Christmas Day so the morning is touch base with our families at home and Skype seems to be working well enough to achieve our objective.
We have a brunch and keep looking at the rain, first time since we started in Buenos Aires on the first day. We need to go to the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, so set off in the rain on ripio. Having entered the park it is quite a trek to the end of the road, this is the end of Routa 3 and it is 3079 kilometres from Buenos Aires. We have done quite a bit more than that with our round trips and detours to various places.
On the way we pass many coaches who do extremely well to get down here as the road is narrow and very slippery due to the rain.
Having got to the end we have the obligatory photo by the sign with our bikes alongside. This attracts a lot of attention and many offers to take photos of us. We now realise why there were so many vouches, there is a cruise ship in Ushuia and they must have a flotilla of coaches ferrying everyone from the ship to the park. We met some an English couple from Brighton, a lot of Americans, Chinese and a very nice group from Mexico City, he has given me his card and said if we need anything or have a problem get in touch, how nice is that?
There are various trails to walk and hopefully see some wildlife such as beavers. We walk a few of these and apparently walk through an active beaver colony and there is certainly evidence with a massive dam and lots of cannibalised trees but unfortunately we did not see the actual animal, despite patience and perseverance.
Having taken quite a few photos we leave the park and head off for the ski area which is obviously up a winding road to a height of 300 metres and there is a lift and 1 run down with a descent height of 200 metres, that could get a little boring but probably great to start out. I understand there are other ski areas nearby but we do not leave a calling card.
A quick spin around the town and we see the cruise ship disembarking and they are on their way to the next port.
Back to the campsite for Christmas dinner, interestingly it would seem that most of Europe and probably South America celebrate Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day, so it is a lot quieter here this evening. Having opened our packages we have a Christmas pudding, thanks to the Tolleys, and Jack Daniels and some crackers, so off to enjoy.
Saturday 25 December 2010
Back to the Penguins
Catching up on pictures, here are some of the penguins at Puerto Tumbo and a wedding at the Welsh Tea House that we managed to gate crash.
24th December Rio Grande – Ushuia 138 miles
We rise and get our washing all sorted and leave the campsite/hostel. On the way in we had noticed a memorial to the conflict in the Falklands, naturally here they are referred to as the Malvenas. There have been various references to the Malvenas in various placdes on the way down iterating that the Islands are Argentinian and called the Malvenas. The memorial was put up in 2007 to mark 25 years since the conflict and there are several plaques, 8 in total with about 80 names on each with other names above, possibly senior military members, so a lot of lives lost sadly.
We head further South to Tolhuin, to find a bakery Rodrigas told us to visit. It is fantastic, similar in lots of respects to a really good large English bakery. We have brunch here and catch up with emails as they have WiFi and finally i make contact on Skype with Jo, Charles and George, fantastic. I even get to speak to Nick and Kate who are round for dinner, my thanks to Nick for looking after George taking him Go Karting and to Twickenham for the big match. It was great to speak to Charles and George and finally to Jo especially today Christmas Eve.
Martin also managed to make contact with Jane albeit without sound and they were writing out messages and holding them up to the camera. We all touched base and that was great.
I know I have made regular mention of the wind which has been strong and constant. Today it is really strong and we go around a left hand bend still leaning right and then half way round adjust to upright and then normal leaning left. The wind is now directly behind us and we feel as though we have just gained another gear and if you put your hand up a gentle breeze is felt even though we are travelling quickly, we reckon that the wind speed is 60 mph. As we travel nearer the mountains the character of the wind changes and it starts to gust and change direction, this is much harder to ride in as it is unpredictable and overtaking is a bit of a lottery, but we survive.
Now off to Ushuia, only about 60 miles away, now this took longer than we thought because the terrain and views changed dramatically. Suddenly we were in an Alps style environment, not the same but similar and totally different to what we were used to. I now became accustomed to doing emergency stops to allow our official photographer, AKA Martin, to take photos, and there were some fantastic opportunities including remnants of a forest that had been devastated by fire some years ago and there was still huge evidence of it.
Talking of photos we have struggled to get the photos on the blog where we want them so we are now going to put them up in separate blogs, so you will have a narrative from me and Martin will put up pictures separately with some captions, he is sorting it now and will hopefully get some up today.
Back to today we enter Ushuia and fill up with gas, get money and then look for the campsite, the one by the rugby ground, yep there it is and there is Patrick who we had met in El Condor.
So pitch the tent in the trees by a river, what a fantastic location, and meet Simon an English guy from Reading who asks if we have food. It is now 7pm on Christmas Eve and all shops are shut for 2 days, OMG that sounds like a nice Christmas lunch. We mount up and truck into the town and find a tiny shop that sells everything, so chicken, closest thing to turkey we are going to find, enough for a couple of days also sausage and eggs for breakfast and back to site.
We had anticipated cooking our Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day lunch on our little stoves but there is a full kitchen here for the use of anyone who is camping. So chicken cooked on the char grill and the rest on a commercial stove, fab.
We see Christmas in and I sit up til 3 updating the blog surrounded by singing and celebrations.
We are staying here tomorrow evening and may take a ride into the National Park during the day and then we will probably start heading North on Boxing Day.
Merry Christmas all from Martin and I.
We head further South to Tolhuin, to find a bakery Rodrigas told us to visit. It is fantastic, similar in lots of respects to a really good large English bakery. We have brunch here and catch up with emails as they have WiFi and finally i make contact on Skype with Jo, Charles and George, fantastic. I even get to speak to Nick and Kate who are round for dinner, my thanks to Nick for looking after George taking him Go Karting and to Twickenham for the big match. It was great to speak to Charles and George and finally to Jo especially today Christmas Eve.
Martin also managed to make contact with Jane albeit without sound and they were writing out messages and holding them up to the camera. We all touched base and that was great.
I know I have made regular mention of the wind which has been strong and constant. Today it is really strong and we go around a left hand bend still leaning right and then half way round adjust to upright and then normal leaning left. The wind is now directly behind us and we feel as though we have just gained another gear and if you put your hand up a gentle breeze is felt even though we are travelling quickly, we reckon that the wind speed is 60 mph. As we travel nearer the mountains the character of the wind changes and it starts to gust and change direction, this is much harder to ride in as it is unpredictable and overtaking is a bit of a lottery, but we survive.
Now off to Ushuia, only about 60 miles away, now this took longer than we thought because the terrain and views changed dramatically. Suddenly we were in an Alps style environment, not the same but similar and totally different to what we were used to. I now became accustomed to doing emergency stops to allow our official photographer, AKA Martin, to take photos, and there were some fantastic opportunities including remnants of a forest that had been devastated by fire some years ago and there was still huge evidence of it.
Talking of photos we have struggled to get the photos on the blog where we want them so we are now going to put them up in separate blogs, so you will have a narrative from me and Martin will put up pictures separately with some captions, he is sorting it now and will hopefully get some up today.
Back to today we enter Ushuia and fill up with gas, get money and then look for the campsite, the one by the rugby ground, yep there it is and there is Patrick who we had met in El Condor.
So pitch the tent in the trees by a river, what a fantastic location, and meet Simon an English guy from Reading who asks if we have food. It is now 7pm on Christmas Eve and all shops are shut for 2 days, OMG that sounds like a nice Christmas lunch. We mount up and truck into the town and find a tiny shop that sells everything, so chicken, closest thing to turkey we are going to find, enough for a couple of days also sausage and eggs for breakfast and back to site.
We had anticipated cooking our Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day lunch on our little stoves but there is a full kitchen here for the use of anyone who is camping. So chicken cooked on the char grill and the rest on a commercial stove, fab.
We see Christmas in and I sit up til 3 updating the blog surrounded by singing and celebrations.
We are staying here tomorrow evening and may take a ride into the National Park during the day and then we will probably start heading North on Boxing Day.
Merry Christmas all from Martin and I.
