19.0 A badge of distinction and other stuff

Motorcyclists like badges. Both real ones and virtual ones - just look at the jackets they wear. In 2014 we crossed the USA from Los Angeles to New York. A lot of bikers do part of this trip on the 'legendary' Route 66 which runs from Chicago to Santa Monica. It is almost a badge of honour to be able to say that you have ridden Route 66. At the time it was our plan to do so too, but in the opposite direction. However, Jim, an American fellow biker we met whilst riding through China, said that it was really boring and he then plotted us an alternative route which turned out to be great.

Ruta 3 in Argentina has a similar but lesser status. We rode the totality of it from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia and apart from the last 120km or so, we classified it as the most boring road we have ever ridden. The alternative top to bottom road in Argentina is Ruta 40. One of the surprising things about both the 3 and the 40 is that they are both quite quiet. We haven't seen any trains either. - so is there no North South traffic? Because there isn't much traffic, there are not many coffee stops either...

Amongst bikers the Ruta 40 badge is worth even more than the Route 66 one. This is all down to three sections of the road which have remained as a gravel road despite the authorities having allocated the necessary funds to pave them. Apparently on more than one occasion. Your badge becomes even more worthy if you can say that you stood up on the bike footpegs for these sections or that you have battle wounds from being hit by a Guanaco or similar. We avoided these three sections altogether. Some people we have met have said that one of our avoidance schemes was actually harder than the Ruta 40 section we were avoiding, but we will never be able to compare.

Nonetheless some of Ruta 40 has been very scenic and we are not finished on it yet, but an awful lot of it has been downright boring. If the only alternative is the equally boring Ruta 3 it's a bit tough on South American bikers. But the badges still count. At least Paul has his virtual Paso de Libertadores badge from the other day.

Argentina had a lot of Italian immigration and the Roman influence on the roads is apparent. Straight as a die for tens of km on end and if the only scenery is scrubland, well hence our 'boring' epitaph.

But the scenic bits are indeed, scenic. And the sheer grandeur of the plains between mountain ranges are quite something. Also the quietness when you stop nowhere, in particular to take a photo of a cactus. 

One can also see for a very long way indeed. When it's hot and there is a heat haze the road has a mirage effect. And you also can see the weather from a long way away but, despite the very ominous clouds some days, we have so far avoided rain. 

We don't reaĺly know what to expect when we set off in a morning - weather or scenery wise. So far most things have been good surprises.

We occasionally stop at the side of the road when there is a decent gravel verge to pull over onto. We had always said that travelling in the opposite direction to what most people do, would  mean that we would cross people. It hadn't really happened. And then... a bike turned round whilst we were looking at cacti: an English guy who had recognised our UK number plate. Soon after what we thought was a couple of Columbians on their Triumph Tiger, until we saw that they had a Jack Russel sat between them.

The following day it was a Brazilian couple on a newer version of our Electraglide, followed by a guy from Hawaii who we met up with for dinner in the evening.

We are often thankful for Petrol Stations in Argentina. UK ones have something to learn. Yes, there is petrol and we need petrol, but most of them also have cafes. The cafes are heated or chilled as need be. The coffee is good. They have Argentinian croissants or hot empanadas and the toilet facilities are usually immaculate. And they take cards which was a godsend when we had no cash. The other night we ate at one as nothing else seemed to be open and we amused ourselves wondering whether the vehicles filling up would pass an MoT control in the UK. Yes you have the old Ford and Chevrolet pickups but Renault 12s and Peugeot 504s are still going strong here too. Most mopeds seem to carry more than two people (no helmets of course) and front and rear lights are clearly an option most people don't buy into. Same with the old cars. 

Talking of petrol, it doubled in price here on Monday on the new President's first day. It's still cheap for us, but we wonder what would have happened in the UK if Rishi had done the same?  The official exchange rate changed too. Instead of 375 pesos to the US$ it's now 800. This will have put all the money changers out of business if we understand the implications correctly. What we can't fathom out is how it is going to impact us and the hotels we have booked for Christmas? Annual inflation on household necessities is currently at 171% and rent annual inflation at 300% if we understood the banner headlines on the TV at the petrol station. There are long queues outside ATMs as people are restricted in how much they can withdraw. Whereas supermarkets do have goods priced, other shops don't as everything changes daily. 

We still see bicycles. Not many but every single one of them has our deep admiration. We can't imagine them riding 200kms in a day and sometimes 200kms will be too short a distance. Although they don't need petrol they still need fuel. They need to carry the necessary food and water to cover for there being no petrol station stops. In Patagonia it would have been impossible to put up a tent in those winds, let alone hold it down if you did manage it. And it's not as though there were any trees or bushes to hide behind. And then the mountain passes and hills and the boring monotony of the straight roads. Another breed.

