Day 103 - 107. It's done it's done it's done!

Day 103 Tierra del Fuego

91km with 735m of climbing.

This day was nicely broken up. We left our hostel in Punta Arenas and rode only 5km to the nearby port to catch a ferry to the island Tierra del Fuego. So for 2 hours there was a few of us playing cards sitting in the truck drinking coffee.

The rest of the ride was mostly on unpaved road. At first there was some fun roller coaster climbs and drops which flattened out and had a very nice tailwind resulting in a nice relaxed cruise to camp at 40km/h.

Day 104/105 San Sebastian/Rio Grande

158km with 511m of climbing.

It was decided to combine the 2 planned days into a single larger ride, then have a rest day in Rio Grande.

We rode the first 61km to San Sebastian in just over 2 hours on unpaved road, crossed the border from Chile back into Argentina, and then on paved roads for the rest of the way.

Richard playing funny buggers with a flag tree, showing what the Patagonian wind can do.

Photo courtesy of bike dreams

The weather was kind up until the last 20km or so where the cold wind picked up, and it hailed and then rained.

Rio Grande didn't impress, but having a rest was most welcome. Even the fast guys were appearing tired, and some of them even admitted it.

Day 106 Tolhuin

123km with 622m of climbing.

The ride itself didn't leave an impression except for the fact we stopped at a famous bakery 10km before camp. A place full of chocolate and cakes and all sorts of evils. Coffee however was from a nescafe machine. Hmm, interesting.

Camp was in a forest. The hills outside of Ushuaia with trees have started. The place was quite pretty and spacious. Our last camp, the next day being the final day. I reflected on the whole trip quite a bit that night, and took notice of each person's quirks and wondered which of them I may encounter again.

Final camp

Day 107 Ushuaia. It's done!

97km with 1060m of climbing.

The day's ride was quite unlike any other we'd experienced. The hilly winding roads were much like what we saw in Peru, complete with police escort. Many of us didn't expect to see proper mountains again, but they are there in the middle of Tierra del Fuego.

Malcolm had a tangle with the police, literally. There was a police quad bike that was escorting him and Tamsin, and for a reason I can't remember both Malcolm and the police had the same idea of going on to the side of the road. The quad bike collected Malcolm on the way through, but only minor injuries where his knee began to stiffen up.

We gathered at lunch, then rode the last 30km as a group into Ushuaia. It was very quiet on the way in, except for the hum of everyone's rough off-road tyres. Early in this ride, every time we had a stretch of paved road, skinny road tyres went on, then afterwards the off-road tyres went back on. For the last few days we've had a good portion of paved roads, but nobody bothered to change tyres.

There are signs on the way stating Ushuaia is the capital of the Malvinas (Falkland Islands), and the UK is illegally occupying it. There's stickers on so many cars saying the same in town.

The ride finished at the sign "Ushuaia. Fin del Mundo" Fin del mundo means end of the world, and the end of our trip. We celebrated with a podium for the fastest riders, champagne and snacks and a final very steep climb to our hotel. We had dinner together that night in a Argentinean buffet. They sure know how to grill.

We finish in a place where in summer the sky never gets truly dark, the sun rises before 5am, is setting after 10pm, but still the horizon is very light well after 11pm. The sun rises and sets in a points noticeably much closer to each other rather than coming up 1 side, going overhead, then setting on the other side of the sky.

So now we all disperse like drained and lightened autumn leaves into the Patagonian winds. 

I hope some of us gather again.

Additional notes

For the technical bike geeks.

- My bike was a Giant Reign X1 2012 model. It's a downhill bike, and not designed in any way for the pedals to be used as anything but something to stand on when going downhill. The seated position isn't good for efficient pedalling, as I sat too far back over the back wheel, but more importantly not over the crank. So I got some extra exercise. I simply hated the idea of buying another bike specifically for this trip and accepted the consequences (the penny pinching Scottish genes at work, most of the Dutch guys would understand).

- Rear derrailleur was SRAM X9. There seems to be a design flaw where it shreds gear cables where it enters the cable guide. I went through 3 cables.

- Most people had different varieties of Schwalbe Marathon tyres, and had a mostly puncture free ride compared to others

- My first road tyres were Maxxis Xenith slick tyres. Grippy, but totally not practical for the real world. I had up to 3 punctures per day due to small pieces of glass which got stuck in the rubber. When I saw a slice across it, I ended up borrowing some tyres until I could get more.

