Thursday 22 November 2012

Day 81 - 87. Patagonia continues to impress, and now on foot


Day 81 El Bolson

123km with 1289m of climbing.

Armed with some new earphones that I bought in Bariloche, we left town. Getting out of town however was surprisingly steep. At one point I saw it was a 15% incline. The steepest I've seen in an urban area during this trip.

We had MORE lakes and MORE snow capped mountains and MORE forests and MORE flowers. The drudgery! Not. I love this part of the world, it's really beautiful.



The day went well enough. Having music to listen to during the ride changes the experience quite a bit. Depending on the mood of the music, I found myself looking at the scenery in various ways that I normally wouldn't. Very enjoyable. I also was looking at my bike computer to check the progress a lot less, which is a good sign.

I was thankful that my knee and ankle felt much, much better. The top of my butt where it joins the hips had a bit of an ache, but nothing unusual since recently been using more strength during the day now that I actually have some to use. So a great ride.

After setting up my tent at the campsite and lay down inside it to relax, a cat passed by. I of course called out to it, gave it a pat and then drifted to sleep. I later woke for dinner, and found that the cat had made itself comfortable lying along my back. I found that rather amusing, and some silly jokes was of course made at dinner about waking up to finding a pussy cat on me. The wording wasn't quite exactly that, but close enough! Getting to dinner however in the first place was quite a challenge. That ache in my lower back had locked up into something quite painful, so I had shuffled from the tent to dinner bent over like an old man.

Day 82 National Park Los Alerces

106km with 1233m of climbing. All of which I missed.

I woke to find that any movement shot horrid pains across my back, around to the front of my hips and and flaring pains in my thighs. I haven't experienced this sort of thing in my back for many years. Back then, practicing Tai Chi over time had remedied it.

This meant I wasn't riding, but rather stuck in the truck. Bugger. Early on during this trip, chest infection, bronchitis, asthma and lack of fitness was causing me grief. Then late Peru, Bolivia and early Argentina all had been well. Now in Argentina just before entering Chile for the first time, biomechanicaly my body was beginning to complain from the day after day abuse. My theory is the pains are working their upwards, so within a week or so I'll just have a headache and with nowhere higher to go, they'll disappear!

So the day for me started trying to take the pain while the truck bounced along the unpaved road. It was difficult to take notice of the scenery when the pain kept demanding my attention. The scenery that I did notice however was very beautiful.

At the end of the day we were once again treated to camping lakeside.



Day 83 Futaleufu in Chile!

125km with 1171m of climbing.

A day for me in the truck once again unfortunately. Not that being in the truck is an overall bad experience, it's just not as good or rewarding as being on the bike.

The day was uneventful aside from the border crossing from Argentina into Chile. Chile is quite strict with regards to what can be carried into the country as far as organics are concerned. In general fresh foods cannot cross, anything else such as souvenirs made from timber, feathers and so forth aren't allowed either. Sadly, we lost a part of one of the trucks which had been a bit of fun. We had a cow's skull attached the front, and some wire that in a very artistic way spelt Peru. Attached to the skull was memorabilia we'd found along the way such as women's lingerie, a doll's head (which has a story not for public consumption). It was unceremonially dumped in the border bin.

The border crossing was unusual by the fact that there was nothing there besides the offices for immigration on each side of the border. No stalls, money exchange or anything.

We had a hotel on arriving in town, which in our schedule says for this day we're supposed to be having a bushcamp (just a place with no facilities). On arrival, I'll say that the hotel was very basic and rather run down. It had toilets and showers whereas bushcamps do not, so it was good. Except for the fact that the showers kept running cold, as the pilot lights on the gas heaters were constantly going out.

Given that we were in a hotel in town, this means we're supposed to find our own dinners. There was 1 ATM in town, it accepted Mastercard, but not Visa. Most of us had Visa. Predicament! Thankfully Didier found out that a telephone shop exchanged Argentinian Pesos or USA dollars for Chilean Pesos. A phone shop?! 1 Australian dollar was worth almost 500 Chilean Pesos. The prices are going to take some getting used to.

Day 84 Villa Vanguardia

107km with 1202m of climbing.

Still horrid pains trying to move. Especially after lying down or sitting then trying to stand. So still in the truck. At least we stop for coffee on the way to lunch which is good.

The day was uneventful. More great scenery, more unpaved road.



The camping site however was memorable. We had a bushcamp just outside of town. At the site with us were 2 hitchhikers, 2 playful dogs, a goat that refused to move, and a very cold river fed by glaciers.

The hitchhikers were great characters. 1 of them seemed to be more of a spriritual person, and he said to me that he could see that I lead myself with heart rather than just with my head, and it clearly radiated out, and I should teach those around me and people back home how to do this. An unusual and unique greeting! I was just expecting "hello" or "hola". He then proceeded to play his homemade woodwind thingiemajig, whatchamacallit, dooverlacker.

To complete the story. The dogs were fun, smelly, and had clearly some experience in begging for food.

The goat made some feeble bleating noises during the night, and was dead by the morning.

