So here we are then. Well, now, actually. We're in El Calafate, a very touristy town on the banks of Lago Argentina, and it's New Year's Eve. We got into town a bit earlier than expected, for various reasons (which will not be aired here for some time...), and that has allowed both Alastair and Dave to get a good dose of food poisoning in them. Midd's currently in bed (it's 15:45 at time of writing...) and Heed has just left me in the bar so he can go back to his bed for some form of siesta. Well, regardless, it's fiesta not siesta for me!
Having done another 'Mendoza' on the in-house facilities last night, we are glad to be getting out of the gaffe tonight to get amongst it in downtown El Calafate for the NYE celebrations and are scheduled to get out of town for good tomorrow morning. Ok, so there's no bendy stick involved this time, with experience having been on our side in this, erm, sticky situation, and we do have some random foreigners to blame the incident on, but it's still not an ideal situation. Anyway, I must get off this subject so I guess I should give you a rundown of what's been going on over the last week and a half or so since we left Punta Arenas...
Day 12. December 19th. Punta Arenas to Estancia Rio Verde
Leaving town late, as has become the somewhat expected norm, we fly along past the airport and are all agreed on ignoring the penguin colony which would take us over 50k out of our way, the way back being into a strong headwind. The decision is made to take the coastal route to get away from the tourist trail, the cars and buses, and also in the hope of some more impressive scenery, and we're generally fine with the fact that it means an unpaved road. After our longest day yet (101k) we finally rock up at Estancia Rio Verde, not knowing what, if anything, to expect. Riding around the back we are shocked to find a room full of yanks and Europeans enjoying a whole lamb being roasted over the parilla and some quality Chilean reds. Having obviously stumbled upon a very flash affair, and looking every bit the bedraggled cyclists that we are, we make a very easy decision to camp in the field with the horses (and skunk...) rather than pay over USD $100 for a room. Our first experience of quinoa is a good one, despite it being accompanied by the ever present tomato based sauce and chorizo, and it's all downed in typically frenetic style, to allow us to enjoy a relaxing bottle of red in the luxury of the restaurant. Our Chilean hosts, Sandra and Marcelo, are great people and seem much keener on swapping stories (and, strangely, mildly pornographic jokes) with us than entertaining their proper guests. Turns out Sandra is the only woman ever to swim in Antarctica and Marcelo is an electrician by trade, but an excellent chef. Despite them accusing me of looking like William Wallace and Vincent van Gogh, we leave on good terms.
Day 13. December 20th. Estancia Rio Verde to a ditch, Morro Chico
Even for us, this day takes ages to get under way. The wind is really bad all day and we struggle against it for 70k before giving up about 7k before a left turn would have faced us directly into the wind. The 'camp site' is a rough piece of ground beside the road, with foot long grass and an amazing ability to channel all the wind in Patagonia onto our trusty tent. Food is cooked and sleep is not had.
Day 14. December 21st. Morro Chico to Puerto Natales
We manage to stir at about 5am and get under way about 6am, having only enough water for a quick coffee. This is a record time for us but there's no air of jubilation as our attempt to 'beat the wind' proves to be 100% ineffective and the first 40k takes us nearly 7 hours, including water stops with the local Carabinero. Next thing marked on our map is Hotel Reubens and, again, we're scared to expect anything at all. We're surprised to find it chock-full of yanks who're being shipped about in absurdly large 4x4 people carriers. We each scoff a magical steak and egg sandwich and hit the road, turn the corner and enjoy a tail-wind for the first time in a L-O-N-G time. Cycling is fun once more and we absolutely fly down the mountain and into Puerto Natales where we stay at Hostal Lilli. Our biggest day yet, managing 112k despite the grueling start into the wind.
Days 15 to 16. December 22nd to 23rd. Natales.
Not much to do about this town, so we use our valuable time to yet again stock up on food. This time it's a monster shop as we've got to get food for 8 days or so on the road, as we can't be sure of getting anything once we leave. Kilos of rice, pasta, sauces, chorizos, canned fish, nuts, dried fruits and chocolate see our panniers reach the point of bursting and make us very nervous about the flimsy rack mountings. Oh, and obviously we stock up with 2 litres of vodka. It is Christmas, after all.
Day 16. December 23rd. Puerto Natales to Rio Serrano.
