Escape from Santiago airport and avoiding the prison
Our flight to Santiago was pretty painless and it was the middle of the day when we arrived so we reconstructed our bicis and following the map of a helpful airport worker we headed out into much hotter than unexpected Chile (prob early 30’s). Escaping the airport confines was not easy and not wanting to […]
South America – Part 2..
Well it has been just over a year since our Patagonian journey and in two weeks we will be winging our way back to Santiago, Chile, for another 3 months exploring. What will be the same? same team – Alan, Jo and our old trek bikes same length of time – just under 3 months […]
A bucket list trip
Our friend Paul unexpectadly found himself cycling down the length of Chiles Caraterra Austral and recommended it as a bucket list trip. Years later I remembered his suggestion and after a neat journey around Samoa by bike, Alan and I decided to go for a longer journey on two wheels. We had three months and […]
Sabotage on the High Seas
We have had an adventurous last few days in these cool parts aboard the Persimmon, a 40ft yacht built and skippered by Captain Ian of Aussie origin. We had a 3 day charter for very good rates east up the Beagle Channel. The northern side of the channel is Argentina and the southern side is […]
Ushuaia and almost the end of the (very busy) road
Leaving the bakery was hard but better for the arteries than staying. We camped at the quirky Hains campground by Tolhuin’s Lago Fagnan enjoying the fresh air and a fire (wood was provided for a welcome change). Most campgrounds provide barbeque pits for people and it is what Argentinians do best – the bar-b-que. NZers […]
A dream come true..
Welcome to the Panaderia La Union, Tolhuin, 100km from our last stop. We have finally left the pampas behind and have beech forest and mountain relief. We arrived in town and were dragged off the sideroad, shown the small room with mattresses, then through the back entry of the bakery and given cardboard plates to […]
First Aid and Fast Riding
T`was a cold tail wind that pushed us eastwards out of Porvenir on our last section of ripio. We decided to take the high summer road instead of the coast road for the initial 50km. First mishap was Alan’s derailliour (sp) almost taking out some spokes (our worst nightmare) then then my partially fractured carrier […]
Isla Tierra del Fuego – Island of land of fire
When early explorers sighted the island at the bottom of South America they saw the beaches lined with fires. The aboriginal indians did not wear much clothing so kept the home fires burning for obvious reasons! It is cold down here. Thus it was named Tierra del Fuego. We had a 2hr sail to Tierra […]
Fin de la mas austral camina en S.A and Irish Jo
The finish of the most southern road on the South American continent..and catching up with Irish Jo. Our wind/weather website was predicting 80km/hr, gusting to 108km/hr westerlies on thursday and a perfect day on Friday – so thursday we headed south on a tip from some 4WD travellers. The website is pretty accurate and we got […]
Punta Arenas – Fish and chip capital city of Patagonia
Sadly the weather forecast was not conducive to trekking in Torres del Paine unless we waited for 4-5 days which we were not really keen on doing. The winds have been up to 120km/hr in the park, with rain and snow to quite low levels. We figured we did so well in the Fitz Roy […]
Flight of the Condors – return of the winds
For a condor the weather has finally turned and the windy skies the limit – for the cyclist each road direction change is anticipated and the difference between tail wind speeds and head wind speeds is many-fold (i.e. 30km/hr with little effort with the wind on your back, 10km/hr digging deep with the wind on […]
Pampas and wind
Our nine fantastic days in El Chalten came to an end as did the amazing weather we had been having. The mountains were dramatic as we sped away from the town following the northern edge of Lago Viedma, not too disimilar to a big version of riding away from Mt Cook village leaving a Nor´west […]
Pass of the Wind
We were very keen to see the view over the Southern Patagonian Icecap so hoped the weather would hold for a few more days. We had also hoped for a rest day but the forecast was for 2 more good days before things deteriorated in a big way so we just had the one night […]
Mounting the Chicken..