- My second set of tyres were Continental Touring Plus. Road oriented, so not much good in the loose gravel and sand, but rolled very well and they even had a branch of thorns stuck in it without a puncture

- We were recommended not to bring a dual suspension bike. I don't regret bringing one, I made a lot of people jealous on the rough roads and I was relatively faster. Go best of both worlds like Fred and Adrian (UK), have a lockout switch on the rear suspension.

- If you use a small bag under the saddle to carry a spare tube, wrap it tightly with an old tube, then tape it, or the new tube will wear through from all the bumps.

Words that were helpful. Not necessarily precise quotes, but the meaning is the same.

Anna at the beginning: There will be days that are very tough, and you'll wonder why you're doing this. When the day is finished, all is forgiven.

Ilkka: Don't stretch yourself to the limit every day, leave some in reserve or you won't enjoy the journey.

Jaap: Come on! F^&(%ers! (OK, not necessarily helpful, but the way he said it prompted a whole group of us to imitate him and so became an Andes Trail quote)

Kevin: Climbing or descending makes no difference. Find your pace, use the same effort and select the right gear.

A realisation by myself: Any misfortune becomes an adventure if it ends well.

Final thoughts

I finished writing this blog sitting in the same cafe in Santiago airport that I sat in on the way to Quito back in July. Although I wasn't able to add this to the blog until later, as the cafe's wifi router had the common Latin American feature installed and went on siesta.

The trip has been tough. Yet it was always rewarding, as there was some noticeable change and progress with every bit of effort towards a goal waiting at the end. That kept the mental endurance strong.

During the ride, the places we saw felt almost routine. Noticeably beautiful, but didn't have the feeling of being part of something truly epic. Yet even now looking at photos when the places are no longer within easy reach, I have the same feeling as I did when looked at the photos of the previous editions of the Andes Trail ride. The places are stunning and foreign to my eyes again. These photos are mine this time.

Day 97 - 102. Torres del Paine, just visit

Day 97 Tapi Aike. We're still the lucky weather edition of the Andes trail, mostly!

161km with 1393m of climbing. Well, it was shortened to roughly 130km to find a suitable camping spot.

We've been called the lucky weather edition of the Andes trail rides given that we've had so much fair weather. This day wasn't so lucky. In this area of Patagonia, the wind almost always comes from the west. Riding out of El Calafate to Tapi Aike, we were riding east, so should be tail wind. No. Head wind. Very rare easterly wind. Bugger.

We have a cold start with a temperature of 6C, which feels worse thanks to the wind. Leaving the Argentino Lake behind, back amongst the pampas. There was also a decent climb going up 600m in one hit, something we haven't seen for some time now.

The ride was exhausting and the required constant effort, so at lunch after 73km I declared my day's ride was done. Not only was I about to hit the wall, my back was tightening up.

The campsite was in a grassy valley. Quite unexpected as the surrounding area doesn't have the lush green grass that we had the luxury to put our tents on.

Day 98 Cerro Castillo. Any misfortune becomes an adventure if it ends well

92km with 349m of climbing.

Packing our tents up we were flicking the frost off, when we set off it was perhaps 4 degrees with a headwind again, so it felt much colder.

So once again it was slow going for myself pushing into the wind. Some people either chose not to start at all, or got into the truck after a few km due to the wind and cold.

I spent most of my ride between 8-13km/h. Painfully slow. Go any faster however and the wind pushes back harder, and my back tightens. So a long slow slog it is.

After 35km and just over 3 hours the our dirt road ended, and we joined onto paved road. I'd ridden just over 50km, when Didier drove back from lunch to see where I was given I was late compared to everyone else. He did a U turn and drove on the road's shoulder so he could speak with me. I agreed to ride in the truck to lunch, but when he tried to drive the truck forward to get to a more flat spot to load my bike, all the wheels just spun and dug themselves into the soft clay beneath the gravel. These trucks have 4WD with differential locks, so this sort of thing usually doesn't happen. Furthermore, the truck being on the side of the road that curves down to a drainage gulley, was now tipped on a dangerous angle. This was then the first time I've ever heard Didier swear. We set about trying to dig behind the wheels so that they could have a gentle gradient to climb back out of the holes they'd dug for themselves, until Didier also noticed the truck was sitting on its chassis and axles. Big problem. He tried jacking the truck up to put rocks under the wheels, but the jack sank into the clay as well. Thankfully another truck driver that was passing by noticed our predicament, hooked a chain between the 2 trucks and pulled Didier's truck out. That was a huge relief. Any misfortune becomes an adventure if it ends well.