Friday 24 December 2010
23rd December Rio Galligos – Rio Grande 231 miles, 2 border crossings and a ferry
We wake up to peace and calm in the morning and pack up and leave at a reasonable time. We have a 70 mile trip to the border with Chile and now experience an internal border crossing.
First we have to check out of Argentina and then travel 500 metres to the Chilean border and check in there. The process goes quite smoothly having to go to migration first get us approved as individuals and then customes to export or import the bikes. The whole process takes about an hour, which is fantastic, we thought that we could be there for some considerable time.
A mention here of the fruit police, on our travel down we have been stopped and at one stage searched, this is probably an exaggeration, we opened our full panniers and he said ‘claro’, OK in English. We asked the chap at the border in Chile, SAG they have on their jackets, which is something Agriculture something, helpful and informative I know, why they were interested in whether we had food and particularily fruit on us. His answer was that Argentina have some bugs on fruit that they do not have and do not want in Chile. We explained that we had been stopped in Argentina for the same reason and he explained that they have a Northern and a Southern region and again do not want to transmit anything from one to the other. So Martin and I have now nicknamed them the fruit police.
Once in Chile the first thing you notice are the roads, now constructed out of concrete and billiard table smooth and well marked. Still vast distances between towns and any form of civilisation.
We are trucking through Chile as it is a separator between mainland Argentina and the island that is Tierra del Fuego, a bit like having to travel through Canada to get to Alaska (American soil).
It is amasing that you can travel through a country and not buy anything, we did try to buy gas but they did not seem to have any. Now it would seem that the Chileans do not want you to go to Tierra del Fuego because to get there, having travelled on fantastic roads, we now have 70 miles of ripio. Some of it is not too bad but other parts is like travelling on a washboard, also there are lots of lorrys and some are very polite and even stop as we approach, but 3 in particular steam past us in the opposite direction at about 60mph with a dust cloud out the back which is nye impossible to through, so you just point and hope as they go past, one, two, three.
About half way along this ripio route we are flagged down by a Brazilian rider who is distressed as he only has about a litre of fuel left. Now this guy is on a 250 or so and is midway between fuel stops, why has he only got a litre of fuel? Anyway we donate the fuel from both of our stoves, about 1.5 litres and he is happy and goes merrily on his way.
We get to San Sebastian, a possible stop as time is moving on, well talk about blink and you miss it. We suddenly arrive at the border, time to get back into Argentina.
Same process as before, we check out of Chile and jump on our bikes to go the 500 nor so metres to the Argentinean bit. I just stuck my helmet on my head and did not fasten it, we stop 2 miles later and belt and buckle up deciding that you didn’t need to check into this bit as ther was only one way out. Well 10 miles later we came across the Argentinean border control, thats a lot of no mans lands, but hey they have plenty.
Same process as before and reasonably simple bar internet problems which delay things about 15 minutes or so.
Now the ripio had vibrated Martins rear mudguard off snapping a bolt and he was not impressed having had BMW put a new final drive on before we left. He managed to get some bits for it having removed mine and taken some dimentions of the spacer required etc. Long story short, on the ripio his vibrated loose and he had to remove it, well now mine has done the same snapping a bolt in the process, we are both carrying them as spare luggage now.
Having cleared the border we are now on pavement again and so make good progress to Rio Grande. We make a B line for the camping area listed on the Sat Nav, it is now raining and blowing a hooly. The lady comes out of the office and signals martin to go down there but when he keeps going she gesticulates, no just ther, Martin cannot see this but I can, she disappears and then this door opens and I am beconned in, on the bike. There is a kitchen area, a table tennis table, a climbing wall and well you get the picture. I ride the bike around the table tennis table a stop sort of in the corner, is this OK, si si. Martin returns from his excursion around the back and joins me.
We can camp or they have a dorm, which is an upstairs DoJo, wooden floor, multi gym in the corner and a bunch of single mattresses stacked in the corner. Martin did say, ’you know I really enjoy camping’, but seemed to need little persuasion to use the dorm. The only thing was it was boiling, goodness only knows what her fuel bill is like.
Having gone downstairs again and joined the throng, ther is the manageress Norma, a Spanish couplewho are travelling from Ushuia to Alaska called Rodrigos and Mar and Normas Son and his girlfriend. Now this is where it gets interesting, Norma only speaks Spanish, her Son does a few words on English, Rodrigos speaks Spanish and a bit of French and we speak English a bit of Spanish and a bit of French. It was incredible conversing using 3 languages in one sentence with quite a bit of gesticulation.
We thought they asked what we wanted to do for dinner, but in fact the y invited us to stay for dinner, they were having fish. It transpired that Rodrigos had caught a fish in the river earlier on. We were concerned that we may be taking their food but it turned out that he he ahd caught a 7 kilo brown trout in the river at 5 pm and was preparing to cook it on the BBQ. The BBQ is built into the building, a large waist high heath with a canopy over and a metal grid that can be raised or lowered with chains and a large canopy to remove the smoke. Here we used ‘carbon’, charcoal to us, instead of wood but used the same process of getting it hot and then moving it under the grid. Some while later 7 of us sat down to eat this fish with some potatoes and we barely got through half of it, but it was fantastic and we had a great evening.
We compaired notes with Rodrigos and Mar as they had just come from Ushuia. He also showed me his fishing rod which was a line rolled up with a float and a fly hook which took the space of half a frisby.
Off to bed and it was baking, I slept outside my sleeping bag, just in my silk liner, however I woke in the night feeling quite cold and assumed the heating had gone off and climbed into my sleeping bag, no problem. In the morning I found out that Martin had woken up and could not breath so got up and cracked a couple of windows on opposite sides of the room to get some airflow.
First we have to check out of Argentina and then travel 500 metres to the Chilean border and check in there. The process goes quite smoothly having to go to migration first get us approved as individuals and then customes to export or import the bikes. The whole process takes about an hour, which is fantastic, we thought that we could be there for some considerable time.
A mention here of the fruit police, on our travel down we have been stopped and at one stage searched, this is probably an exaggeration, we opened our full panniers and he said ‘claro’, OK in English. We asked the chap at the border in Chile, SAG they have on their jackets, which is something Agriculture something, helpful and informative I know, why they were interested in whether we had food and particularily fruit on us. His answer was that Argentina have some bugs on fruit that they do not have and do not want in Chile. We explained that we had been stopped in Argentina for the same reason and he explained that they have a Northern and a Southern region and again do not want to transmit anything from one to the other. So Martin and I have now nicknamed them the fruit police.
Once in Chile the first thing you notice are the roads, now constructed out of concrete and billiard table smooth and well marked. Still vast distances between towns and any form of civilisation.
We are trucking through Chile as it is a separator between mainland Argentina and the island that is Tierra del Fuego, a bit like having to travel through Canada to get to Alaska (American soil).
It is amasing that you can travel through a country and not buy anything, we did try to buy gas but they did not seem to have any. Now it would seem that the Chileans do not want you to go to Tierra del Fuego because to get there, having travelled on fantastic roads, we now have 70 miles of ripio. Some of it is not too bad but other parts is like travelling on a washboard, also there are lots of lorrys and some are very polite and even stop as we approach, but 3 in particular steam past us in the opposite direction at about 60mph with a dust cloud out the back which is nye impossible to through, so you just point and hope as they go past, one, two, three.
About half way along this ripio route we are flagged down by a Brazilian rider who is distressed as he only has about a litre of fuel left. Now this guy is on a 250 or so and is midway between fuel stops, why has he only got a litre of fuel? Anyway we donate the fuel from both of our stoves, about 1.5 litres and he is happy and goes merrily on his way.
We get to San Sebastian, a possible stop as time is moving on, well talk about blink and you miss it. We suddenly arrive at the border, time to get back into Argentina.