Our first foray into the park started after dinner on our second day in Chalten. We only had an hr to walk to get to Lago Capri which is one of the smaller but more spectacular park campsites. We had to hire one pack and with Alan’s superior packing skills we squeezed all into/onto our […]
Fitz Roy dominates the landscape
Arriving at Lago Desiertes from the single track we have to officially enter Argentina at the border post. The lake runs north/south and at the end of it is Fitz Roy. Our tent is on the lake shore facing south. We spend an extra day in the area taking a (long) hike up to a […]
Hasta Luego Chile, Bienvenidos Argentina
After a beautiful sunrise we packed and woke the border staff up to officially leave Chile as we wanted to start riding early. The first 6km were a mix of push up steep loose gravel and rideable 4wd. Then there are 12 km of very nice dirt track to the official international border Then there […]
Tourists for the day..
From Villa O’Higgens it was time for another ferry crossing (far from free this time) over to our check out of Chile. On the ride to the ferry a carrier screw sheared apart putting some pressure on to tie it together for the third time! Because the weather was so good we did the add […]
The photos just don’t do it justice
From our bush camp we climbed steadily up to a saddle above Puerto Yungay. It was one of those climbs that cyclists tell you about but are more enjoyable than forewarned. We had a buzzy ride – the loads light enough and us fit enough to be able to enjoy the up and the down. […]
A town on stilts..
The Rio Baker is very large by the time it meets the sea at Carleta Tortel, a most unusual seaside town completely constructed on stilts with boardwalks joining every building and the 3 ´suburbs´. Vehicles are left at the top of the town and access around town is just by foot or boat around the […]
Just like cycling the Milford
In our last rest over town of Cochrane I enjoyed some domestic bliss of raspberry jam making, relish making (doesn´t seem to exist in Chile or Argentina), bike pogie making (over gloves to wear on the bike which allow me to be wearing bike gloves underneath and cut the wind) and we managed to fill […]
Made it to El Chalten, home of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre
We are thru the most remote part of our trip and back in Argentina. We are in the town of El Chaiten – quite a new tourist town under the impressive towers of Mt Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre – famous granite spires on the edge of the southern Patagonian ice shelf. I was hoping […]
End of Route 7
Just a quick update as it is too hot to spend much time on this hostel computer. Will do a full update when we get to Chaiten in a few days time. Have had an incredible few days since last post – weather Gods have been good and we are seeing Patagonia under mostly blue […]
El Rio Baker Grande (the huge river Baker) and dam politics
Just a short 50km to Cochrane, we think, be there by lunchtime – yeah right.. Today we followed the river Baker from it’s birth in Lago Betrand. Until the major confluence with the milky drainage of the Nef Glacier, the Baker is a royal blue. We walked down to the amazing confluence – a huge […]
Waiting for the third..
After restful wet rest day we mount our trusty steads for the journey around Lago General Carrera. We were warned that it was a hilly day. Over the 70 odd km we had 1200m of climbing and descending and an overall zero height gain – i.e up 300 down 300, up 400 down 400 etc!. […]
´the most evil ripio ever’ so we were told..
An easterly is a rarity here and we enjoyed it´s light push westward. Back on the ripio again, no tarseal till we head back to Argentina from the end of the Carraterra Austral. Some road works out of town saw us pushing our bikes – luckily for us it was not a long stretch. We […]
South from Coihaique
After a busy rest day in C. we woke to a calm and blue dome day. Our departure from town was slowed by waiting for the empanada shop to open but being told the empanadas not ready till 10am. They are good but not worth waiting 2 hours for! Consoled ourselves with a cafe stop […]
Into Coihaique, largest town on Route 7
From Pesca con Mosca camp we had a lovely cruisy day (mostly down) to the town of Manuales. The rocky peaks and faces on route to Villa Manuales were stunning. Campsite wasn´t anything to write home about, and there seemed to be more dogs than people (and all night bark offs) but the flies were fewer […]
From Ocean back to Mountains
After MASSIVE feed of fish and chips in seaside town on Puyuhaupi we carried on to a Parks campsite. The bonus here was a mini Fox Glacier experience that we chanced on. After setting up camp we took the path to the view and had a great walk to a view point of the glacier […]
Ruta 7, 1000km and 6 degrees
It is another tough day on the gravel but progress is being made. We have joined Route 7, the Careterra Austral highway heading south, clocked our first 1000km and covered 6 degrees of latitude. We are about 45 degrees south now. From our lake camp we climb up a steep saddle and then sidle onto […]
Following the Futalefu
After a relaxing Boxing Day in Futalefu we head down river. The Futalefu river takes it`s own route thru steep gorges and we wind our way on varying grades of gravel travel. Some good, some not so. Spectacular country and little traffic. When we meet the river we are impressed with how large volume it […]
Back into Chile & getting on top of bottom issues!