The river was too cold for me to consider going in. Some did, and all of them survived. I didn't check later to see if their extremities are still attached, so they may have turned black and fallen off by the time you read this.

I was then given some valium to go to sleep with to make the muscles relax and hopefully stop the muscle spasm in my lower back, as painkillers weren't doing the job. Wasn't a big dose, so I noticed my arms relax and I drifted off. 3 hours later when I'd tried to turn over, the pain woke me. Plan B?

Day 85 Glacier Collante

109km with 1244m of climbing. Special mention goes to Adrian (AUS) however. He zoned out and kept pedalling for 35km past our campsite turnoff, and climbed an additional 600m to the next day's lunch spot. Oops! So he had done an additional 70km and found that the next day's climb is quite steep.

More pain, more truck riding, more trees and mountains with snow. I may sound sick of the scenery, absolutely not, but you're probably sick of reading it I suspect! Great coffee on the way to the lunch spot at this beautiful hotel beside the petrol station.

At the lunch spot I decided to go for a walk. A very good thing to do. I slowly stood more upright the further I walked.

On arrival at our campsite, we could see a blue glacier being squeezed between 2 mountains with a drop to a lake. Lee and myself went first to the lake, then walked over a mountain for 3km to get to the proper viewing area of the glacier. The walking further proved it's a good thing for my back, even despite the climbing parts. The glacier was stunning. I want one in my backyard at my next home! There's waterfalls being spat out of the bottom of the ice, then some ice breaks off, falls, and then we could hear the boom as it crashed over rocks to the bottom where there was ice piling up that later melted to run down to the lake. Very addictive to watch.




Later back at camp, I was again lucky enough to have one of our fellow riders who is also a physiotherapist have a look at my back. She advised the muscle in my butt was very tight causing pressure on nerves, resulting in pain appearing in other places. She gave me some stretches which I could feel was very targeted. Hopefully this is what I need to prevent this problem again.

Day 86 Lago Las Torres

78km with 1350m of climbing was the plan.

For me, in the truck again mostly. The day before walking around had restored some confidence that with a little movement and stretches, I could loosen up enough to get on the bike.

I opted out of the morning's ride with the steep unpaved climb, and rode from lunch. So I started with a fun downhill, still on unpaved road, which is my personal favourite. All went well until I was back on undulating paved road. Each time the road began to climb, no matter how easy the gear on the bike I chose, my back tightened and I had pains flashing in my thighs. Soon after I thought riding was a bad idea as it was too soon, Richard turned up in the truck, and I jumped in.

The campsite was very basic. Still it had showers and toilets. The showers however only had cold water. If someone was REALLY keen on having a hot shower, for a measly 2500 pesos you could go to the owner's house for one. There's a business model! Charge for the camping, and then optional extras. 2500 Chilean pesos I should point out however is approximately $5 Australian. We camped beside the lake, again a beautiful place to be. Windy too.

The mountains when we arrived

Overnight the wind continued and it rained. The next morning, snow had fallen on the mountains surrounding the lake. If our campsite had been perhaps 200m higher, we would have had snow rather than rain. Snow would have been preferable so that our tents wouldn't have been packed still wet.

The campsite owner's house with mountain behind 

Was cold overnight, if only it had been that little colder...

Day 87 Coyhaique. Options.

The day's plan was 152km with 1380m of climbing.

My plan was a little different. As soon as breakfast was done, I left camp on foot. I was going to do the truck shuffle. We have 2 trucks. 1st truck to leave in the morning is Didier racing to the lunch spot for the day and setup lunch. The 2nd truck with Richard driving, follows later when the previous night's campsite is all packed away, and any shopping is done. So I kept walking until the 2nd truck caught up. I then got dropped off at lunch where Richard continues on to setup the next campsite. I started walking again until Didier has finished with lunch and catches up.

So I managed to fit in 15km of walking for the day, and my back felt a lot better for it. Temporarily at least until I sit for any length of time. The day was cold, wet and windy, which is what Patagonian Chile does, that's its job. I was fine as I could wear heavier clothing. So I loved being at walking pace, seeing more detail and listening to music. Meanwhile those who were riding and hadn't brought clothes suitable for cold wet weather had difficulty with hypothermia. Sometimes sleet fell, but snow would have been preferable, as it would have been dry.

I would have much preferred to be riding the bike, that's what I came on this trip to do. However, it looks like for a little while at least my cycling trip has become a walking trip, which is fine by me. I really enjoyed the day. The weather added character to the landscape that is Patagonia, and it feels right.

There's only 3 weeks left to go for this trip, and still so much to look forward to. Of all the places that we've seen so far, it is Patagonia that I would choose to visit again.

1 comment:

  1. Such spectacular scenery! Maybe your walking and trucking gave you more time to appreciate it! (Trying to be positive here!) One great stretch exercise is to walk your hands (palms flat on wall) slowly down a wall and slowly up again! Helps the lower back to loosen. Once you get this in control, slowly bend over as far as comfortable and just hang the arms. Then slowly up again. Only do the latter once you are comfortable with the hands and wall support. Patagonia certainly looks like a wonderful world of magic! Just enjoy!

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