A SELECTION OF PICS BY DAWID ON HIS CELL



Parilla in Buenos Aires



Santiago City Square

Jazz Club Santiago

Contemplating direction

The "before" photograph, Osorno

Entrance to the National Park, near Trevelin, Argentina

PUNTA ARENAS: A TOWN WITH LOTS OF SURPRISES

Personalising your business.

Not difficult to achieve Art Photographs in Patagonia

A pub where the size of the brandy's is in direct proportion to the cold

Punta Arenas harbour

The clouds making art pictures by themselves

Bernardo O'Higgins' name is visible in a couple of places of every town in Pategonian Chile

Trimming trees into shapes; one of a number of places in the town

Taking "Small Business" to a new level

This is for Dawid, but then this is how they do it even in upmarket Santiago

Some pics of the town

DAY 8: THE FINAL STRETCH, PUERTO NATALES TO PUNTA ARENAS

Our last leg of the tour appeared to be the proverbial “walk in the park” with the road surfaced and overcast weather predicted for Punta Arenas; no rain. However, the 3-hour ride at 80 km/h was again a test to stay on the road with a 100 km/h crosswind; no respite until we hit Punta Arenas. But all went well and we arrived safely.

The landscape between the two towns varied from a karoo type vegetation with intensive sheep farming to a section of land similar to the section between Tres Lagos and El Calafate in Argentina, where the vegetation is clearly influenced by the steady icy cold winds. Nearer Punta Arenas it again became more karoo-like with trees and bush in protected areas against hills. The colour of the water in the last two lakes was, unlike the lakes at El Calafate, a very murky brown.

Punta Arenas is clearly the biggest town on our tour and has, besides a strong tourism industry, the airport which is in size probably similar to Port Elizabeth (the airport also accommodates the Chilean Air Force base) as well as a few ship building / maintenance facilities.

Our hotel (the Isla Rey Jorge hotel) over-compensated for the cold we have endured on the bikes the last few days with a heating system second to none, which made the rooms very cozy. The hotel manager and his staff were probably the most helpful on the tour and it was a great relief to be able to communicate in English again without lots of “si’s” and appropriate hand movements.

Our drop-off of the bikes went smoothly with the workshop owner, a friendly chap by the name of Allejandro responsible for servicing the Moto Aventura motorcycles in Punta Areas, sealing the deal with payment for the minor mishaps to the bikes (about which we do not want to talk).

We made our way back to the hotel with a taxi, which incidentally is as plentiful and efficient as the New York yellow cabs. Dinner at a nearby restaurant was seafood paella (only available in a dish for two but turned out to be enough for four people) with everything from crab, mussels, calamari, octopus, prawns etc. A brilliant end (gastronomically speaking) to the bike tour.

Punta Arenas water front

Dawid, ready for the last stretch

Our vehicles, not as clean as at the start

Evidence of an emergency repair

Puerto Natales, grey, windy and cold

Dawid on the Plaza Armada (City Square)

DAY 7: TORRES DEL PAINE (WE MIST OUT ON THIS ONE!)

Admin overr breakfast, Puerto Natales, Chile

Turquoise river in Torres del Paine

Island in the river, Torres del Paine reserve

Appreciating the view

Colourful natural vegetation in Torres del Paine

Waterfall in Torres del Paine reserve

Our next mission was to explore the Torres del Paine nature reserve with its landmark rock formations and we set aside the entire day 7 to do this trip of more than 300km, most of it on gravel.

We decided from the outset to dress for rain, having noted the misty, rainy weather towards the mountains where we were heading. Our BMW rain suits came out and we were ready for the worst weather.

On our way to the park we had two minor incidents, one about which I do not want to talk and the second a puncture (probably a sharp stone) by which time it was raining quite consistently. By the time the puncture was fixed everything in my tank bag was wet and my camera stopped working. The photographs of the day were all taken by Dawid. The two stoppages accounted for approximately one and a half hour lost but as it turned out we still made it back to Puerto Natales by around 6pm.

We did not see anything of the incredible scenery that we have seen on the pamphlets as the mist was heavy and the mountains totally covered with a blanket of fog. The few spots where we stopped did however provide of the most magnificent scenery imaginable. As at El Calafate, the contrast in colours from the wild flowers and natural vegetation, to the almost fluorescent turquoise of the river and the various shades of grey of the mist and the mountains provided enough reward  for the trip.

The last section of the trip was on surfaced road and made things slightly easier. By this time we were frozen having faced sub 10 Deg temperatures all day and a stiff crosswind on the way to Puerto Natales. We did not manage to locate a petrol station in the very tiny town of Cerro Castillo and arrived in Puerto Natales with about 10km left in the tank.

After a hot shower to get the blood circulating again and a power nap we set out to look for a good restaurant (we still have not come across the legendary mutton for which Patagonia is apparently known for). We randomly, on the face of the exterior, picked Restaurant Angelique. Angelique turned out to be the owner and chef, apparently supported by some family members. We went for the lamb (with rosemary) and treated ourselves on the other trademark dish of this area, King Crab. Both dishes excellent and a good reward for a hard day’s riding.

