Exactly one month after we came back home again our local newspaper the Tubantia posted a nice article about our cycling trip.
We searched for contact with the Tubantia when we where still in Ushuaia. Reporter Hans Brok replied instantly and just a few days after our return in Holland he took his interview in our apartment, which was still full of unloaded moving boxes by that time.
We organise a cosy AirBnB address to stay with.
The week flies by fast. We take a lot of rest, we organise bike boxes to transport the bicycles in the airplane and we discover Ushuaia. Kim also updated her portfolio since she has to find a new job back home.
Around town there are some pretty spots to discover but we don’t visit the National Parks or Glaciers around Ushuaia. I think we have seen enough of Patagonia and besides, the place is also very touristic and therefore expensive. Why pay a lot of money for something we have seen already many times for free?
The flight back to Holland did start full of stress because Arjan had to cut off a pedal from his bicycle at the airport. The rest of the trip home goes smooth.
Some statistics from the last 1,5 year:
– In total we cycled 22.323 km.
– Our trip was 566 days of which we have cycled 337 days.
– We did spend 1.438 hours in the saddle.
– Our average speed was 15,52 km p/hour.
– Our average day distance was 66,24 km p/day
– Elevation gain 147.278 meters. (We cycled 16,64 times up the Mount Everest)
– Elevation loss 150.148 meters. (We downhilled 16,97 times Mount Everest)
– With the two of us we just had 29 flat tires.
Collecting boxes all through Ushuaia
Maybe going by car is a good idea, maybe not?
Street art in downtown Ushuaia.
An Irish pubs in South America usually doesn’t serve Irish beers like Guinness but this one in Ushuaia does serve pretty good Irish dishes. (But no Irish beers)
It’s a touristic town.
Preparing to go back to Holland.
View from out of our bed.
Just some pictures from around town.
The harbour from where you can cruise to Antartica.
Bad Ass backpacker car.
On our way to the airport.
Getting off one of the paddles was a big problem at the airport. Arjan ended up shewing it off to fit the bike in the box.
Bye bye Ushuaia 🙁 Maybe see you next time…
Patagonian mountains underneath us.
Flying above the Atlantic Ocean. The sun goes down, time for a nap.
Can’t sleep at night.
Next morning. Sunrise above Italy.
@ Rome Airport.
Being a celebrity for 2 seconds 😀
Taking off again.
Rome – Amsterdam | We are nearly back in our home country we left for more then 1,5 year ago.
Swiss Alps.
??HOLLAND!!!??
After traveling for more then 26 hours we finally arrive at Schiphol Airport.
Missed my love. Reunited again?
Flowers, tears and happy smiles. “Welcome back”
Finally good coffee again.
Even 92 year old grandma was there to pick us up.
Our steel horses do need some build up again.
Tada, we are specialised in building up bikes after 1,5 year on the road.
But this paddle does need some more time to fix.
After two days in an empty apartment back home we bring back in a lot of our stuff. Moving boxes everywhere.
“What did you miss?” is a question we hear a lot. Patatje Waterfiets is one of the answers.
Discovering Almelo again. Our home town.
A quote from our local comedian Herman Finkers about cycling is new in town we discover. A good quote to move on from the point we are in our lives at this moment. Tnx Herman.
By bike
Sometimes,
When I’m on the bicycle
cycling,
then I sometimes think
nothing is wrong with me.But when I think
Then I think:Don’t think too much if you can
because you have to go even further.Herman Finkers
After we finished the Carretera Austral in Chile we took a ferry to Puerto Natales. (Still in Chile) In the Puerto Natales area we did the Torres del Paine hike. Stories and pictures can be found in a previous blog.
From Puerto Natales we are going to cycle the last part of our trip. Tierra del Fuego, Land of fire. It's a very empty part of the world, a bit like Alaska where we started this trip but also a lot different at many points.
We meet the notorious extreme hard winds, empty pampas and extraordinary wildlife. We try to camp as far as the wind or shelters make it possible.