Yes, issues of the rear end. Alan has had no problems but I am still getting it sorted. Luckily because we are not doing mega long days and having rest days I am able to keep on top of it – figuratively! I have gone from my mega padded shorts to my less padded shorts […]
Park National Los Alerces
From cold, wind and fresh snow on the hills to blue dome days and no wind and very hot afternoons. We left our sweet refuge from the weather at Lago Elpuyen and followed open and sealled roads to a small town called Cholila at the start of the national park and the gravel travel. We […]
Feliz Navidad
Wishing you all a great Xmas and time with family and friends. We are in small town, just east of the Chile/Argentine border. Have had a couple of long days of ripio (gravel road) travel and some more awesome vistas. Weather is amazing again. Going out for dinner tonite (xmas eve) and Xmas day will […]
Frozen toes and first rainy day
We just passed thru Bariloche, and found great lake campsite for the night. Big day following of over 100km made hard by some cold wet weather. We were back up at 1100m and it was cold. Fresh snow on the hills even. Our tea and empanada stop was welcomed and the kind owner even turned […]
Chocolates and Skiing
Baraloche – ski resort of southern Argentina and producer of chocolates and ice-cream. Due to wind and not wanting to stay in the big town of Baraloche we stopped 10km short and camped by the lake. The wind was honking down the lake (norwest type conditions) so we spent the afternoon sheltered in pines reading. […]
Volcanic Ash first-hand
In June a nearby volcano (40km due west) errupted and this area due east of the mountain is still feeling the effects when the winds blow from the west. We woke to a sky obscured by a thin ash cloud. As we headed north, then east and down valley we found ourselves cycling in a […]
Rute de Siete Lagos Y Moscas
(Route of the 7 Lakes and Flies) We head inland along the Ruta de Siete Lagos – a couple days of cycling with 40 kms of it not yet finished but a good unsealed road. Our first stop was near a tourist mecca and we camped out of town by gorgeous beach – very busy […]
Bienvenido a Argentina (welcome to …)
We are now in Argentina for a couple of weeks. We left Pucon on a blue bird day and cycled to the last small village before steep climb to 1200m pass. We left the volcanic cone of Villareca and up a valley not dissimilar to Murchison. We camped on the outskirts of town in an […]
Ipod for bananas
We left House Santiago by biciclettas to our 11pm bus ride as the taxi option was too difficult to organise. My first turn out onto the street was onto the wrong side of the road – wondering why a car was coming towards me in my lane – luckily just a quiet side street! The […]
On the ground in Santiago
Flights weren’t the most confortable but we enjoyed some lofty mountain summit views:Aspiring,Taranaki, the Patagonian ice fields and a bonus view of Acocagua. Only 2 nights in Santiago and we are off tonight to Villarica. We had a great walking tour of Santiago today. Getting into the groove of having to hablar Espanol. My first […]
One more sleep..
A mad week getting the work under control but almost there. NZ summer has kicked in this week so hopefully we get as nice a one in Chile. Paniers are packed and we are looking pretty good with about 12 kg total luggage each going on our bikes. Should be well under the 23kg airport […]
Shake Down to Mavora Lakes
We had to wait for a 3 day spell of weather to fit this in before we left. Yes we wanted to test our gear but not our raincoats and no we didn’t need to prove that we were tough and leave from Wanaka. More civilised we chose Wye Creek to be the start and […]
Training on the Carrick Town loop
Fine days are a treat this spring so we took advantage of a mid-week fine weather windown and cycled the Carrick town look above Bannockburn. Big hill climb, fantastic views to the still snow covered Remarkables and a GREAT LONG fun downhill. (+) Click on first thumbnail below for gallery slideshow