Day 99 NP Torres del Paine. This place is one for your bucket list

83km with 839m of climbing.

My back despite the exercises I've been doing was giving me grief. So I was off the bike for the day. These are the times I wish I was doing a self supported ride. If that was the case, if I can't ride, I rest until I can and so don't miss pieces of the achievement that is riding the distance between the equator and Ushuaia. With a group, the progress continues regardless. On the other side of the coin however, we don't have to carry all our luggage or worry about the regular hunt for water that the self supported riders we encounter along the way have to do.

The ride itself looked like fun. It was unpaved, and once in the National Park, the road was like a roller coaster with short steep climbs and drops.

The scenery though. Wow. Stunning. I want to visit there again.

Thankfully we also had a rest day camping in the park....

So on the way in we stopped and admired

We hiked

That's the Torres del Paine in the background

We admired some more

We also relaxed. 

One of the best beers I've ever tasted. They put the local Calafate berry into this beer.

Seriously. Visit this place. The scenery was so stunning it felt ridiculous. Even the wildlife was out to play. We saw a cougar, many guanucos, a fox or 2 and some many cheeky varieties of birds. One that looks like a kiwi, to another type who use trees like a race track going round and round and somehow not smashing into something. There was a condor nest right near our campsite.

A side note about the wind going through the National Park. We received news that 4 days after we went through, that 2 buses were pushed over by what was estimated as a 200km/h gust of wind. There were some injuries, and 1 person had a foot amputated. Something to think about, as from our campsite within the park, we caught a minibus (smaller than the ones pushed over) to the beginning of the trail for our hike. When we were going through, the wind made even the smaller lakes have white capped waves that were curling over like proper surf, and mist being thrown off.

Day 100 Puerto Natales

99km with 1246m of climbing.

Another cold start, rain too, and the wind was still up from the previous afternoon during our rest day. Thankfully it was a tailwind. My jealousy of missing the ride into the National Park lessened a little, as I got to ride the park's roller coaster unpaved roads.

The ride wasn't only fun, but once again Patagonian Chile continues to impress even with the cold rainy weather. There was one part I so wish I could take a photo that showed what we could see. There was a large lake to the side of the road, surrounded by mountains and the clouds thinned the further away we looked. So the lake's water started as a dark grey and then continually became lighter until it was almost white on the horizon.

Despite having fun on the bike and feeling like I was a big kid, I still had to stop for the day at lunch due to the tightening in my back.

Tamsin and myself chilling out at the cave where Milodon remains were found

Day 101 Villa Tehuelches

148km with 1024m of climbing.

The wind was still going strong. So we'd barely left town and where I once saw 2 riders in front of me, a gust caused Tamsin to be blown off the road and flip her bike, and recently arrived Ben to practice his mountain bike skills bouncing over the rough ground on the way to a fence away from the road. Tamsin was a little shaken, but continued on for another 50km before her neck and knee started to stiffen up.

Once away from the turbulent wind caused by the surrounding hills, the wind cleaned up to being a tailwind almost all the way to lunch which was at 63km, so riding at 40km/h was very easy.

I had to once again rest the afternoon rather than ride. Turned out I was soon joined in the truck by quite a few people. After lunch the road turned, and so the once friendly tailwaind became a dangerous cross wind. So people were getting worried that they would be blown across the road into the path of a truck or car.

Day 102 Punta Arenas

102km and 588m of climbing.

I was unable to ride again, so for me the day was filled with seeing people on their bikes leaning their bikes a LONG way over to the side fighting the wind for the whole trip. Some people also chose to stop part way into the day due to it being dangerous.

The wind is a constant factor here, they have what is known as "flag trees" as they grow tipped over pointing to the east due to the strong westerly winds.

Day 88 - 96. Bike dreams should form a sub branch called hike dreams

Day 88 Puerto Ibanez

111km with 1201m of climbing is the plan.