At the Chile-Argentina border they discover incorrect stamps in our passports but they also give us food for on the road.
In the last kilometers of our trip we eat loads of empenadas, we ignore fences and we skinny dip in one of the most southern lakes of the world. Brrrrr.....
Have fun reading.
Together with Jacinta and Frank from @Spinningsouth we are leaving the ferry, coming from the Carretera Austral at the town of Tortel.
We stay in a hostel with camp opportunities in Puerto Natales. A bit crowded but ok.
Our Japanese friend Yasuhiro. He started his cycling trip in Canada, cycled to Ushuaia and from here he will fly to Spain, cycle through Europe followed by Africa. From there he will cycle back to Japan in the coming years.
Also some Belgian overlanders in the hostel. Traveling by 4x4 from Suriname to Ushuaia and back to Suriname.
Doing some last groceries before leaving town again and head for Tierra del Fuego.
Fortunate we are in good hands 🙂
By bear.
A last glance at Puerto Natales.
Ruta del Fin del Mundo | The road to the end of the world.
Empty.
Camp along the empty road at night.
We have heavy tail winds and fly to Ushuaia. (but for how long?)
Small huts along the road to wait for busses. We use them for having lunch, away from the harsh winds.
Flamingos, just along the highway. We stop to take some pictures.
!!.Danger Minefields.!! The sheep are still alive so maybe we can camp in the same fields as well? Nobody will disturb us I guess 😀
No, just kidding. We didn't camp in the minefields.
We camp at a small hut. We didn't sleep in it but it was good for cooking away from the wind.
Nice spot.
The next day some ostrich run with us.
They are faster then we are.
Puento what?
In Punta Arenas we have to take a ferry to Porvenir. We have to wait till the next day because there is just one ferry a day going. We camp straight behind the ferry office and catch the ferry the next morning early.
Ferry is there.
Porvenir
The do some last groceries in Porvenir and leave it behind us. The next five days there will be no town or shops at all so we had to buckle up enough food.
Tierra del Fuego is really empty.
But also beautiful.
It was hard to find a camp spot away from the hard wind. This is the second place where we tried to put up our tent. At the first spot the wind was still too hard to put up our tent. One of the tent poles is still bend from this try 🙁
One of the reasons we took this remote and empty road is because we wanted to visit a national park with King Penguins. Now just 50km ahead.
Yeah we made it to the penguins.
The King Penguins: Adults are 1,2m high, babies 95cm. This colony counts 300 till 400 penguins. The day we where here they counted 60 of them.
Check the big babies on the right side 🙂
No head?
From a safe distance we could observe them from inside a shelter.
The observing shelter.
Close to the national park filled with penguins there is a free brand new shelter specially for tourists to sleep in, away from the wind and bad weather.
Small but very ok.
Eat down, sleep in the top where is enough space for two mattresses.
We leave again the next morning.
With, again, a lot of animals along the way.
Wild horses. The look fenced but they do jump over it easily.
Red eyed birds.
We keep following the coastline.
It doesn't look like it but very though wind here. A distance from about 30km did took us 4 hours.
At night we camp in a (too) small shelter. But we had too. The wind was to strong to camp outside the shelter.
Hard wind is freezing cold.
At this part we have tail wind. So hard we were cycling 35km an hour on these gravel roads easily. That's the fun part about a hard wind.
But soon it started snowing.
Trange weather. 10 min after the snow the sun comes out again. They often say. 'In Tierra del Fuego you can have four seasons in one day.'
At an old church we have lunch.
The last few kilometers before the border to Argentina at Paso Bella Vista.
Border is coming up. It still seems very empty.
Haha, this is all. Just a few cabins for the guys in in the office. The last cabin in the row is the office where we had to get our passports stamped.
We are through. It took a while. When we entered Chile they did give us the wrong entry stamps. We also missed an important paper which we didn't get when we entered Chile. After a discussion with the nice officer he corrected it all and stamped us out of Chile.