Same process as before, we check out of Chile and jump on our bikes to go the 500 nor so metres to the Argentinean bit. I just stuck my helmet on my head and did not fasten it, we stop 2 miles later and belt and buckle up deciding that you didn’t need to check into this bit as ther was only one way out. Well 10 miles later we came across the Argentinean border control, thats a lot of no mans lands, but hey they have plenty.
Same process as before and reasonably simple bar internet problems which delay things about 15 minutes or so.
Now the ripio had vibrated Martins rear mudguard off snapping a bolt and he was not impressed having had BMW put a new final drive on before we left. He managed to get some bits for it having removed mine and taken some dimentions of the spacer required etc. Long story short, on the ripio his vibrated loose and he had to remove it, well now mine has done the same snapping a bolt in the process, we are both carrying them as spare luggage now.
Having cleared the border we are now on pavement again and so make good progress to Rio Grande. We make a B line for the camping area listed on the Sat Nav, it is now raining and blowing a hooly. The lady comes out of the office and signals martin to go down there but when he keeps going she gesticulates, no just ther, Martin cannot see this but I can, she disappears and then this door opens and I am beconned in, on the bike. There is a kitchen area, a table tennis table, a climbing wall and well you get the picture. I ride the bike around the table tennis table a stop sort of in the corner, is this OK, si si. Martin returns from his excursion around the back and joins me.
We can camp or they have a dorm, which is an upstairs DoJo, wooden floor, multi gym in the corner and a bunch of single mattresses stacked in the corner. Martin did say, ’you know I really enjoy camping’, but seemed to need little persuasion to use the dorm. The only thing was it was boiling, goodness only knows what her fuel bill is like.
Having gone downstairs again and joined the throng, ther is the manageress Norma, a Spanish couplewho are travelling from Ushuia to Alaska called Rodrigos and Mar and Normas Son and his girlfriend. Now this is where it gets interesting, Norma only speaks Spanish, her Son does a few words on English, Rodrigos speaks Spanish and a bit of French and we speak English a bit of Spanish and a bit of French. It was incredible conversing using 3 languages in one sentence with quite a bit of gesticulation.
We thought they asked what we wanted to do for dinner, but in fact the y invited us to stay for dinner, they were having fish. It transpired that Rodrigos had caught a fish in the river earlier on. We were concerned that we may be taking their food but it turned out that he he ahd caught a 7 kilo brown trout in the river at 5 pm and was preparing to cook it on the BBQ. The BBQ is built into the building, a large waist high heath with a canopy over and a metal grid that can be raised or lowered with chains and a large canopy to remove the smoke. Here we used ‘carbon’, charcoal to us, instead of wood but used the same process of getting it hot and then moving it under the grid. Some while later 7 of us sat down to eat this fish with some potatoes and we barely got through half of it, but it was fantastic and we had a great evening.
We compaired notes with Rodrigos and Mar as they had just come from Ushuia. He also showed me his fishing rod which was a line rolled up with a float and a fly hook which took the space of half a frisby.
Off to bed and it was baking, I slept outside my sleeping bag, just in my silk liner, however I woke in the night feeling quite cold and assumed the heating had gone off and climbed into my sleeping bag, no problem. In the morning I found out that Martin had woken up and could not breath so got up and cracked a couple of windows on opposite sides of the room to get some airflow.
22nd December Puerto San Julian – Rio Galligos 228 miles
Fred leaves early and said he will be back if no gas but he does not return so everything must be OK. It is amasing that this area is rich in oil reserves and produces all the oil requirement s for Argentina, yet gas stations have no fuel, must be industrial relations!!
We break camp and go to the restaurant Frank was in last night as they have a good internet connection, I update the blog and then write the latest edition which I am unable to upload as we get a power cut.
OK lets go, first stop gas, no, none until tomorrow, we try the other gas station and same story. The next gas stop is 110 miles away but we should have enough for 200, so off we go and thankfully find fuel at the next station.
At the gas stop we say an Audi Quattro look aloike, it had had panels fitted to disguise its original identy, we are still not sure what it was originally, to complete the makeover two 4 inch diameter exhaust pipes. This car was for sale and Martin enquired ‘how much’ but unfortunately could not understand his reply, probably too many noughts.
In case you wondered, yes the wind is still there, also we seemed to have climber a bit and it would seem we are at about 280 metres and wind up a couple of hills and oone would think a fantastic view awaits. Well we made 350 metres but no view and we stayed at that altitude for about the next 20 miles and then slowly descended over the next 100 miles.
As we near Rio Galligos, having travelled 200 miles on a 2 lane road, we come across a motorway, the first we have seen and follow it all the way into town along with about 6 other vehicles. We stop and fill up and then look for the campsite. It is a well maintained site with grassy pitches and we pitch our tents along with a French Canadian girl who is backpacking.
Another word about roads, having come into town on a motorway interstingly as soon as you turn off the main road you are on ripio again, who thinks this up.
We go into town and check out the sea front, nothing to write home about unfortunately so off for dinner.
The restaurant we choose Lonely Planet states is the best in town and mains cost $4.50 - $7. OK, first thing, no menu, a waitress struggles to make us understand but the chef suddenly turns up and decides to loo after us. Langoustine to start, rack of ribs for main and a nice bottle of Malbec. We have no idea of price but what a fantastic meal. I also now know we have to double or treble the prices in my Lonley Planet guide.
Back to the camp and there is a party celebration and kids are running around shouting and a group have decided to cook and assardo next to Martins tent, bear in mind it is now 1.15 am. Oh well bed beckoned and I have to say I was disgruntled about the noise for about 5 minutes, goodnight.
We break camp and go to the restaurant Frank was in last night as they have a good internet connection, I update the blog and then write the latest edition which I am unable to upload as we get a power cut.
OK lets go, first stop gas, no, none until tomorrow, we try the other gas station and same story. The next gas stop is 110 miles away but we should have enough for 200, so off we go and thankfully find fuel at the next station.
At the gas stop we say an Audi Quattro look aloike, it had had panels fitted to disguise its original identy, we are still not sure what it was originally, to complete the makeover two 4 inch diameter exhaust pipes. This car was for sale and Martin enquired ‘how much’ but unfortunately could not understand his reply, probably too many noughts.
In case you wondered, yes the wind is still there, also we seemed to have climber a bit and it would seem we are at about 280 metres and wind up a couple of hills and oone would think a fantastic view awaits. Well we made 350 metres but no view and we stayed at that altitude for about the next 20 miles and then slowly descended over the next 100 miles.
As we near Rio Galligos, having travelled 200 miles on a 2 lane road, we come across a motorway, the first we have seen and follow it all the way into town along with about 6 other vehicles. We stop and fill up and then look for the campsite. It is a well maintained site with grassy pitches and we pitch our tents along with a French Canadian girl who is backpacking.
Another word about roads, having come into town on a motorway interstingly as soon as you turn off the main road you are on ripio again, who thinks this up.
We go into town and check out the sea front, nothing to write home about unfortunately so off for dinner.
The restaurant we choose Lonely Planet states is the best in town and mains cost $4.50 - $7. OK, first thing, no menu, a waitress struggles to make us understand but the chef suddenly turns up and decides to loo after us. Langoustine to start, rack of ribs for main and a nice bottle of Malbec. We have no idea of price but what a fantastic meal. I also now know we have to double or treble the prices in my Lonley Planet guide.
Back to the camp and there is a party celebration and kids are running around shouting and a group have decided to cook and assardo next to Martins tent, bear in mind it is now 1.15 am. Oh well bed beckoned and I have to say I was disgruntled about the noise for about 5 minutes, goodnight.
21st December Comorordes – Puerto San Julian 434 miles
Broke camp today and get away reasonably early, 11am, as we have a lot of ground to cover. As we go we now leave an empty campsite, the family from Buenos Aires leaving just before us.
