13.0 Perito Moreno Glacier

After Torres de Paine our next planned stop was to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. We were doing this from the Argentinian town of El Calafate - the Glacier being in Argentina it made sense. So we had to cross back from Chile to Argentina. This was our fourth Argentina/Chile crossing and it is all very civilised and straight forward, though there can be queues if a bus gets in before you. We also had snow flurries at the border crossing and the useful Harley warning light telling us that it was Low Temperature; as if we hadn't already noticed.

El Calafate is on Lago Argentino which is a very big lake indeed and with a lovely turquoise blue colour. We were being hit by the winds again on the way in. It was a bit too difficult to stop to take photos and too windy too to take photos on the move.

The Glacier was spectacular and we were very glad to have visited and to have taken the boat trip. At its highest, as the Glacier hits the lake, it rises to nearly 70m above the lake surface and extends 120m below. Apparently it has just started receding having remained in a stable state from when records began (1917) to 2020. Not only was there the boat trip but also plenty of walkways which served both to protect the landscape and also give excellent views of the Glacier - all very well thought out to deal with 500,000 annual tourists. El Calafate is all about the Glacier. It is supposed to be approaching the high season yet our hotel was almost empty. Perhaps it's just the hotels we choose...

12. Torres del Paine

A day off the bike whilst we stay in Puerto Natales.

The trip around the Torres del Paine National Park is probably one of the great motorcycle roads, but we are simply not up to the off-road combined with both the distance and the wind. The wind was up again, gusting to over 50mph - but we were now tourists in a minivan and just as Francoise's photos don't really give the true picture of how difficult a road can be, they don't give you the wind either. But we suspect that she will get some practice at this.

We were lucky to have a clear sky in the morning - it just wouldn't have been the same in cloud. We also had condors and were told there were three pumas in the distance but our eyes coupled with the zoom on Francoise's camera were not really up to it. Picture borrowed from our Guide, Filippe and even his arms length zoom is not that clear. There is a very pixilated animal shape with a tail lying in the shadow of a wall when you zoom in on the big screen.

Very special day for our one month away anniversary on this trip, another seven to go!

And now for some photos - and we really weren't expecting the iceberg!

11.0 Chilly

Or was it Chile?

It was damp leaving Rio Grande. It sounds as though it is a rather nicer place than it actually is. Probably best to say that we stopped there because we had to. As we mentioned before Ushuaia is a one road in, same road out sort of place and from the ferry it's 450km and it's not as though there is anywhere to stay either side of the ferry. That's why we stayed in Rio Grande. It gave us 425km to do in the day including crossing the border on Tierra del Fuego from Argentina to Chile and then the ferry crossing. A relatively long day.

The dampness continued to the border. After the border the winds picked up and there was a good 170km to do until the ferry. The winds were by far the strongest that we had encountered to date. It was quite scary when HGVs passed and also difficult to overtake them. 

The ferry has no strict timetable. You turn up and you either wait or drive on. Paul drove on. Francoise walked on over the vehicle access as that's what motorcycle pillions have to do, as otherwise it's probably too dangerous and she was being chivvied along as they wanted to bring the drawbridge up!

Passengers are free on the ferry and the motorbike costs £8 one way. It's the only cheap thing in Chile, but more of that in another post. When paying we asked the man about the current wind speed and he told us it was 70km/h - probably the gust rather than the constant speed.

It wasn't easy to get off the ferry because of the wind. It also wasn't easy for Francoise either to get on the bike or for us to set off because of the crosswind. Later on that day, we heard that the ferry stopped temporarily as the wind speed had gone above 80km/h. We were riding at the time. It wasn't that it was scary. It was downright frightening. This was certainly more than we had bargained for. If there had been anywhere to stop en route to Punta Arenas, we would have stopped and just binned that night's hostel accommodation. But there wasn't anywhere so we had to continue. It was a long ride. 