After a kilometer we ride into the Argentina border office. Also there a funny story; You are not allowed to bring in fresh foods as meat, cheese and vegetables. But at this crossing they didn't check out our bags at all. The opposite happened, they had just prepared fresh meat and bread for themselves and asked us if we wanted some of it as well? "Welcome in Argentina" they said "When you cycle you have to eat a lot"
Hi Argentina. First time Ushuaia is at the signpost. Ushuaia, the very end of our trip. We are discussing this town for more than 1,5 year already. "What if we reach Ushuaia?"
The empty pampas of Tierra del Fuego.
Through the iOverlander app we find this red sheep shelter for the night.
We put our tent underneath it and it starts snowing straight away.
Away from the wind and snow.
The next morning, sun again.
More pampas road to the town of Rio Grande.
After leaving Rio Grande (sorry no pictures) At some point the road stops. We had to drag our stuff over a fence and cycle over private grounds but no one did care. At a certain moment even a guy was pointing us the correct directions.
And more fences to go over. In a distance a police post but they didn't see us or maybe they didn't wanted to see us.
The sign says 'Closed for all traffic' From here on we are fine again. Highway 3 leads all the way to Ushuaia.
We start counting down. Ushuaia 198km.
181km
160km.
We expected a busy road but it was not.
Heavy rain at the horizon. We hope it stays there.
151km.
For the night we find a nice spot between old with moss overgrown trees.
Ushuaia 141km.
Panaderia (Bakery) La Union. One of the most famous Casa de Ciclistas in South America. They should also have the best empanadas of South America we have been told.
131km.
Still counting down. 121km.
111km.
In a far distance we see snowy mountains again. This stretch from Rio Grande to Tolhuin where the Casa de Ciclista is is just a very boring road. We hope around Ushuaia it will be better otherwise it will be an anticlimax after seen so much awesome landscapes.
La Union bakery & casa de ciclista.
Young dog around.
Ordering more empanadas before we take off after two nights staying here.
Bye bye La Union and many thanks!!!!!
Just 104km to Ushuaia.
Yes, more mountains in the distance.
95km.
Lunch along a big lake.
87km.
Woooh... nearly there.
82km.
78km. Check the burned forrest.
72km. How many signs can you put along a road without side roads?
66km.
62km. A sign every 4km?
We leave the big lake behind us and start cycling along a smaller mountain lake.
Tierra del Fuego Ruta 3.
Along this smaller lake there are should be some abandoned cabins we had heard. Most of them fall apart but one of them should still be okay to spend the night in.
Found it.
Inside the cabin we find Jo from England. She started her cycling trip going north this morning.
Apart from the decayed cabins this place is really awesome so we decide to stay two nights straight away. We have a lot of time left before we have to catch our plane back home so why not staying in a nice place instead of staying in 'just another' city?
We exchanged a lot of tips and tricks for cycling South America in the night and we all did sleep well. Jo at her first night in the wild, we at one of our last ones. Jo packs up again and leaves for many more adventures. We wish her loads of fun and many tailwind.
It turns out a sunny day. We discover the area.
A lot of broken down cabins. The hard wind blows them apart.
There is also an old hostel/hotel. Also abandoned and falling apart.
Once this was a very nice place.
Back in our cabin we do tea and lunch.
Arjan still in his sleeping pants 😀
Drying our tent.
Not to bad at all this place.
Skinny dipping in one of the most southern lakes in the world.
Freezing cold. 10'C brrrrr....
Leaving a personal sign at one of the walls.
"Where are you to go cycle next?"
Chilling and reading a good book.
The next morning we take of for the very last day to Ushuaia. It's just 51km with one last mountain pass the go over.
We take an off road shortcut to the mountain pass.
Pretty steep. Pushing up.
But the views are worth it.
Still some snow close to the top.
Kims bike.
The winding road we came up. In the deep the lake we camped along the last two nights.
At the look out point a touristic viewing point is build.
Ciao... we go downhill from here.
The views are getting even better. No anticlimax 😀
Ushuaia 30km.