Driving out of the town civilisation ends abruptly and we out in the countryside once again with that howling side wind. This wind would be with us most of the day blowing firstly from the side end then straight towards us as a head wind and then again from the side. It is quite strange going round a left hand bend whilst still leaning to the right. With the head wind our fuel consumption goes up and we are getting about ¾ of our normal range. At one point I realised that I was using nearly all of the throttle just to punch this hole for me and the bike.
We pass 1 car in the 70 miles to the main road, about 6 trucks to the next major city, Comodoro Rivadavia, and then hit traffic like you see at Hyde Park Corner in rush hour, it is manic. Gas up and eat part 1 of our packed lunch, sausage in a French style stick, and after a slow trawl through the city and out the other side and a similar situation to that of before we hit the city, of a couple of cars and a few trucks.
After we leave the city we go through a police checkpoint and have to show our papers and they record our passport number, etc. As we are about to leave a Hoda is pulled over and we introduce ourselves, they are a couple on one bike from Brazil and guess what, they are headed for Ushuia.
We encounter various road surfaces, some with the lumps sticking up that we saw before, a patchwork quilt style with no markings at all and a new stretch that is fantastic, still got wind though. We have to slow for various animals in the road, a Guanaco, which is of the Llama family, Rea’s, which are like small Ostriches. A few Guanaco’s have not made it and I assume a lorry or 2 have hit them, anything smaller would have severe damage.
Another gas stop, we do not take any chances now, and part 2 of lunch a boiled egg each that Martin cooked whilst cooking the pasta last night and a coffee. We meet 2 more Brazilian riders, one on a GSA and the other on a Yamaha, also heading for Ushuia, sounds like it will be busy down there. This place is called tres Cerranos or three hills which are over to the left of the road as was pointed out by one of the Brazilian guys.
The Brazilian couple pull in and decide to stay in the hotel at these services as he is shattered.
The final 100 miles and we get to San Julian and start looking for a campsite and suddenly Frank stops and tells us where the campsite is, he arrived and hour ago. On entering the campsite we also see Fred who as he sees us says ‘ya, only one way to Ushuia’.
We set up camp and go out for a meal with Fred, we seem to have lost Frank for the evening.
Driving out of the town civilisation ends abruptly and we out in the countryside once again with that howling side wind. This wind would be with us most of the day blowing firstly from the side end then straight towards us as a head wind and then again from the side. It is quite strange going round a left hand bend whilst still leaning to the right. With the head wind our fuel consumption goes up and we are getting about ¾ of our normal range. At one point I realised that I was using nearly all of the throttle just to punch this hole for me and the bike.
We pass 1 car in the 70 miles to the main road, about 6 trucks to the next major city, Comodoro Rivadavia, and then hit traffic like you see at Hyde Park Corner in rush hour, it is manic. Gas up and eat part 1 of our packed lunch, sausage in a French style stick, and after a slow trawl through the city and out the other side and a similar situation to that of before we hit the city, of a couple of cars and a few trucks.
After we leave the city we go through a police checkpoint and have to show our papers and they record our passport number, etc. As we are about to leave a Hoda is pulled over and we introduce ourselves, they are a couple on one bike from Brazil and guess what, they are headed for Ushuia.
We encounter various road surfaces, some with the lumps sticking up that we saw before, a patchwork quilt style with no markings at all and a new stretch that is fantastic, still got wind though. We have to slow for various animals in the road, a Guanaco, which is of the Llama family, Rea’s, which are like small Ostriches. A few Guanaco’s have not made it and I assume a lorry or 2 have hit them, anything smaller would have severe damage.
Another gas stop, we do not take any chances now, and part 2 of lunch a boiled egg each that Martin cooked whilst cooking the pasta last night and a coffee. We meet 2 more Brazilian riders, one on a GSA and the other on a Yamaha, also heading for Ushuia, sounds like it will be busy down there. This place is called tres Cerranos or three hills which are over to the left of the road as was pointed out by one of the Brazilian guys.
The Brazilian couple pull in and decide to stay in the hotel at these services as he is shattered.
The final 100 miles and we get to San Julian and start looking for a campsite and suddenly Frank stops and tells us where the campsite is, he arrived and hour ago. On entering the campsite we also see Fred who as he sees us says ‘ya, only one way to Ushuia’.
We set up camp and go out for a meal with Fred, we seem to have lost Frank for the evening.
Wednesday 22 December 2010
20th December Comorordes
We are having a chill out day today and staying here another night, very lazy all round, I try brushing up on my Spanish and Martin had a walk along the shore, we both check our kit and do a bit of repacking, how much did we bring with us. Heading South tomorrow with a couple of big mileage days ahead.
19th December Trewel – Comorardes
Today we are going to PuntaTonbo, a haven for Penguins. The chap who started the reserve came to this area in the early 1900’s and eventually bought this large area of land and dedicated it to Penguins who come here to breed. He has since died and it has now been passed over, I think to the state as, what we would call, a heritage site.
We were told it was pavement, good tarmac, all the way, well it is but that is to the gate, we now have a further 20 miles to go to get to the coast and the penguins. You can see how big this estate is, anyway, ripio, that’s loose gravel, it is.
We all arrive safely with Martin and I running through that same learning curve of how to ride on gravel, that we had both mastered 2 days previously. A small cafe, some loos and a ticket office, 3 times as much for tourists as it is for nationals.
We started our wald keenly looking out for penguins and there are literally thousands, this is apparently home to half a million of them. Some have build nest right next to the permitted path and many cross over in front and behind us, and certainly most of them are not bothered by our presence. Having walked about 2k we can now see some of them by the waters edge and in the sea.
On reading some of the info here we see that when hatched and most were by now they will leave here and travel 6000k to Brazil and then return for breading in October. They will swim up to 600k for food and dive to a depth of 12 metres each dive lasting about a minute. So earlier I was going to say, enjoying there easy lifestyle, swimming and playing, but perhaps it is not that easy!
We pop into the cafe and have ‘enchaladas’ which are like a small Cornish pasty, Martin and I have 1 each, Fank is hungry so 2 of those and a spinach tart.
Now we leave and not only have the 20k to the gate on ripio, but we have 100 miles of ripio all the way to Comorades. We build our confidence again and pick up our speed, in fact it is a bit easier the quicker you go which is fine until you have a moment. well we had a couple of those, the first one we are happily making good headway and then round a corner is a grader, like a snow plough for roads, both Martin and I head for the side of the road where resides lots of sand, OMG, we stop and Marting takes a photo of the driver. I should mention here that we are about 70 miles in any direction from anywhere and there is this chap on this bit of plant at 5pm and we did not see any other vehicle, so he obviously had a bit to do. The second was where Martin suddenly tried to turn sharp right at about 50 or 60, then straightened up, then did it again and then once more just for luck. I was sure he was coming off the bike, I think he did too, but each time the front wheel gripped for him and he was able to recover. It looked so dramatic from where I was and I have the first 2 on video but by the time the last one came he was out of shot. The gravel forms heaps and troughs over time as cars drive through, this is fine for cars but on a bike you have to cross the furrows now and again and there will also be a build up in places, basically it is like driving with 2 punctured tyres. I will never complain about a gravel car park again!
We were not in Franks good books either by now. Franks had steamed off ahead and said he would stop from time to time, which was fine until we came to a fork and my sat nav was suggesting left and Martins right, after further investigation it seemed that i had an irrelevant waypoint along the route which is why we were different. So we went right and Frank had gone left, he stopped and had 3 cigarettes and decided that we had had an accident, gone wrong or some other disaster. He went all the way back to find us and ended up doing and extra 40 odd kilometres, by the time he arrived at the campsite we were already there, not impressed. Sorry Frank.
We pitched our tents and went to the local supermarket and cooked our first proper meal, jolly good it was too.
We were told it was pavement, good tarmac, all the way, well it is but that is to the gate, we now have a further 20 miles to go to get to the coast and the penguins. You can see how big this estate is, anyway, ripio, that’s loose gravel, it is.
