal out and a bit of a restock of our provisions. However, the temptation of a shower and other comforts was not sufficient to take us the 25km detour into Rio Grande. We would be heading towards a place called Cameron, where someone had told us, we could get some food, all we really needed now was water. The turnoff came right by a police checkpoint, so after a moments deliberation we decided to ask them for water. The lovely policemen were only too happy to fetch us mugs of hot water thinking we wanted tea or something. How we all laughted when we produced 10 litre bottles, but they all abandoned their posts and set about filling them from their gerry whilst we stood about watching soccer on tv.
Stocked with water, we turned west along the gravel road, into the wind and mountains towards Chile and Cameron on the far coast. As we pitched the tent that night, the wind abruptly dropped, the insects came out (and yes they do bite), the sky was curious, but ominous with dark foreboding clouds and brilliant rainbows. We thought there must be a storm out over the Atlantic and then suddenly the wind backed!!
We had been too tired to look for a really good camp spot and had camped that night rather conspicuously by the road. I noticed a car drive slowly past, the driver peering at us and then a few moments later he passed back again. I pondered this for a moment until Andy pointed out that we were pitched within casting distance of one of the finest fly-fishing trout rivers in the world! Evidently we didn´look like poachers though!
Wonerful!! The next day the wind held from the east and we had a tail wind blow us all the way to the Bella Vista border. The Argentines here were great and fed us sandwiches and insisted that we camp that night near their post as ´there was nothing on the road ahead´ ( Nothing except Chile of course!). They showed us around, introduced us to their horses and then left us to get on with it. The next morning, they indicated the best spot for us to ford the Bella Vista river. A broad, clear, fast flowing river, we wished we had crossed it the previous night to give our shoes a chance to drain before wearing them wet, for a day in an icy wind (now from the way we were heading, the west).
On reaching Chilean immigration, we met a nice family travelling in a large Landrover. They informed us that they had met the immigration officers a way down the road, but they would come back to their post soon, so we whiled away half an hour chatting to them. (Yes, they spoke perfect English!) They told us that we were mistaken and that there was nothing until Porvenir 250km away. Now we regretted having been too lazy to go into Rio Grande and we must have looked a little crestfallen as they gave us what they could. A bread roll, two yoghurts and best of all, 300ml of diesel for the cooker. When Chilean Immigration Officers returned, they confirmed that no, there was nothing until Porvenir and gave us two packets of tuna!
We took stock of our situation. We had brought food that would last us another three days. We hoped we would reach Porvenir in four days, but were aware that now we had the anticipated headwind, if it was very hilly, it could take 5 or 6 days. Using diesel with our already temperamental stove, although in the instruction book, was not something we had tried before and we did not know how effective this fuel would be. Worst of all, we only had 1/3 bottle of whisky left! Obviously we decided to press on! In the event, the ride lasted 5 days, with what we were given plus all our emergency rations, we managed to eke our food out, but we both thought of little else for the duration of the ride!
As we pedalled around Bahia Inutil (Useless Bay), a car drew up and we chatted a while to the Chilean driver and his American wife. They were going with some tourists they had found to see a penguin colony. A couple of hours later they came back, (we were about 10km further down the road) and showed us their photos. I was amazed. I was expecting pictures of little Magellanic penguins, but no, these were whopping King Penguins! Apparently, we´d passed within a few kilometers of the only (and secret) colony of these birds outside Antarctica! It may be a useless bay for shipping, but apparently not for penguins!
Finally, we reached Porvenir having eaten every last bit of our food and making a massive push into town. After visitng the bakery, we found an hotel, and there in the lobby, were the Swiss couple we´d chatted to about penguins the previous day. They were out to dinner with the local couple, and would we like to join them?
Quickly we washed and changed and no-one recognised us when we re-emerged all scrubbed up. We had a lovely evening. The ´´local´´ couple, were actually from Santiago, but were here to turn around his father´s King Crab busiuness and she is expecting their second baby. Andy and I tried King Crab and Antarctic seabass- a delicacy that is not usually found in Chile as it is for the export market. It is the most delicate buttery fish and I wish I´d had more of it! We rounded the evening off in a club drinking with the Swiss until we were thrown out. I should know better. Surely I should just eat chocolate excessively with Swiss people?
The next day we all took the ferry off the island to Punta Arenas whilst dolphins escorted the boat.
Tierra del Fuego was not all wind and food (
). I suspect that we have cycled around more of it than most people, and I think most cyclists miss the best of it by sticking to the main route. We loved the skies and the ever changing weather (except the wind which never really abated). We liked the wild bleakness and we camped in some beautiful magical woods and magestic forests. We saw lots of wildlife, flamingoes, ducks and geese. We had condors soaring low over our heads and guanacos yelling and posturing at us and then creeping up close to our tent when they thought we weren´t looking. It is a magical, mysterous place and I am so glad we pedalled around it. But I don´t think we will be back there in a hurry. It is a remote and tough cycle touring destination!
We spent a couple of days in Punta Arenas. I felt crook and Andy was not 100%. He blamed the crab, I blamed the burger and we both hoped it was not giardia from the water! He spent his time with the Swiss and I stayed near the hotel! Our plot to go north out of the wind and into some warmth seemed thwarted. We want to go about 1,250 miles north to our old favourite Bariloche. My sister Amanda and partner Peter are coming out for a few weeks and we would like to meet up with them. However, there is not a bus for days, so we decide to get on our bikes and cycle back to Rio Gallegos, after all, it should be a tailwind.
Two days out of Punta Arenas and astonishingly, the wind conspires to turn against us. It is cold, grey and our progress is slow, but we doggedly stick to our schedule. Having cleared immigration, we are back in Argentina as the skies dim and we start to look in earnest for somewhere to camp for the night. Just as it starts to rain, a truck pulls up and insists on giving us a lift to Rio Gallegos. It is only 70km and we will be there in an hour.! We offered scant resistance and I left the men to load the bikes and climbed into the warm cab. Hoorah we will be there just in time for dinner!
We were the last ones into the British Club Restaurant that night, but even arriving at 11.30, the food and service were excellent!
And so we have tickets booked for a bus to Bariloche leaving this evening. It is a 23 hour journey that will see us there shortly after Amanda and Peter, and so the next stage of the adventure will begin. We are optimistic that it will be warmer and less windy there! Amanda and Peter are bringing out their Thorns, so we may even cycle with them for a few days before we get on with our own agendas.
Best wishes in your endeavours!
Fiona and Andy