What we found most difficult was when we got to Punta Arenas and had to travel at slow speeds and stop at traffic lights and then move off again. Before checking in at the hostel, we went to a motorbike shop - that served coffee and cake, La Guarida, run by Salvador and his family. Salvador was so helpful in many ways and was also able to provide us with an extra fuel bladder as the one Paul brought with us is probably not going to be enough. And also some little non colour coordinated bags to put at the front of the bike and help redistribute the weight a bit.

When we checked in at the hostel they told us that the wind had been gusting up to 100km/h that afternoon. Who knows whether it was true or not. BBC weather said 56mph which is not far off. We don't want to be doing this again, so will be watching the wind forecast from now on but it is not really detailed enough to cover the small places on our route.

The following day, Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales was calmer but without the previous day's experience we would have classified it as 'very windy'.

Not many photos for obvious reasons.

10.0 Riding out of Ushuaia

Just a short post to signify a change in direction - we are now heading North, generally. This is effectively the start - it just took us 4,200km through Uruguay, Argentina and a bit of Chile to get here.

We are also posting this because the first 100km today were, believe it or not, nice! There was no rain, hail, sleet or snow. The wind levels dropped a little and the temperature didn't drop below 8°C. There were trees and some scenery and Francoise was able to take some photos from the bike without fear of losing the camera.

Then the winds set in again and we lost the scenery. It's a one road in, one road out place, so we have been here before and know what to expect tomorrow. 

But in the meantime, here are some photos from today.

9.0 Ushuaia

We are now in Ushuaia and we like it quite a lot. There are trees here. There is scenery here. We even managed to get some vegetable soup for lunch which was a massive treat.

Getting here was, however, not as easy or straightforward as we had envisaged. We had only 210km from Rio Grande (probably not the same one as featured in ABBA's 'Fernando') to ride to get here so we had a late breakfast and although very windy, what's new, there was some blue sky and sun which made a welcome change from the previous day.

Ushuaia is a one road in one road out town and, depending on where you start counting, it's a long road. But we only had 200km to do of it so all was well. It started getting very cold. Francoise was already maxed out with 8 layers, merino base layer, merino t-shirt, two technical sweatshirts, down jacket, anorak, motorcycle jacket and windproof jacket. The bike had helpfully given us a red warning light telling us that the temperature was low at 2°C - we weren't sure what we were meant to do with this piece of advice/warning?

We didn't need petrol but we were so cold after 100k that we stopped at one for coffee, run our hands under the hot water tap in the toilets and generally warmed up a bit. The cafe was quite busy but it got to the time when one way or another we had to do the last 100km, so we put all our gear back on and wished a group of 3 other bikers 'bonne route'. And they asked which direction we were heading - only two possible answers but when we said Ushuaia they shook, their heads and said, 'No'. They then told us that the road was blocked with snow and the police were only letting cars through with snow chains. IN SPRING ! They showed us the video and it was grim.

Lots of things then started happening which ended up with Luis and Pablo deciding that we were going to put the bike on the back of their Toyota pickup and they would drive us through the snow. This, despite Paul saying that the bike was too big. And that is exactly what happened. The photos tell the story with the back wheel of the bike sitting on the hinged drop-down bit of the pickup. The kindness of the guys to two complete strangers was unbelievable. Totally unbelievable. Every time this happens we ask ourselves the same question, 'woukd it be the same chez nous?'

By the time we got to the pass where there had been the snowstorm the snowploughs had cleared most of the snow and we reckon we would have got through in the wheel tracks of other vehicles. But - Francoise was quite happy in her eight layers inside a warm car with the heater on and we saved petrol! Luis and Pablo thought it very important that we ride into Ushuaia so they found an unloading point - the pictures tell the story - and we rode the last 10km into Ushuaia.

Now that we are here we rode and walked part of the way up to a Glacier in the Tierra del Fuego National Park and had wonderful views over the Beagle Channel and we also rode to the end of the road... and didn't fall off anything.