We all arrive safely with Martin and I running through that same learning curve of how to ride on gravel, that we had both mastered 2 days previously. A small cafe, some loos and a ticket office, 3 times as much for tourists as it is for nationals.
We started our wald keenly looking out for penguins and there are literally thousands, this is apparently home to half a million of them. Some have build nest right next to the permitted path and many cross over in front and behind us, and certainly most of them are not bothered by our presence. Having walked about 2k we can now see some of them by the waters edge and in the sea.
On reading some of the info here we see that when hatched and most were by now they will leave here and travel 6000k to Brazil and then return for breading in October. They will swim up to 600k for food and dive to a depth of 12 metres each dive lasting about a minute. So earlier I was going to say, enjoying there easy lifestyle, swimming and playing, but perhaps it is not that easy!
We pop into the cafe and have ‘enchaladas’ which are like a small Cornish pasty, Martin and I have 1 each, Fank is hungry so 2 of those and a spinach tart.
Now we leave and not only have the 20k to the gate on ripio, but we have 100 miles of ripio all the way to Comorades. We build our confidence again and pick up our speed, in fact it is a bit easier the quicker you go which is fine until you have a moment. well we had a couple of those, the first one we are happily making good headway and then round a corner is a grader, like a snow plough for roads, both Martin and I head for the side of the road where resides lots of sand, OMG, we stop and Marting takes a photo of the driver. I should mention here that we are about 70 miles in any direction from anywhere and there is this chap on this bit of plant at 5pm and we did not see any other vehicle, so he obviously had a bit to do. The second was where Martin suddenly tried to turn sharp right at about 50 or 60, then straightened up, then did it again and then once more just for luck. I was sure he was coming off the bike, I think he did too, but each time the front wheel gripped for him and he was able to recover. It looked so dramatic from where I was and I have the first 2 on video but by the time the last one came he was out of shot. The gravel forms heaps and troughs over time as cars drive through, this is fine for cars but on a bike you have to cross the furrows now and again and there will also be a build up in places, basically it is like driving with 2 punctured tyres. I will never complain about a gravel car park again!
We were not in Franks good books either by now. Franks had steamed off ahead and said he would stop from time to time, which was fine until we came to a fork and my sat nav was suggesting left and Martins right, after further investigation it seemed that i had an irrelevant waypoint along the route which is why we were different. So we went right and Frank had gone left, he stopped and had 3 cigarettes and decided that we had had an accident, gone wrong or some other disaster. He went all the way back to find us and ended up doing and extra 40 odd kilometres, by the time he arrived at the campsite we were already there, not impressed. Sorry Frank.
We pitched our tents and went to the local supermarket and cooked our first proper meal, jolly good it was too.
Saturday 18 December 2010
18th December Trewel- round trip 95 miles
We head off this morning with Frank and travel to Rawson on the coast, we are now firmly in the Welsh sector.
Rawson is a beach town with a port. The beach has 7 lifeguard huts, noty all attended, but there are possibly 3 people on the beach. We move up the beach area to the port, a strong smell of fish indicated there main industry. There is an official port area with 20 or so cranes and moving on several boats that would have been condemned and then a bunch that obviously had been.
We stopped and had some lunch in a very nice Lebanese restaurant and after go to get some photos of the cranes, I don’t know if they were expecting a rushj but there seemed to be 3 cranes for every boat that was there.
We now retrace our steps and go inland to a couple of traditional Welsh villages. Furthest first, nothing to speak of on the surface and then back to Gaiman. Here you can have traditional English tea. A quick survey and we end up outside a very nice looking establishment with lots of smartly dressed people wandering around. Frank investigates and this one is closed as it is her Sons wedding day. A group gather aroung the bikes as usual and Martin asks for a recommendation of an alternative venue. Calls go out and the groom is introduced to us and naturally the bride, after ashort debate we are invited to stay so long as we don’t mind the waitresses collecting the glasses from the wedding reception. Wel this was fantatic for us and we had long chats with the groom who was born in the USA and welcomed the opportunity to practice his English, Frank spoke to the Spanish speaking group and the we had a photo shoot before disbanding and enjoying our tea.
What a fantastic day, we return to Trewel, fill up, we have learnt, get money, water and finally sort out Argentinean PAYG phone cards, thanks once again to Frank.
Off to see some Penguins tomorrow, half a million of them!!
Rawson is a beach town with a port. The beach has 7 lifeguard huts, noty all attended, but there are possibly 3 people on the beach. We move up the beach area to the port, a strong smell of fish indicated there main industry. There is an official port area with 20 or so cranes and moving on several boats that would have been condemned and then a bunch that obviously had been.
We stopped and had some lunch in a very nice Lebanese restaurant and after go to get some photos of the cranes, I don’t know if they were expecting a rushj but there seemed to be 3 cranes for every boat that was there.
We now retrace our steps and go inland to a couple of traditional Welsh villages. Furthest first, nothing to speak of on the surface and then back to Gaiman. Here you can have traditional English tea. A quick survey and we end up outside a very nice looking establishment with lots of smartly dressed people wandering around. Frank investigates and this one is closed as it is her Sons wedding day. A group gather aroung the bikes as usual and Martin asks for a recommendation of an alternative venue. Calls go out and the groom is introduced to us and naturally the bride, after ashort debate we are invited to stay so long as we don’t mind the waitresses collecting the glasses from the wedding reception. Wel this was fantatic for us and we had long chats with the groom who was born in the USA and welcomed the opportunity to practice his English, Frank spoke to the Spanish speaking group and the we had a photo shoot before disbanding and enjoying our tea.
What a fantastic day, we return to Trewel, fill up, we have learnt, get money, water and finally sort out Argentinean PAYG phone cards, thanks once again to Frank.
Off to see some Penguins tomorrow, half a million of them!!
17th December Puerto pilamedres – Trewel 99 miles
Now this whole trip is an Adventure so you cannot expect each day to be such and today we were striking camp and moving 100 miles down towards the South, a generally average day. Well we topped up with water and money and most importantly gas and headed off. We must have travelled at least 2 miles when on, brightly illuminated, came the red triangle on my dashboard and a battery symbol. Now I have just had the seat off to check my 2 way radio, have I trapped a wire or what. Now, not unusually here, it is blowing a hooley, so we decide to move on to the next town, Puerto Madryn to check this all out. By the time we reach the visitor centre I have all sorts running through my mind including, what if a wire is trapped and the bike catches fire, I pull into the visitor centre and Martin follows me in.
Let’s just check this out, I say, so out come the tools and we set about finding the fault. First comes the electronic analysis, and then the lets take this off and see, you can tell we were very systematic and analytical. Long story short the alternator belt was shot, not only was it shot, it was shredded. So off came the covers and there was the belt in a poor state. On further examination there was also a Yale key sticking through a small gap, and that is what had shredded the belt. What, how and lots of other questions crossed our mind. I am sure it is not my key and the only explanation we can come up with is that at sometime this key has been dropped and has lodged itself somewhere and after our 140 mile off road ride yesterday, this has shaken through this small gap and could not travel further as a keyring held it in position. This not only shredded the belt but the shredded bits also jammed the alternator. Well we managed to pick those out and recovered the key, easier said than done, and thanks to Martins foresight we had a spare belt, now to fit it. It is very tight and we think there was mention of a special tool, out with the Haynes manual, yep you definitely need a special tool. No you don’t, you need will and determination and an inventive mind. Two and a half hours later and we are done and back on the road.
Then the simple bit, the ride to Trewel, find a hotel with secure parking, this was interesting because it would seem that Martin had written down, ‘a secure apartment’, which is what we were shown, but we got there eventually. Amazingly Frank, our German friend also turned up at the same hotle, what are the odds of that, this is a large town, but having seen our bikes in the garage he took the room next door.
So a potentially uneventful day turned out, well fine in the end, but the middle............