One last bit of cultural trivia - dogs. A large proportion of dogs here in Argentina are street dogs. They are clearly fed by someone and there is not a large amount of dog mess about. They have a certain road sense as they cross the road between oncoming cars and otherwise lie around in the shade or sun as it pleases them. We haven't come across one yet that has been aggressive. It was something we were quite concerned about and maybe we will have been right to have been concerned as we move farther North into other countries, but for the time being a dog's life seems to be a pretty good one here.

We are now in Salta which is at the very Northern end of Argentina and we will be leaving Argentina after Christmas.  The plan is that we spend a few more days in (expensive) Chile and then cross into Peru. Uruguay, Argentina and Chile have not been that different to Europe in a lot of respects. We will see about Peru in a couple of weeks.

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.

8.0 Heading towards the end of the world

Riding South from Trelew has certainly felt like we would be getting to the end of something. We could easily become flat earth-ists. We might fall off something, preferably not the bike. Most of the roads are monotonous straight lines. 

One thing that it is important to say is that Francoise takes all the photos. And she can only take photos when she can take photos. Sometimes it is impossible to take pictures either due to the wind, the rain or the road conditions. Sometimes we might say things are tough, but it is not possible to reflect that in the pictures. That's because it was simply too difficult to take photos.

Clearly Argentinian road sign makers have to be given a job as even a 5 degree change in direction is worthy of a 'bend in the road' sign. Equally a small ascent deserves a sign, but the sign is usually halfway up the hill anyway. But there must be demarcation between different sign makers as there really aren't that many giving directions. Yes, we are noticing these details as there is nothing else to look at.

There are no trees. It is an arrid scrubland. The soil seems very sandy and not much grows. What has happened though is the winds. We thought that the West Side of Patagonia was going to be the big issue; it might well still be the case, but we are getting a fair dose on the East side. Petrol is also a major issue in as much as you have to plan in function. To paraphrase a Billy Connolly joke, never waste a petrol station.

Trelew to Comodoro Rivadavia was just short of 380km and all that was between the two was one functioning petrol station and two abandoned ones. Not a town, village, hamlet or house. Not a tree. But lots of wind. Temperatures, even without the wind chill effect are well below seasonal averages here, yet a couple of days ago we were sat on the beach in the sun! Having adopted a layer approach for our clothes we are currently wearing most of them. Francoise at this stage is definitely auditioning for Star Wars.

The roads are in good condition. There are occasional pot holes but you can see them coming. The roads are single carriageway in each direction but when the wind blows as it does constantly, a 3m width of carriageway between oncoming traffic and a gravel verge doesn't seem enough.

However as there is not much traffic it is highly unlikely that when we are blown over onto the opposing carriageway that there will be anything there. Without the wind these would be 85mph roads, but most days we are struggling to get to 50 for long periods due to the wind. And the 50mph feels like a 100mph! Neck, arm and thigh muscles getting stronger by the day. All this about lightly holding onto the handlebars to guide the bike , well sometimes it's more like hanging on for grim death. The surprising thing is that with all this wind there are so few wind farms. They could power the whole of South America from Patagonia, but instead it's still oil and we have seen the nodding donkeys in operation in Comodoro Rivadavia and south of there.

We stopped at a small insignificant place called Puerto San Julian only to find that this was where Magallanes landed when looking for a westward route from Spain to the East Indies in 1520. Magallanes of Magellan penguin and Straits fame. And then Sir Francis Drake a few years later. And then Charles Darwin a couple of centuries or so after. And then Antoine de Saint-Exupery who seems to have had something to do with founding Argentinian Airmail. Not a bad roll-call really.

We crossed the Magellan straits on a ferry in very rough sea. The sort of sea which would cause massive delays on the Dover-Calais route. It was an open ferry a bit like the Woolwich but with very high sides. No question about lashing down the bike but we stayed by it the whole (20 minute) crossing. The ferry is in Chile, but we had to cross back over into Argentina after we had landed. So the day consisted of two border crossings, a ferry and 400km. With winds described as strong by the BBC and quite a lot of rain with the actual temperature dropping to 4°C. Francoise was wearing seven layers today. 

We had had quite heavy rain for over an hour and when Paul parked the bike on its side stand, there was a constant stream of water from beneath the radiator and a lot of steam from behind it. PANIC! But the cooling system temperature gauge did not indicate any increase in temperature and there was no explosion of the engine. It must have been rainwater building up in some pocket around the engine and tipping out when we put the bike on its side stand.

Tomorrow is Sunday and Presidential Election day here in Argentina. So we weren't allowed to have a glass of wine with our meal. Or any other alcoholic beverage. It's the law.

Onwards to the end of the world...