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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.