Let’s just check this out, I say, so out come the tools and we set about finding the fault. First comes the electronic analysis, and then the lets take this off and see, you can tell we were very systematic and analytical. Long story short the alternator belt was shot, not only was it shot, it was shredded. So off came the covers and there was the belt in a poor state. On further examination there was also a Yale key sticking through a small gap, and that is what had shredded the belt. What, how and lots of other questions crossed our mind. I am sure it is not my key and the only explanation we can come up with is that at sometime this key has been dropped and has lodged itself somewhere and after our 140 mile off road ride yesterday, this has shaken through this small gap and could not travel further as a keyring held it in position. This not only shredded the belt but the shredded bits also jammed the alternator. Well we managed to pick those out and recovered the key, easier said than done, and thanks to Martins foresight we had a spare belt, now to fit it. It is very tight and we think there was mention of a special tool, out with the Haynes manual, yep you definitely need a special tool. No you don’t, you need will and determination and an inventive mind. Two and a half hours later and we are done and back on the road.
Then the simple bit, the ride to Trewel, find a hotel with secure parking, this was interesting because it would seem that Martin had written down, ‘a secure apartment’, which is what we were shown, but we got there eventually. Amazingly Frank, our German friend also turned up at the same hotle, what are the odds of that, this is a large town, but having seen our bikes in the garage he took the room next door.
So a potentially uneventful day turned out, well fine in the end, but the middle............
Thursday 16 December 2010
16th December Puerto Pilamedres 140 miles
Today was a great learning curve for both of us, the whole of this peninsular is connected with roads termed as ripio, these are roads of predominately gravel of various thickness interspaced with SAND, OMG.
We start out and a couple of wobbles but as the journey progresses we gain confidence and we hope skill. Having started at the speed limit of 60k we get overtaken by a minibus doing a tour and breath his dust for the next 5 minutes. Eventually we are able to mave at 50 – 60 mph and relax into the terrain and every now and again some really deep gravel, or worse SAND and a real tank slapper saps all of you new found confidence.
We manage to get to Pointa Norte the most northern part of the Peninsular and see Sea Lions and had we been a month earlier Orcas would also have been here but they have all headed South. Moving on we travel down the East coast and stop to see some Penguins, now martin and I both thought we would be looking through long lenses to see some penguins on the horizon, oh no, there they are a couple of feet away, fantastic. We will post some pics of this.
Heading on South we use our new found skills and then come to deep sand and all the confidence we have gained disappears in a second, hey ho.
We arrive back at the campsite 140 miles later and 137 of those was off road, not bad. Just in time to have a shower and then update the blog and dinner.
We start out and a couple of wobbles but as the journey progresses we gain confidence and we hope skill. Having started at the speed limit of 60k we get overtaken by a minibus doing a tour and breath his dust for the next 5 minutes. Eventually we are able to mave at 50 – 60 mph and relax into the terrain and every now and again some really deep gravel, or worse SAND and a real tank slapper saps all of you new found confidence.
We manage to get to Pointa Norte the most northern part of the Peninsular and see Sea Lions and had we been a month earlier Orcas would also have been here but they have all headed South. Moving on we travel down the East coast and stop to see some Penguins, now martin and I both thought we would be looking through long lenses to see some penguins on the horizon, oh no, there they are a couple of feet away, fantastic. We will post some pics of this.
Heading on South we use our new found skills and then come to deep sand and all the confidence we have gained disappears in a second, hey ho.
We arrive back at the campsite 140 miles later and 137 of those was off road, not bad. Just in time to have a shower and then update the blog and dinner.
15th December 2010 Puerto Madryn – Puerto Piramades 63 miles
We spend the morning updating the blog and eventually leave for Puerto P:iramades. This is on the Peninsular Valdes and we once again travel with very strong side winds. Interesting ly we arrive at a toll style gate and have to pay to enter the peninsular, after about 25k we arrive at the visitor centre which has info about the history of the area, the English translation, unlike many other establishments, is outstanding. Ther is an elevated viewing area which essentially gives a better view of what wasn’t available on the ground, noe a great deal.
We then travel on to Puerto Pilamades the main, strike that, the only town on the Peninsular. The journey is flat to the end and then we decend into the town, 2 very interesting things happened here, firstly a cyclist was heading out of the town and it is a long and lonly road to wherever he is going but the second issue was that a lady was walking up the hill and we know there is nothing for 30 plus kilometres. There is a campsite which seems to have a preservation order on old caravans, but we do find a few tents and finally make camp.
Ther is a marina, may be stretching it but something close and a fantastic beach. We have a glance through the town and settle on a restaurant, guess what we have steak.
We then travel on to Puerto Pilamades the main, strike that, the only town on the Peninsular. The journey is flat to the end and then we decend into the town, 2 very interesting things happened here, firstly a cyclist was heading out of the town and it is a long and lonly road to wherever he is going but the second issue was that a lady was walking up the hill and we know there is nothing for 30 plus kilometres. There is a campsite which seems to have a preservation order on old caravans, but we do find a few tents and finally make camp.
Ther is a marina, may be stretching it but something close and a fantastic beach. We have a glance through the town and settle on a restaurant, guess what we have steak.
Wednesday 15 December 2010
14th December 2010 El Condor – Puerto Madryn 292 miles
We packed up and headed into Viedma as the only ATM in El Condor had run out of money 2 days ago, so straight to the bank and the new maps a brilliant, many thanks Frank.
Now back to learning curves, we have 138 miles worth of ngas in our bikes and so do we fill up here or go on for a bit, we go on. However by the time we leave the outskirts of town I now have 98 miles left and it is dropping as if I have a hole in my fuel tank, this went on until I had 76 miles and stopped for miles, Martin was still fine at this time but mine then started counting down again. With the new maps I found that the nearest gas station was about 60 miles away and I had 48 miles left, OMG here we go again. Next thing Martin slowed to about 50-55 and we went on an economy run managing to get 72 mpg, normally 45, his computer had done exactly the same as mine and by the time we reach the gas station, yes we do reach it, Martin has been on 0 for 2 miles and I have 1 mile left. Another learning curve, fill up when you can and don’t trust the bike computer.
The road we have been travelling at 50 on was good, now we have full tanks it is ribbed and horrible and to add to that there is a strong side wind, not like in the UK, this is a STRONG side wind. A few miles on they are resurfacing and we have a billiard table to ride on, fab.
We arrive at Puerto Madryn and find a hotel, ask about secure parking, si,si, another large securely locked garage.
Down to the sea front and the wind is relentless we have another great bife de choritzo and flambéed pancake with apple. Good wifi means we can get emails sorted and get the blog up to date.
Now back to learning curves, we have 138 miles worth of ngas in our bikes and so do we fill up here or go on for a bit, we go on. However by the time we leave the outskirts of town I now have 98 miles left and it is dropping as if I have a hole in my fuel tank, this went on until I had 76 miles and stopped for miles, Martin was still fine at this time but mine then started counting down again. With the new maps I found that the nearest gas station was about 60 miles away and I had 48 miles left, OMG here we go again. Next thing Martin slowed to about 50-55 and we went on an economy run managing to get 72 mpg, normally 45, his computer had done exactly the same as mine and by the time we reach the gas station, yes we do reach it, Martin has been on 0 for 2 miles and I have 1 mile left. Another learning curve, fill up when you can and don’t trust the bike computer.
The road we have been travelling at 50 on was good, now we have full tanks it is ribbed and horrible and to add to that there is a strong side wind, not like in the UK, this is a STRONG side wind. A few miles on they are resurfacing and we have a billiard table to ride on, fab.
We arrive at Puerto Madryn and find a hotel, ask about secure parking, si,si, another large securely locked garage.
Down to the sea front and the wind is relentless we have another great bife de choritzo and flambéed pancake with apple. Good wifi means we can get emails sorted and get the blog up to date.