MET EISH, JA, MET EISH

Fuelling up for the day, El Calafate, Argentina

Incredible colours on the way to the Perito Moreno glacier

Dawid with a good vantage point to watch proceedings, Resrtaurant at Perito Moreno glacier

Impossible to capture the scale on a photograph, The glacier face is about 100m high

Dawid on the way back

The bright turquoise of the water is characteristing of lakes and some rivers in this region

Coffee in El Clafate

Our next day took us to the Perito Moreno glacier on the good quality surfaced road to the glacier park, an easy 60km with only a stiff breeze to the park after which we were in the mountains with pleasant 17 deg C temperature and sunny (only partly clouded weather). Perfect to witness on of the most spectacular nature sights we have seen. I estimated the height of the face to be around 30m when we got to the first lookout point from where the glacier could be seen. The reserve has a huge parking area (we found out later why) and we walked approximately 500m on a very neat steel walkway to a number of lookout points closer to the glacier. Getting as close as we could get I revised my estimate to over 100m, a spectacular scene with occasional blocks of ice breaking from the face and dropping to the water of the lake with a massive rumble. Really a spectacular scene to which no photograph can do justice. But we will post a few.

Incidentally, most hotels where we have stayed thus far have WiFi (except Chaiten, which still have to get electricity again) but we somehow have difficulty in loading pictures on the Blog. We are now reducing the size to Webpage format and hope they will be OK.

The way back to El Calafate provided the most spectacular colours with some wild karoo type flowers along the road, the dark mountains, white clouds against a blue sky and an almost fluorescent green colour of the lake (the actual colour of the water is green, not due to algae!).

Back in El Calafate we collected our panniers and BMW bags from the hotel and took on the road to Puerto Natales. To stay on surfaced roads we travelled east to a very small place called Esperanza and then south west again, all in all approximately 300km in similar windy conditions than the previous day but on tar. We kept our speeds to between 60 and 80km/h and managed to stay on the road.

We crossed the border posts back to Chile smoothly and found a basic but warm (physically) and pleasant hotel Eberhardt a welcome oasis at approximately 10pm.   

NIE VIR SISSIES NIE (DAY 5: PERITO MERINO TO EL CALAFATE)

Topping up with some extral petrol to make the distance

Pategonian wind swept landscape

Taking a breather (no pun intended) with the wind erosion on the mountain in the background

Leaving the karoo type town of Perito Merino we expected a long testing day of 340km of gravel road  and a further 160km from Trest Lagos to El Calafate. We also expected a similar type of environment: typical karoo.

But we were in for a few surprises. The landscape changed very quickly to what we got to know as Pategonia (proper). A barren landscape with vegetation not much higher than 100mm. The reason we also understood very quickly. The Austral wind blew nothing less than 100 km/h with gusts higher than that making it almost impossible to stay on the bike. Luckily a positive surprise was the first section of road (approx 60 km) from Perito, which was re-built and surfaced  against expectation. We were thrown all across the road width and to make matters very interesting, the wind came from the north west, across the road, making it necessary to lean over (as if in a corner) to stay on one of the tracks of the gravel road (for most of the balance of the 340 km).

Ruta 40 is generally in good condition (no potholes to speak of as this area obviously gets very little rain) but the loose gravel between the tracks was thick and kept us on our toes (literally) when we were blown off the wheel tracks. I had a couple of very close encounters being almost swept off the road and visited the left hand edge of the road a couple of times. Dawid, being lighter, had more effort staying on track and was on one occasion swept off the road by a gust and with sheer instinct (and a few years experience) “gunned” the GS back up the slope and onto the road again.

We refueled at Bajo Caracoles, which comprised of a little more than a hotel, shop and filling station, owned by one owner (we did not see anybody else around) and, although he did not speak a word of English, was very helpful in providing us with an empty 5l bottle, which we used for the extra 5l of fuel that we needed as insurance to make Tres Lagos. The window of the shop was covered with stickers of bike rental companies (quite a few of them by the looks of it), bearing witness that it was quite a popular route for bike tourists.

Except for a lot of construction work, for very long sections of the road, there was no evidence of any people staying in the area or of animals. We did notice a few rabbits, three lamas, three birds looking like small ostriches and a few wild horses. The varying colours of clouds (some white and some very dark against the blue sky) and the barren landscape made this a fascinating day.

At Tres Lagos the road bypassed the very small town and we only stopped at the gas station. The owner was probably the friendliest guy in Argentina and filled our tanks, assisted us in getting coffee from his vending machine and had some sandwiches ready in his fridge which was heated, all in a few minutes.

From Tres Lagos we had surfaced road to El Calafate, which made it slightly easier to stay on the road but had to keep our speed  below 80km/h. El Calafate is a very popular and busy tourist destination with many backpackers and tour groups making it a vibrant little town. There are many shops specializing in camping and hiking related merchandise and quite a few tourist operator offering tours to the Perito Moreno and Chalten glaciars.

Our stay at the upmarket B&B facility was pleasant and we finished the day with a “parilla for two” at the parilla across the road.                  

DAY 4: ARGENTINA’S KAROO (COYHAIQUE TO PERITO MERINO, ARGENTINA)

Very weary of the weather we set off to Argentina in partly cloudy conditions with the temperature around 6 Deg C. Luckily this held for the rest of the day, partly because we missed the road we intended to take for the day and entered Argentina through a different border post than planned. The route through Argentina took us through a karoo landscape which could have been Beaufort West. The gravel road was well maintained (for cars and trucks) but difficult with lots of loose gravel on the surface and which gave us the opportunity to sharpen our skills on loose gravel.  Dawid was first to experience mechanical problems with the bike but very quickly figured out that the problem was a damaged cable to the side stand switch which was damaged by a stone from the gravel road. Luckily he was able to fix this and when I was on my way back to look for him, having travelled in front, the problem was fixed and he was on his way. I had a similar scare shortly after with the machine cutting out at about 80 km/h. Luckily this did not turn out to be serious and I got started without having to work on the bike. We suspect the problem was the same and will monitor the situation when we tackle a similar stretch of road on our way south to El Calafate in Chile.

We are one day ahead of our original programme to afford us more time in the El Calafate area and in the Torres del Paine national park.