On January 21st of 2017 Stella and me passsed this sign somewhere in a roadless area between Villa O'Higgins (Chile) and El Chaltén (Argentina). It was not so late yet so we decided to hurry a little to be able to take the (once a day-) ferry over the next lake.
But soon after the sign the path changed to a mud-bath. I had planned to take pics of Stella fighting through the terrain but she would not let me and got mad with me.
So that is the reason why I do not have pictures from this very exciting part of the road...
Sometimes the bicycle sunk into the mud half an meter, sometimes there was a path (half an meter deep and half an meter wide) which was steep downhill and you could ride if you kept exactly in the middle! But there was so much mud on your rims so the brakes did not work.
This is the view over the next lake. The last downhill was too steep to ride on.
At the beach there was a free camping and everybody we had met on the last boat used the opportunity to clean their bikes.
There I waited for Stella for some hours, cleaning my bike...
...watching the little boat coming...
...watching the bicyclist entering the boat...
...watching the birds...
...even more birds...
Finally Stella arrived and we could take the same ferry as everybody else!
We set off south, towards even higher mountains!
A glaciar tongue we passed.
and this is one of the peaks around Fitz Roy.
On the other side of the lake we found a good forest for wild camping. Tobias, a physician from Germany and Severyn, a Student from Poland, who had been biking together for some weeks, decided to join us.
Next morning we followed the road 23 down the river.
There were some nice bridges!
At noon we arrived in El Chaltén, a very touristic village in a National Park
The architecture is a little special...
We spent some time to see if we could find a sleeping place suitable for all our tastes. This is downhill on a bicycle ramp.
Finally we decided that Stella and Tobias should stay at the Camping. Severyn and me found a nice wild camping.
Next day Stella was willing to show me and Severyn a path up to a place with a nice view on Fitz Roy. Tobbe had a resting day.
This is a view of the valley we had come through the day before
It was a really nice summer day
Long time we sat there
and waited for the best picture
of Fitz Roy without any clouds. But the clouds were dancing around the peak all the time!
We walked a little closer to another mighty glaciar
and got some more spectacolous pics
Close to a lake we discovered a free camping
Anyway, we decided do go down to the expensive village
Next day,
we were heading towards Cerro Torre and Tobbe was joining us
Even this day was a wonderful day
with amazing views
Strangely it was warm AND CALM!
Around a lake there was a gathering of hikers just doing nothing
and having a good time
This group obviously was smoking something special
Suddenly one of them took a bath amonst the icebergs!
I was happy he survived...
While Severyn made a little detour closer to a glaciar, Stella, Tobbe and me started to walk back to El Chaltén
Next morning Stella stuffed har bike into a carbon box and took a bus El Calafate (220km south) where her flight back to Stockholm was leaving. We guys were not so much in a hurry and decided to pedal road 23 and 40. Here we leave the National park "Los Glaciares"
Suddenly we were in a kind of Argentina I had learned to know in Las Pampas. But much colder
Where does the name Helsingfors come from?
In Sweden we call it "Större Nandu". Really nice and beautiful. 30-50kg of weight!
In the afternoon we passed a place which looked like a village along the famous route 40. In fact "La Leona" is nothing more than a hotel. But very useful to refill the water bottles!
I loved Route 40 and its epic scenery!
Almost like Arizona...
Close to the road we found a good space for our tents
we had been riding fast and did not take many brakes so there was still a lot of light for
intresting pictures
of salt crystals
Next day we continued south with the Andes on our right hand side. We took a detour to El Calafate where we cought up with Stella. We celebrated with a lot of cakes...
Early next morning when her flight was leaving, Severyn was very eager to say good bye to her.
Out of some reason I did not take any pics in El Calafate.
I liked the road more than the town!
After a more than 10 km uphill the road brought us up on a very windy high-flat
Finally, at an intersection we found a house with some wind shield.
Should we take a 140 km nice, tared or a 70 km shortcut on a very bad gravel road? Because there was the same ammount of wind on both we decided to take the shorter one (with less traffic)
But it the stones really were a challenge together with the cross wind.
Many of the evenings in Patagonia
had a wonderful sunset!
In front of me: a Subaru
Finally on the tared road again we met som cyclists from Croatia and shared our experiancees of the road
The mountains were beautiful!
We decided to cross the border again to visit Puerto Natales and maybe get some rain instead of wind
But it was windy in Puerto Natales anyway
The name of this sculpture actually is "El viénto"
At the main square anyway we found some shelter and could prepare our food. Tobbe had found a nice hostel Severyn and me prefered wild camping
This is a view from the center towards south
And this is an interesting sculpture behind us.
The next days we passed areas with some kind of woods with a lot of lichens. Somehow like in a fairy tail...
If there was a solitary tree it could look like this
Once we asked for "Camping libre?" we were shown horse boxes
They were very clean and nice!
Since the municipality used them only for the big market once a year they were used as free camping the rest of the year!
Finally we arrived to Punta Arenas and had a lot of cakes again
In this town Severyn had a friend of a friend where he could sleep
Tobbe and me decided to camp at the soccer field
Next day we took the ferry across the Maghellan Strait to Porvenir. From my spot high up on the ferry I had a good view on the chilenian inhabitants
and decided to take som random pics to show how different they can look
When Maghellan passed in 1520 he saw the smoke from a lot of fires
That is why it is today called "Tierra del Fuego" which means "Land of Fires"
Some people still wonder why it is not called "Smoke land"?