12th December Viedma – El Condor 43 miles
We wake this morning and having had breakfast go to check out and find a map to indicate our exit from Viedma. How did that get there, who knows we are here? We later find out that Oscar phoned our friendly helper having his number pop up on his phone, he informed him which hotel we were staying in. Oscar then asked a friend to go to the hotel and leave a street map, wow!
Didn’t do us any good as within 3 miles, having passed football pitches with NO grass on at all, we are off road again. Another 5 miles and we decide enough is enough and turn around, having looked at the map since then boy are we glad we did. We found the correct road and got there in no time, the co-ordinates took us to a lighthouse, perhaps not. We went back and asked a policeman who called his colleagues with a police car and gave us a police escort to where he thought it was, no bikes here so he asked some others on a Gold Wing but they say they are another 30k away. The policeman tried to phone Oscar but no service on his phone. We thanked him for his efforts and went along the sea front. A couple of families turn up and we have a photo shoot putting their children on our bikes but they speak less English than we do Spanish. A pickup stopped and the Lady had lived in Cambridge for a while so had good English but was unable to help, however her partner was keen to do something and took Oscar’s number from us and made contact. He then asked us to follow him and led us to where our group of bikers were, just how helpful can you be!!
We met the group, 4 Germans, 1 Austrian, 3 Canadians, 1 New Zealander and about 4 Argentineans, and then went to the campsite which was where the Police had taken us in the first place.
Quite a few of these guys are headed for Ushuaia for Christmas, so if we thought this was going to be lonely it would seem we are going to have plenty of company. We pitch our tents and all have dinner in the neighbouring hotel.
Didn’t do us any good as within 3 miles, having passed football pitches with NO grass on at all, we are off road again. Another 5 miles and we decide enough is enough and turn around, having looked at the map since then boy are we glad we did. We found the correct road and got there in no time, the co-ordinates took us to a lighthouse, perhaps not. We went back and asked a policeman who called his colleagues with a police car and gave us a police escort to where he thought it was, no bikes here so he asked some others on a Gold Wing but they say they are another 30k away. The policeman tried to phone Oscar but no service on his phone. We thanked him for his efforts and went along the sea front. A couple of families turn up and we have a photo shoot putting their children on our bikes but they speak less English than we do Spanish. A pickup stopped and the Lady had lived in Cambridge for a while so had good English but was unable to help, however her partner was keen to do something and took Oscar’s number from us and made contact. He then asked us to follow him and led us to where our group of bikers were, just how helpful can you be!!
We met the group, 4 Germans, 1 Austrian, 3 Canadians, 1 New Zealander and about 4 Argentineans, and then went to the campsite which was where the Police had taken us in the first place.
Quite a few of these guys are headed for Ushuaia for Christmas, so if we thought this was going to be lonely it would seem we are going to have plenty of company. We pitch our tents and all have dinner in the neighbouring hotel.
13th December El Condor 42 miles
Today we are going to stay another night at El Condor. We have a lazy start to the day and get some new maps for our GPS from Frank, a German guy we have met and has travelled extensively around the world both backpacking and motorcycling.
There is a colony of sea lions 33k along the coast, college 2 look this up on the internet (El Condor sea lions), so we head off along the cliffs with Frank who shows us a couple of cuttings that have been made down to the sea. These are very steep and gnarly and are covered in gravel, it’s all experience. Frank then leaves us to it as he only has 100k of gas left and we go on to the colony alone.
Once there we meet 3 Swiss guys on KTM bikes who are keen to get off road. We all go into the colony and check out pictures and info in the building before venturing outside along purpose built walkways. We are given binoculars to view the sea lions and elephant seals and there are lots basking in the sun and also swimming around. We are then led in the opposite direction again on walkways and suddenly we see thousands of sea lions on the beach and in the sea, we are told there are about 9000 here. Also there are many parrots living in the cliffs and they are bussing all around, there are said to be about 30000 nests with 2 birds in each, you can imagine what that sounded like. Ther are many other species of birds here and a month earlier there were Orca Whales here, but they have all gone South now. When we leave the Swiss guys are considering doing 160k along the coast on gravel, bear in mind that it is now about 4.30pm, probably not a good idea so they decide to go by road instead.
Back at the campsite Philip, the Austrian chap tells us that Oscar is coming over and we are going to have an asado, this is roasted beef cooked on a BBQ. We go off with Oscar to purchase the meat, wood etc. A little butchers with a wooden fridge and an ancient band saw for cutting the meat, Martin was in his element looking round at the equipment and was devastated that neither of us had a camera with us, a first for Martin.
We took meat, wood, tomatoes beer and wine back to the campsite. Each pitch has its own BBQ, a concrete slab in 2 sections, but how do you have a Barbie with wood? Well you get a grill plate from the site a put that on one section and you light a fire on the other side as the fire burns you take the ashes and place them under the grill plate and there you have it. We had 4.5kg of steak and some chorizo sausage between 6 of us with bread, tomatoes, beer and wine, overkill, we couldn’t finish it all much to Franks disgust.
11th December Azul – Viedma 398 miles
We finally leave Jorge at lunchtime and 20 -30 minutes later find the right road. Some of the travelling is amazing in that you leave a town and travel down a dead straight and flat road for possibly 100 miles at a time and sometimes more. Here is where we broke our first rule, never pass a gas station. Having left Azul we travelled for miles, probably 80 miles and did not see a farm, house or anything other than the occasional lorry. My computer on the bike stated I had 78 miles for ages and then started counting down quite quickly. We finally found a disused gas station and I had 12 miles left and Martin had 16, but still no gas. Should one of us wait here and we put all the fuel we have into the other bike, but then we could both be stranded 20 miles apart, no we stay together. About 8 miles down the road we find a gas station and restaurant, PHEW!!
At the gas station was a family of 4 on a motorcycle with a trailer on it, we had a gesticulation conversation and then went to eat. Whilst looking out of the restaurant another bike arrives with a family of 3 on it, they meet the others and then all mount up to go off, 3 on a bike and 4 on a bike, the children had helmets and Martin and I have never seen such a little helmet as that one on the smallest child. After a bit of lunch we crack on and during our travels we are routed on a poor surface which got progressively worse until we both felt that we were on the Dakar, sand and deepish gravel. We stopped and debated the options, not wanting to go back 5 miles we move on and end up on this surface for over 20 miles, hey ho, well that set us back a bit time wise. Having learnt from our mistake we do a top up of gas. Now for the second rule break, don’t travel at night, the sun is setting at about 8 and at 7.45 we realise we have another 115 miles to do. We could try to find a hotel but as we said before communities are few and far between, so we soldier on and the temperature drops from 26 to 10, that combined with a strong wind was really cooling, in fact we were frozen and had to stop to put on some more clothes, we eventually arrive in Viedma at about 10. Now where is Oscar and the group we are supposed to meet, we seem to have surrounded the location. We asked a local, they are so helpful, he phoned Oscar and said they were 33k away. No not tonight we will find a hotel and go on in the morning. Our friendly helper said he would get his car and lead us to a suitable hotel but another local with a motorbike had joined our conversations and said he would guide us. At the hotel we enquire about secure parking and we are taken to a very large garage capable of housing 20 or so cars, all locked and totally secure.
We finally get to eat dinner at 11.30 and the restaurant is very busy including families with small children, apparently they eat late here, we have heard that the kitchens at some restaurants do not open until 9. This was followed by a welcome sleep.
Monday 13 December 2010
La Poste in Azul
Jorge came out to meet us as we pulled up outside, very excited and welcoming.
La Poste is a small shop selling motorcycle spares with a workshop to the side and a room with a large table to seat 10 or more people. Jorge showed us around and we went out to a garden where he said we could camp and on the outside wall he had painted the Beatles album cover, Abbey Road, he loves the Beatles.
Having showed us around we could see that many travellers had stopped here over the years and the walls were painted with accounts of visitors from all around the world.
Jorge had a pig roasting on a BBQ and asked us to stay for dinner, he had 10 friends coming over a little later.
