27th December Cerro Sombrero – (Just outside) Punto Natales 250 miles

Well what a day, talk about not go to plan.
Martin had suggested visiting Punto Arenas, being the most Southern city on the mainland and we decided it was not worth the detour, but every decision we were to make today drew us towards this city.
We left the campsite set on heading towards Punto Natales. One mile down the road we meet Fred who is still on his way to Ushuia and should be there today or tomorrow. Off to the gas station and there are two tankers lined up there with no action going on, after about 5 or so minutes a chap ambles over to us and said it will open in 1 hour. Been here before, 3 days ago we saw a similar level of activity and got the same amount of fuel.
We crack on to the ferry and get straight on and go and consume a hot dog and coffee as our brunch. Once off the ferry we once again battle with the wind, it is relentless and we have to slow a little or we will be blown off the road.
We do not have enough gas to get us to Punto Natales but there is at least one on the way. Here we are a single pump station, thank goodness, but don’t relax yet, they only accept Chilian Pesos, but we don’t have any of those as there has not been anywhere to obtain them since crossing the border. The guy in the gas station is very helpful and tells us where the next gas station is and yes they may accept Argentinean money or credit card. Well they don’t, this is the first time I have had an indication that I have 150 miles left in the tank and I am concerned.
Nothing left to do we must go to Punto Arenas. Now one other concern that we have is about tyres, we started with brand new tyres and the last back tyre I had in the UK lasted 6000 miles so these new tyres should get us to Santiago. No chance, my rear has done 3000 miles and is in the same state as my 6000 mile tyre, so tyres are another issue.
On entering Punto Arenas we go to the first establishment with a bit Goodyear banner, no they do not sell tyres for bikes but you could try here. Needless to say the search goes on until we find someone, who was the National Motocross champion in 2007 and 2008. Anyway he has a friend who has 2 tyres that will do. We drive to the friend using our pocket street map, on our first call a very kind lady asked if we would like a street map, yes that would be great, she then went off and came back with a poster.
Having arrived at the friends establishment it is a modern warehouse with all manner of tools and equipment and about 8 BMW bikes and a Honda Gold Wing trike, amongst other things. This chap, Alexandro looks after these bikes for a company who rents them out for tours and he transports them to wherever needed on a massive trailer he has. We end up buying the 2 rear tyres and have them fitted and keep the best as a spare, ditching my old spare we have been carrying since we left.
Having just got some cash from the bank Martin hands nearly all of it over for our tyres. We leave and gas up, card will be fine for that, and shame the guy who fitted the tyres didn’t take cards.
So gassed up and new rubber on the rear we are away, a hotel has been recommended by Alexandro some 106 kilometres away. No bother we hit the road and after 106 kilometres, no hotel, however after 106 miles there is the hotel and we think the confusion arose because it is 106 lkilometres to Punto Natales, what a way to give directions. We are however very grateful to Alexandro for his help and assistance.
Having pitched at the hotel the first issue is do they accept credit cards, no, oh what an anticlimax, swe will have to on to Punto Natales. After a brief discussion we establish that they will take Argentinian pesos, result, we are shown a room and told the kitchen is open until 10, no problem, we will park the bikes, take our bike gear off and eat, we are starving having only had 1 hot dog all day. We have a main course and that is it, we are not offered anything else. That’s fine, up to the bar for a digestive and a chat to the, not sure if he is the manager or not. It transpires that we are the only residents tonight, they will not be very, very is probably an exaggeration, busy until the new year. We ask about WiFi but it seems that they do not have electricity or telephone. They do have mains gas and a generator and satellite, amazing when one considers that in the UK virtually everywhere has electricity but some places do not have gas. Gas being a natural resource hear is obviously seen as a priority. We joke with him about wind power and wind farms, but he says that that requires a lot of investment, we say ‘but the return’.
So an eventful day that went completely against any plan we had but in the end turned out to be very productive and we are just 60 miles from where we anticipated we would be, not bad.