[Author: Al] Yet another late start, although at least this one was planned (to hopefully get the better of the weather conditions, which seemed to be more settled in the afternoon). Thankfully this worked out for us and we set off about 1pm to head for Torres Del Paine National Park (after scoffing 18 scrambled eggs and plenty of bread - another feeding frenzy). A good days cycling in great weather started to turn into a nightmare later in the day. Some steep climbs on unpaved surfaces started taking their toll, especially on me and I started to struggle somewhat. Whilst Col and Midd waited on a bridge for me to catch up they seen a figure waving to them - Olga. We met up with Christian and Olga (who are cycling the same route and arrived at the same hostal as us back in Ushuaia the day after us) and decided to cycle with them to the park together. The roads became less undulating but the surface became much rougher, and, just as things were going well, disaster struck. Cycling along happily, whilst chatting to Olga, Col's rear rack had what would be best described as a massive failure. The mounting clips broke and the rack fell backwards bending the rear deraileur into the spokes. What resulted was something akin to an international rescue mission . Our Spanish and German friends helped forge some temporary solutions with a combination of canvas strapping (for my rack which was on the verge of collapsing) and a mixture of wire, cable ties and copper brackets we had picked up earlier for Col's rack - these won't last!
Repairs completed we all set off again and struggled on. More steep climbs on unpaved roads and the unwelcome emergence of a strong headwind caused me to almost break, with both hamstrings on the verge of imminent cramp. Things got so bad at a point we were all forced into pushing the rigs up hills as the loose gravel, headwinds and steep gradients meant getting moving was almost impossible. Midd was sent ahead to tell Christian and Olga not to wait for us as they were keen to head for a campsite inside the park which was out of our reach as it had turned 10pm. We rolled into the nearest campsite available to us - Camping Rio Serrano - and had the tent up, dinner cooked and eaten and 6 beers downed within the hour. After a hot shower the mood in camp was a lot more positive and we were soon off to the land of nod dreaming of the usual tailwinds and perfectly smooth roads.
Day 17. December 24th. Rio Serrano to Camping Las Torres, Torres del Paine.
A lay-in is soon scuppered by D. Middlemiss who is up-and-at-'em, urging his troops onwards. As he cooked up the porridge and coffee, Al and I took care of repairs to the bikes. Taking the easy option, my rear deraileur was replaced with the brand spanking new one we thankfully had the foresight to bring with us. The morning disc-brake-adjusting-session was just finishing up when I noticed that his rear hub was loose, forcing yet more comically futile brake adjustments. The 1k off the main road to the camping was, without a doubt, the worst road we'd ever seen. Record speeds of 4kph were reached while trying to make sure the makeshift rack mountings held firm. Which they didn't, obviously. More wire and cable-ties were employed as we were entering the Torres del Paine National Park. Weather on this day was absolutely superb and we were incredibly lucky to have such spectacular views of the Torres while there was no clouds obscuring them. We try to restrict our photo-taking, but the views are so amazing that the cameras are out seemingly every couple of kilometres. Mucho deleting of similar mountain photos are in our near-future. We have lunch in a restaurant set in the middle of a glacial-blue lake, which we reach by cycling over a small wooden bridge .
Remarkably, nothing else breaks for the entire day, and we find ourselves thanking Mr Montgomery for suggesting and supplying the roll of wire that has saved the day on a few occasions already. That said, about 30m of it should have been taken as we're fresh out already.
After spending the vast majority of the day climbing in fierce heat, we're rewarded by a very long and enjoyable downhill which takes us to the start of the 'nightmare 7k' which an American cyclist had warned us about earlier in the day. It turned out to be just that - 7k long and an absolute nightmare. No sign of an office at this campsite so we pitch our tent and grab a much needed shower before heading off in search of alcohol. First stop is out of beer so they suggest we try the bar - what a fantastic, novel idea! Couple of beers, a bottle of Chilean red and the staff turn the lights out and go home to leave us in the bar. Unfortunately they appear not to have been 'born yesterday' and have locked down the good stuff, so we end up in the tent shortly after midnight. This lack of boozing has us really perplexed!
Day 18. December 25th. Camping Las Torres.
It truly is Christmas day - 0 Km on the bikes so Instead of the usual punishment of cycling we decide on the slightly different exercise of hiking. Despite the tent turning into an oven shortly after sunrise we stick it out to about 9am when we get up, shower (we decide on washing at every given opportunity as these opportunities are somewhat limited), and pack a bag to head up to the Torres viewpoint. First port of call is the hotel down the road to check up with the folks back home and, after finding all is well, we set off up the track. Progress is good and we find we're doing the track in half the time estimated although the last section is quite tricky and takes the full 45 mins suggested. We reach the final ridge and as we come over the top we're treated to a quite spectacular view of the Torres. Christmas lunch consists of rice and mixed vegetables cooked up on our stove and after a lot more photos we start our descent where we stop for a beer in the glorious sunshine. We get back to camp around 7pm to find Christian and Olga camped beside us (we had passed them coming down the trail whilst we were going up). Dinner is cooked and afterwards they join us to get stuck into the vodka - they seem quite amused by the powdered fruit drinks we're using for mixers. We polish off one bottle of vodka and, surprisingly, common sense prevails and the bottle of Eristoff survives for another day.
Col and Al
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