We pitched our tents and a couple arrived on a Harley look alike and they also pitched a tent. As everyone arrived their hospitallity towards us was superb.
Our timing on this occasion had been perfect as most of this group meet once a month and have dinner and this was a special celebration as Peter had bought a new bike and had provided the pig, as was their tradition.
Some of these guys had travelled a lot one having covered the Pan American highway from Alaska to Ushuia and others just did a bit of trail riding, but they were all bikers.
The next morning we packed up and resorted our panniers, whick I am sure we will do again and probably again after that.
We left Jorge at lunchtime having had a superb time, many thanks to you Jorge and all of your friends for all of your hospitallity.
We are now headed for Viedma to meet Oscar at a HU meeting.
La Poste is a small shop selling motorcycle spares with a workshop to the side and a room with a large table to seat 10 or more people. Jorge showed us around and we went out to a garden where he said we could camp and on the outside wall he had painted the Beatles album cover, Abbey Road, he loves the Beatles.
Having showed us around we could see that many travellers had stopped here over the years and the walls were painted with accounts of visitors from all around the world.
Jorge had a pig roasting on a BBQ and asked us to stay for dinner, he had 10 friends coming over a little later.
We pitched our tents and a couple arrived on a Harley look alike and they also pitched a tent. As everyone arrived their hospitallity towards us was superb.
Our timing on this occasion had been perfect as most of this group meet once a month and have dinner and this was a special celebration as Peter had bought a new bike and had provided the pig, as was their tradition.
Some of these guys had travelled a lot one having covered the Pan American highway from Alaska to Ushuia and others just did a bit of trail riding, but they were all bikers.
The next morning we packed up and resorted our panniers, whick I am sure we will do again and probably again after that.
We left Jorge at lunchtime having had a superb time, many thanks to you Jorge and all of your friends for all of your hospitallity.
We are now headed for Viedma to meet Oscar at a HU meeting.
Sunday 12 December 2010
10th December Freeing the bikes 207 miles
We started well yet again with our booked taxi failing to arrive, no problem, book another then the original one arrives half an hour late. We will get used to this i am sure.
The challenge today, CUSTOMS, but we can sort this.
Got our entrance ticket and went to office 2 after a bit of a wait and then visited office 1, office 3, the warehouse and then repeat, several times. All unpacked and ready we head out at 14.45 and need gas. There is a gas station just there100 meters away, no you need to go here there and everywhere and 5km later you will enter the airport. We used a slightly different approach and 16 miles later and 2 tolls and a car park ticket later we entered the airport, no problem we are here.
Now to collect our luggage, left at the taxi office, here is an admission both Martin and I knew we would fall off, we did not however realise it would be outside terminal 1 at the airport. Martin had stopped and I pulled in alongside him as he leant his bike onto the sidestand, our panniers touched and that was our first incident, hey ho.
Finally the adventure begins, we head off and we are both surprised by how green everything is, preconceived ideas and all that. Long straight roads and lots of lorries.
We eventually arrive in Azul and set about finding a contact given to us and we need to find La Poste. Well needles and haystacks come to mind having passed and surrounded the waypoint on the sat nav several times. We finally travelled slowly down a side road and a cyclist turned around and headed straight for us, ´La Poste´ he shouted, si si we chanted, much pointing and instruction followed and he turned and rode away, we followed his instruction and then a car stopped and said´La Poste´si si, more pointing and instruction and we arrived at La Poste:
We will give a detailed account of the evening later.
Thursday 9 December 2010
We are on the way
Having had our flight cancelled and rebooked a day later, we were more than set to to make progress.
An early start and a quick breakfast at Gatwick saw us away to Madrid for the first leg. A tedious 10 hour wait for the fight to BsAs was broken up by an impromptu decision to try the splendid Metro into the centre of Madrid. We could not believe the amount of people milling around Sol square, it was like Trafalgar Square in New Years eve. We found what seemed to be the only restaurant in town and had a welcome meal.
The flight was delayed an hour but we were glad to get going again. Comfort was improved when we were "upgraded" to the front seats with more legroom. My heart sank when I found my seat right next to a young family with a new born baby but the baby did not make a squeek in all the 13 hours of flight, must have been a seasoned traveller. David ended up with the only seat on the plane that had a non functioning TV and he suggested to the stewardess that he be upgraded to the empty Business Class and got that old fasioned look that stewardesses have perfectly mastered. We slept the best we could sitting upright and arose on landing with suitable bruised coccixs.
Glad to have arrived we happily stared the process of recovering the bikes from Cargo only to find 3 hours into the process that the bikes had missed their flight and would not be there till that evening. Never mind, we said through gritted teeth, and headed in the city.
Hotel is basic but friendly and provided useful wifi as mobile phone connection has proved frustrating.
We grabbed a local bus and headed to #2 on the top 10 must-do sites in BsAs, the local cemetary. Not the usual decayed cemetry we are used to but a whole town of terraced mauseliums where no expence was spared in their construction with more marble than is left in Sicily. One of the more famous interns is none other than Eva Peron, Evita, in her family tomb laid to rest 6 metres below the surface for "safety".
A further stroll around town took us to the most immence dual carriage way, 18 lanes wide, build relatively recently at the expence of some good and bad original buildings. Only a few were allowed to survive, one being a chateau like French Embassy.
Tonights meal was at a restaurant recommended by David's friend, Zulu Warrior, a most splendid meal ending in the most awsome toffee apple pancake flambe'd in white rum.
Our ride home was on the third means of local transport, the underground metro, taking us back to the hotel where we confirmed with Iberia Cargo that the bikes had landed and for a well earned night's sleep.
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Bikes On Their Way
Our bikes were duly delivered to the shippers at Heathrow for crating up and hopefully are in the air as I type and are due to land at Buenos Aires some time this evening.
Our biggest worry at the moment is the logistics of dealing with Customs and getting the bikes released using our rudimentary Spanish.
Once we are on the bikes, we can calm down and really start the trip.
Our biggest worry at the moment is the logistics of dealing with Customs and getting the bikes released using our rudimentary Spanish.
Once we are on the bikes, we can calm down and really start the trip.
Packing the Bike
There is always a big compromise between weight and taking stuff for all eventualities.
We are unsupported on this trip so are relying on being self sufficient so need lots of spare parts and some tools, which thankfully are not that bulky but are quite heavy.
Three months worth of undies was totally prohibitive so plumbed for three sets and some washing liquid, this will give us something to do in the evenings.
We decided to take a spare tyre each as the knobblies we are running have a limited life on the gravel roads and we do not expect to find QuickFit on our route.
The Suit
Using the bike every day for getting around, I thought it appropriate to give the old suit a spring clean or should that be a winter clean.
This was the first time it had come completely apart so I thought it would be interesting to lay it out to see its components.
It is a great suit you can add bits and remove them to suit the temperature and the weather, just what we need for this trip with our climates ranging from Antarctic Summer through Equatorial rain belts to American Spring.
This was the first time it had come completely apart so I thought it would be interesting to lay it out to see its components.
It is a great suit you can add bits and remove them to suit the temperature and the weather, just what we need for this trip with our climates ranging from Antarctic Summer through Equatorial rain belts to American Spring.
Thursday 18 November 2010
Three Week to Go
We are frantically going through and crossing off items on our to do list, only to find that for every one that gets crossed off another two spring to mind.
Monday 26 April 2010
Still Working on the TimeFrame
Due to work commitments the start of this Adventure will have to be time shifted at least 3 months.
This will mean that the route will have to be reversed to ensure that the southern section is not covered during the snowy season but does mean the desert crossings will be hotter.
This will mean that the route will have to be reversed to ensure that the southern section is not covered during the snowy season but does mean the desert crossings will be hotter.
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Testing the blog
Just set up the blog
We have not yet thought of a name for the trip so may have to start again
Hope all this works OK
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