Given my back was made a little worse during our rest day in Coyhaique when I had decided to ride into town from the campsite, I was still walking rather than riding.

I'd left straight after breakfast, and everyone on their bikes passed me after I'd done perhaps 4km. So I took some photos of them all as they went by, and I continued amongst some very beautiful landscape. I hated it, because when this trip is done, I won't be able to see it every day again.

Luckily Richard who was set to pick me up had warned me that they may take a couple of hours getting some of the shopping done before driving out of town. I'd walked without seeing anyone or any road signs for over 2 hours, and even with Richard's comment I had begun questioning if I'd missed a turn somewhere.

After lunch, the scenery was the best I'd seen up until then. Just stunning. The photos are good, but nowhere near as good as being there.

Day 89 Perito Moreno

111km with 1201m of climbing. Most of it unpaved. A standard issue day. We crossed back into Argentina from Chile. So there were comments about having the "dirty 2's" again, as Argentina uses paper notes, and the 2 peso notes are used very often. So they absorb all sorts of nastiness. Bit of a difference to Chile's plastic notes, where we were all carrying stacks of 10000 peso notes.

Given there was no real split in time between the 2 trucks due to the border crossing, I didn't walk on this day.

The ride for those who did ride was quite tough at the beginning, going steeply and constantly up and down.

The border crossings were uneventful, and then back in Argentina, we were back amongst the pampas. Boring, flat or low rolling hills, low shrubs and grass. Most of us aren't too keen on it.

Michelle, Tamsin, Gerdi (sorry Gerdi!), Richard, Adrian (UK) and Jaap

Sneaking up on the the wild people Didier, Jo and Arunas who roam the pampas setting up lunch spots. They're very shy.

Day 90 Bajo Caracoles

131km with 1310m of climbing on the bike. I walked 23km.

The day started with promise. When I woke, I found I was able to move without having to be extremely careful and slow when getting out of the tent. A good sign my back is on the mend. At this rate, I was hoping that I could be back on the bike within 3 or 4 days.

I fit in 16km of walking before I was picked up by Richard. The wind then started to really pickup. The forecast was for winds to reach up to 50km/h.

Very appropriate Patagonian wind sign!

The scenery wasn't worth mentioning, as we were among the pampas. Yawn.

After lunch, set off again and managed to score my first sighting of an armadillo  Shy little buggers. One sound and it ran away. Not that it mattered, I snuck in a few photos before it bolted.

5km into the walk after lunch, my left knee which started all the off bike grief came back to haunt me. Cheeky inconsiderate thing. I thought it was done complaining. I continued on for another 2km to see if it would get worse. It did, by which time Didier arrived from lunch and picked me up.

Day 91 Las Horquetas

109km with 551m of climbing, essentially flat.

With my knee still sore and my back still complaining, to try and prevent an ongoing cycle of injuries, I rested for the day. A pity, as the Patagonian winds were back...as a tailwind. We meet people on motorbikes or self supported cyclists with panniers on their mountain bikes along the way. One of the motorcyclists with us from Australia mentioned that during the day he was travelling at 80km/h and all he could hear was the engine and tyres of his bike. No wind in his face. So best guess was the wind was doing that speed as well!

We setup camp beside a building that is slowly being built over many years as to what appears will eventually be a restaurant. Bonus was the toilets worked. A luxurious bushcamp. Just no showers.

The wind was very strong, so everyone setup their tents beside the building to get some protection. Having confidence in my tent, I decided to take advantage of all the spare space and went to the back corner of the field. I prefer to have my tent by itself, so during the night I don't get woken by people walking around, tripping over my guy ropes, and the sound of tent zips. Human nature is a funny thing. I'd barely finished setting my tent up, then someone decides it must be a good spot and tried to setup right beside me. I was waiting for them to finish then I was going to move, but they discovered it was too difficult to setup with the strong wind and retreated back to being near the bunch of tents beside the building. Excellent. That often happens, 1 tent goes up, and despite all the space available, the other tents are clustered together.

Day 92 Estancia La Angostura

83km with 100m climbing. Still in pain, still resting.

The day starts with a time trial. The tail wind was still strong in the morning, and so everyone did a very good pace. Everyone covered the 48km to lunch in approximately an hour. Some a little less, some a little more. An average of 50km/h on a MOUNTAIN bike is ridiculously quick. Shows how much difference something as insubstantial as air can make.

