Patagonia, Day 5 - Esquel to Puyuhuapi

No midnight pop songs or Karaoke last night, so no excuse for a late start. Despite that, I always seem to be the last out and ready to go, and last to leave. Today that's not good as we need to reach certain roadworks before the road closes at 1pm.

The first town we pass through after leaving Esquel on Ruta 259, is a really very pretty town, lush green, well maintained streets, manicured lawns and people sweeping the pavements. I think the name was Trevelin, sounds vaguely Welsh. After this the road turns to gravel and I give the 1200 some beans. I make a real nuisance of myself as the spinning rear wheel kicks gravel into anyone behind me, especially those I've just overtaken. Steve had a stone hit him in the chest. Soon I'm behind the leader AJ, but I've lost all my buddies. Sorry guys..... I don't overtake for the rest of the day.

Ruta 259 heads south and then turns west into the mountains. On Google maps the road stops, but we carry on as the road continues as a smaller gravel track. It carries on for about 50km until we meet the border with Chile. Then it's the usual border formalities, but this time all our luggage is searched.

Chile Customs border post

While we're waiting for our collection of passport stamps to increase, the TV in the waiting area is showing what appears to be a brand new spectator sport: football played in a large blow-up swimming pool. Imagine beach volleyball meets it's a knockout with an all female team. You get the picture; scorchio! I was impressed that the toilets flushed blue; very posh. Gerard says I'm impressed by the strangest things.

The cleanest toilets at any border crossing?

Welcome to Chile.  Again!

Then we're back into Chile and now on a tarmaced road. But not for long as the tarmac soon runs out again.

Through Futaleufu and the national park and more long and wide sweeping gravel roads. Roads in the area are gradually being paved, so we constantly meet roadwork teams and diggers and stop signs. Having stopped for a road levelling machine, somehow we end up on the wrong side of a small ridge in loose gravel. Our path is narrow but we dare not risk climbing over the ridge to the firmer ground. Ray takes a fall as his wheel digs in; he's alright, however his deposit will be dented. We concertina behind the ongoing recovery but he's soon on his way and we clear this rough patch shortly after.

I have my own 'fall' around the same time as I roll to a stop and lose my balance as my foot doesn't find the ground underneath. Fortunately it's not deep gravel or deep sand, but deep Gerard, who now finds himself as the filling in a sandwich between myself and Brett. Brett manages to rescue us both by jumping off his bike and pulling me back upright so that we don't all end up as a Dom-induced toppled domino stack.

Rafting and kayaking are popular in this area as we pass many vans and trailers loaded with rafts and kayaks. Popular also are hiking and cycling, the latter whose devotees sometimes meander all over the road as we approach; after Bolivia's Death Highway, Steve is very wary to avoid them.

Steve and Mark both have slow punctures. Steve's from a 4 inch rusty nail, which Cory and AJ manage to plug. But Mark's will be more difficult to deal with as he's managed to bend the rim. His wheels hold enough air to continue but he'll need a permanent solution to last the trip. Surely not another bike Mark has terminated?

AJ plugging Steve's puncture - note the big nail below!

With 70km to go before our 1pm deadline, we realise it's not going to happen so we stop for lunch in La Junta and find a nice little cafe for steak, chicken or corn. The creamed corn is good. A few guys have coffee after launch but Rays face is a picture when he discovers that his 'espresso' is Nescafe instant and worse, it's powder!

After lunch more gravel as we reach the roadworks that close the road between 1 and 5pm. It's then jumping from one set of 'guy with flag' to another, but at least the road is open. For this section I serve as sweeper, while Cory waits in the car queue, as bikes are allowed to jump to the front :-). Now I'm 'management' I feel a huge gulf open up between me and the rest of the guys who resent the ultimate power and responsibility bestowed upon me. Truth is, my only qualification is my fluoro yellow helmet! I'm really the black sheep today. ;-)

In places the gravel we encounter through the day is compacted into washboard horizontal ridges which are bike killers. Everything shakes apart and it's really tough on the bikes' suspensions. Even the mighty 1200GS is not immune and it's normally very composed suspenders get into a twist at times. Still, that this leviathan handles reasonable well in the dirt, is a testament to BMW engineering, and the 1200 gives a good account of itself, even compared to smaller nimbler machines. Standing on the pegs when it gets super rough I end up gripping the bars with a vice like grip. Even then I feel them almost being pulled from hands in places and at times the bars wag violently in a mini "tank slapper". Traction control off at times today as well and this let's you do some very entertaining power slides where the opportunity allows.

We arrive in Puyuhuapi, a tsunami hazard zone on the Pacific coast, and plan to head to the local hot springs for a soak. But the cost doesn't make sense when the manager refuses to give a discount of the 30 dollars day rate. The place is nearly empty but they lose our business and we lose our appetites to eat there. Wifi seems to be difficult to get in our hotel and some of the guys are getting withdrawal symptoms.

Tsunami hazard zone!

 No borders tomorrow, as we're in Chile for a few days, so we can leave later than this morning and get an extra 30mins in bed. Woohoo! Mornings are tough wherever you are.

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Sent from the dusty road using my rusty BlackBerry