By the way: Magellan thought that Tierra del Fuego was a part of Antarctica!
After my thinking I soon found myself on the Island
We were welcomed
by a special commité because there should be some kind of public fiesta
But we prefered to continue
We were riding west that day and ahd a really good tailwind!
These are special clouds you can see when the wind is strong
It took us only some hours to ride 60 km so we decided to ride 40 more on the gravel
Isn't that beautiful? Guess wich direction is west?
At this intersectiom there was a tiny busstop-cottage with a mattrass inside. We decided to sleep inside with another bicyclist. But soon there came some hichhikers who did not have any tent! I ad to move out for their sake. Late in the evening a delivery of four new buses to Ushuaia passed the tiny gravel road (it actually was the main road to Ushuaia).
The hichhikers got lift, which was good for us!
I liked the bus stop cottage in the middle of nowhere and decided to take the same road after I had seen Ushuaia
This is the last picture of that day.
Next morning we discovered that a new road was under construction along the mainroad. It was not opened yet but we used it anyway. Soon we were told we could not do it because it was too dangerous for us.
People told us we were safer amongst the heavy traffic of all trucks
But not only trucks!
The dogs were really skilled to keep the group together
Some hours later, at the Argentinean border, we met the dogs again
We passed the border without showing our onion.
When I saw a lot of red lupinas around I wondered if maybe Maghellan had seen them and thought they were fires?
Once when we rested, Tobbe (who is a doctor) told us that he several times had seen sceletons of Gaunacos (related to Lama) along the fences. First he thought that it was some kind of tradition to hang them there but now he understood that although the fences were no problem for them to jump over, sometimes they had a mishap and once they were hanging on the barbed wire they never could escape without help. So he belived all those dead Gaunacos he had seen had starved and thirsted to death!
Soon after that rest he yelled out: "Stop! He is alive! We have to rescue him!"
"How?" I wondered. The barbed wire seemed to go right though his body. "! don't know" he answered. "But we have to!"
Severyn took his pliers and cut the wire Surprisingly the Gaunaco could jump away
and was in liberty again!
One evening we came to a little village called Tolhuin. For distance bicyclist it is very famous because the local bakery "Panadería Union" offers all bicyclists one or two nights inside the dry and warm storage building, free shower and wifi!
We met a lot of bicyclists there and decided to visit it on the way home again, this time with a resting day there.
We were afraid that we would meet headwinds when the road turned west
but the mountains gave us a good shelter
And the lupinas got even more red. I decided to bring some seeds to Sweden!
This was on the last high top
the landscape was dramatic
And not only we admired it
Soon it was only downhill
into the green
and the entrance of Ushuaia
We enjoyed the las few km to the center
And at the port
we found this famous sign
This time we celebrated
with a lot of Pizza!
In the evening Severyn and me decided to continue west to the National Park
Where we found a wonderful camping for free.
Next day was a wonderful, sunny and calm day!
Severyn and me left our bikes at the camping and made a long walk in the National Park
We enjoyed all the phantastic views along the Canal Beagle
and the nice weather
In the evening Stella recommended us (by phone) to wach wild horses in the National Park
My camera is equipped wit IR night shot mode
and took quite good pics!
much better than with the flash.
Next day it was raining all day and we decided to visit Glaciar Martial,
a glaciar only about 8 km NV of Ushuaia
It was raining a lot
and the pictures turned out to be bad
but it was a nice experience!
Tobbe had been resting in a hostel the two last days of his vacation.We went there to have a reunion.
He told us how difficult it was to find a used carbon box for his bike (you need it to go per aircraft) and when he finally found one to buy it showed out too be way too small!
We had a nice final good bye!
He told us how difficult it was to find a used carbon box for his bike (you need it to go per aircraft) and when he finally found one to buy it showed out too be way too small!
We had a nice final good bye!
Severyn and me left Ushuaia in the evening, heading west
Not far from Laguna Esmeralda we found an abandoned cottage in the rain and asked the owner if we could sleep inside
We were allowed to sleep there and became friend with the owners dog
Next morning he followed us for a long walk up to the Laguna Esmeralda
On the way we passed a nice valley
This is Laguna Esmeralda
And this is a beaver hut on the way back
We stopped again at Panadaría Unión in Tolhuin and had a lazy resting day there. We were aware that headwinds were expecting us and that we needed to gather strength.
The day after we had a very nice meeting with a girl from Brazil
She had been riding solo almost everywhere in South America and could share a lot of memories together with fresh basilian coffee!
The most amazing thing with her was that she had a had a VERY heavy bike but no brakes. I offered her to fix them but she said she did not like brakes!
The most amazing thing with her was that she had a had a VERY heavy bike but no brakes. I offered her to fix them but she said she did not like brakes!
When she was talking, she was laughing all the time!
She had told us exactly at wich farms she had found cottages where she coul sleep inside for free
We used the sdame places, because on Tierra del Fuego the winds are very strong!
After some days with bad headwinds we finally came to the intersection 100 km west of Porvenir. We spent a last night together. Then Severyn was heading east to Punta Arenas to take an aircraft from there. My plan was to cross "Estrecho de Magallanes" further north, with a free ferry leaving from Cruce Bahia Azul
On the way up I discovered several cottages to stay for freein when you were a bicyclist or hiker. They were owned by the municipality.
This is the landscape of Tierre del Fuego
This is the ferry along route 257 (Cruce Bahia Azul). The crossing is only about 4 km.
Not so easy for buses!