The riding for most was completed by around midday, and we were treated to something quite out of place.

The estancia/station/ranch was in a narrow long valley. Whereas the rest of the area was barren, this valley had grass, and some trees near the buildings. Horses and sheep wandering around. The sheep were very friendly, as the young ones were still bottle fed. Not to mention the dogs and cats. A sanctuary or oasis. A very beautiful place, which became even better at sunset.

Day 93 Estancia La Siberia

67km with 553m of climbing. Whereas I was feeling better, and went for a casual 31km stroll.

The scenery was pampas. Not worth mentioning.

Michelle and myself had this silly idea to walk the complete distance from lunch to the campsite. So that's what we did, for 6 hours.

The start of a casual stroll

Michelle, Yolande joined us for a little while, and myself in what has been named my hobo pants. They have good pockets! 

Photo courtesy of Jaap - Bike Dreams crew

It wasn't entirely unamusing. There were quite a number of locusts on the dirt road. Of course, some were being run over by traffic, and the surrounding locusts jump in for a chow down on their unfortunate friends. So then there's a group of diners, who in turn get squished at the same time and so the cycle continues. It was also good to be able to chat for a bit while on the move, which is not something I normally do.

Our efforts were mentioned at dinner that night, although it's not something I'd choose to do on a daily basis. Cycle pace is slow enough, at walking pace in scenery that doesn't change will eventually challenge any remaining sanity I think!

Day 94 Tres Lagos

93km with 550m of climbing. Almost entirely unpaved.

Feeling a little more confident in my condition that it's on the mend, I decided to get back on the bike. Perhaps not the best day, but not a bad idea given it started with a climb straight away, and there was a head wind.

The ride was manageable, but my back was tightening up, so I used some discretion and stopped at lunch.

On arrival at Tres Lagos, which is a very small town, Didier drove the truck to the petrol station. Only to find like previous years, there was no fuel. No petrol, no diesel. So apparently they're consistent performers. This was expected, so it didn't cause any inconvenience, the extra fuel would have just left more spare.

I think it's really starting to sink in to all of us that there's so very little of this trip left. Only 2 weeks. People are taking more photos of all the silly things other people get up to. I know myself even though I struggle sometimes being amongst large groups, I've come to enjoy the company of each one of them. I hope after this that we meet again sometime.

Day 95 Parador Luz Divina

68km with 270m of climbing.

This time I rode the full day. What a relief. So glad to be riding again. Not that it wasn't uncomfortable, but it was tolerable after stopping every few km to stop, get off the bike and stand straight for a moment.

Most of the day again had a head wind. It was relatively mild. At a guess going by the few times when the road turned and the wind was a tailwind and I sped up until the point where I just felt a puff of air against my face, the wind was moving at perhaps 40km/h.

The ride was broken up by visiting a hotel 10km before camp for coffee, free wifi (haven't seen any connectivity for a week), and a silly but fun game. The game is where a metal ring is hung from the ceiling, and there's a hook on the wall. The idea is to swing the ring so that it lands and stays on the hook. Not so easy. Didier puts up the challenge that nobody can leave the hotel until they've won the game. Some people took many, many, MANY attempts to finally get it. When it was my turn, I tried once, got my eye in, then on the 2nd attempt I landed it which brought a round of applause. Total fluke, but shh.

The campsite was talked up as having hot showers and toilets, and a small store selling drinks. In previous visits, Rob and Didier had mentioned that the place is still being added to and growing. When we arrived however, it was abandoned and partially stripped. A pity to see this happen.

Still, we could still wash. There was a river running alongside the property which is fed by glaciers. Quite invigorating. In other words bloody freezing, but still worked!

Day 96 El Calafate. A rest day at the end after 9 days straight.

96km with 816m of climbing.

Most of the climbing was done going over undulating terrain. All paved. There was only 1 "mountain" that gave us a small climb of over 100m.

There was a little wind. At the beginning as a tailwind, so coasting along at 35km/h was easy, then later a headwind, but could still push through at around 20km/h. The scenery was MORE pampas. Except for a little quirk we hadn't seen before... icebergs in the lake beside El Calafate.

On the following rest day, a good portion of us went and visited the nearby glaciers either by going on a hike, or visiting by boat, or a combination of both.

Multiple minor glaciers feeding into a major one