During the night we could hear Hurricane Hernandez raging outside out hotel and inside our wooden room was creaking with every gust. We emerged to total devastation. Or at least that's what I expected; in reality it was just another windy night in Patagonia, everything was normal.
Breakfast was a lacklustre affair, but fuel is fuel and at least the sun was shining and it wasn't too cold. But it was VERY windy. Once again we found ourselves riding extended periods leaned over to counter the strong crosswind. It was nice when we changed direction to have the wind behind us and it became eerily quiet apart from the now under stressed engine virtually idling beneath us.
Turning off from the tarmac we ran a very long mostly straight gravel road stint across the plains for about 130km.
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| Gerard on a loooong gravel road |
You'd think riding long straights would be boring, but far from it, it's a challenge every metre. Every stone, every dip, every mound of gravel alters your course so you have to keep your wits about you to stay on track and upright. Lose concentration for even a moment and you risk coming a cropper, especially with the cross wind throwing you around; it was quite a challenge. Mark had a minor fall on a downhill bend as he faced two choices: brake, lock and fall; or barrel over the edge of the road and into a ditch. Steve pointed out the obvious other choice: just go round the corner! Shortly afterwards, brain fade turned to brake fade as he came in hot and almost piled into Mick at our crossroad stop. He took it a bit easier after that.
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| Duff of the Patagonian Steppes |
During this run across the gravel we had numerous sightings of llamas (guanacos), horses, sheep, and rheas. Often they would cross the road in front of us and we'd have to slow or stop. Sometimes even if they're off the road they'd jump about skittishly, so it's always safer to slow to let them do their thing. I slowed to a crawl for a rhea that trotted along in front of me for a while, which was very nice to watch. Then it jumped off sideways, ran into a fence, flopped about, feathers everywhere, before darting across the road again and into another fence.
Apart from these minor events we made good progress and enjoyed a hot lunch at a very pleased little roadside cafe. A group of 15 hungry bikers is a valuable addition to any catering establishment. A few km further and we reached the ferry to cross the Magellan Straits.
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| Welcome to the Magellan Straits |
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| Waiting for the ferry |
We had to wait a while to board, but the actual trip didn't take more than about 20 minutes. Looking over the side we could see small porpoises under the surface tracking the ferry. Occasionally they would jump out of the water through the boat's waves. Good photo opportunity.
On disembarking, we were now on the land of fire: Tierra del Fuego. In my youth, this was a low-key base for British special forces during the Falklands conflict and the place evokes memories of news stories about their heroics. No doubt in the next few days we'll hear more about that war, but hopefully without causing Top Gear style difficulties.
Before launching our own invasion of the island, we spend 30mins fixing Duff's puncture, which is longer than expected, but you can't get the staff these days!
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| Cory fixing Duff's puncture |
Desolation and remoteness are key words to describe this place. On the road into Cerro Sombrero there are a number of parking spots with shelters and solar panels. They look like bus stops, but there's nothing around them and I mean nothing, so can't be bus stops. Their purpose is not clear. Steve and I went out for a run after checking in at the hotel, and looking back to town, you can see that outside the compact built up area there's nothing but open land, fields and hills - that maybe because there are still areas of Tierra del Fuego that are mined, a hangover from the Chile/Argentine border tensions. There's also a strong smell of gas in the air. A by-product of the area's main industry, gas and oil extraction.
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| Cerro Sombrero, not quite an oasis in the desert |
After battling the winds all day, most of us are very tired and ache, so we have an early dinner and retire before 10pm - to watch flashback clips of WWF in the hotel lounge. Very sad.
Tomorrow we're off to the End of the World; we might not be back!
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Sent from the dusty road using my rusty BlackBerry
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