Tom from London. He on his first day cycling to Deadhorse, Alaska, we on our last day coming from that same Deadhorse. We overload him with tips and tricks as well we did with Jo in the cabin along the lake. We are kind of jealous about him. Not because we want to cycle back to Alaska now but because we know the great feeling of having 1,5 year of open road in advance, filled up with adventure.
YES, we made it!!!. We survived!!! Last but not least Ushuaia.
Celebration with cake and a good local APA beer called Cape Horn. How appropriate.
An old boat rusting away. Just there for a nice Kodak moment.
Finally "Fin del Mundo" End of the World.
End of the World but not the very last end of our trip. We are not back home yet. At the moment we are discovering Ushuaia, we have to organize bicycle boxes and we will count out some statistics about kilometers, flat tires and that kind of things.
So we can say "Stay tuned, this story will continue!"
Thanks for reading and bye for now. Kim & Arjan.
If you think about Patagonia you probably will think about dark skies, snow, ice, glaciers, waterfalls and after all you will probably think about a rough and unpolished nature.
Torres del Paine is one of those National Parks which has it all. Through this park a hiking trail leads along many wonders of nature. Although it is no Disneyland, around a half million people a year drag themselves over those rough trails, so did we. Enjoy...
Our map and planning for the upcoming 5 hiking days.
Early in the morning we leave our hostel in Puerto Natales to catch the bus at 7am.
Check, the bus is still there.
After an 2 hour bus ride we arrive close to Campground Central. The views are nice already.
On our way to the campground to check ourselves in and put up our tent.
Wooden floors against the water and trees against the wind. The place is not to bad at all for a campground.
The view from the campground into the mountains. In the far distance a bit of the Torres del Paine can be seen already.
It's still early in the morning so we leave our stuff at the campground and start a dayhike to the Torres del Paine (the granite towers)
The way up starts smooth with some river crossings. (max 2 pax)
Warning: Falling Rocks!
Falling Rocks??
The view is getting better.
We pass campground Chileno halfway the Torres del Paine.
At this campground we spot this Andean Fox.
It's is sniffing around for some food.
Not afraid of humans at all.
We continue and climb higher in the mountains.
A sign with a preview of what we are going to see up the mountain.
Torres del Paine is coming up.
We are not the only ones around.
After a while we start moving back to our campground.
The trees pointing all in the same direction. Off wind.
Back at the campground Arjan makes dinner in the white tent. This is the only place where it is allowed to cook. In the past they had huge bushfires in the area because of people not using their camp stove correctly.
Our hiking profile of day 1.
The next morning we start off early again to hike to campground Italiano.
We fill up our backpacks and start hiking.
View over Lago Nordenskjöld
We did bring a bunch of empanadas. (filled meat pie's) Yummie although we like them more when they are still warm.
We pass campground Cuerno.
Route over the beach.
Trees still pointing in the same direction.
Our campground for the next two nights is coming up: Campground Italiano
Campground Italiano it is.
We put up our tent and start cooking dinner.
Cooking also here only allowed at certain places.
Hike profile day 2.
Breakfast the next morning. The plan for today is to hike up and down to the Frances glacier and to lookout point Britanico. We leave our tent and most of our stuff at the campground and hike lightweight today.
Glacier Frances is coming up.
We climb higher and higher.
Glacier Frances. Ice and snow is falling all the time. Even at the campground we could hear it falling at night. If we didn't know better we would have thought the sound was a thunderstorm instead of falling ice and snow.
Massive!!
We continue to the lookout point.
Still not at the look out point but the views are stunning already.
True: Life is a long weekend!
Yes, there we are at Lookout Britanico.
At the lookout we meet Frank and Jacinta again. The Dutch / Belgian long distance cyclists we met on the ferry as well. (see previous blog 😉 )
Together we hike back down. At Campground Italiano we will have a coffee break together. Frank and Jacinta will go to Campground Frances after that.(They are walking the hike in the opposite direction from us.)
Langlaufen in Chile? 😀
We tap water from the glacier river and make dinner.
Hiking profile day 3.
In the morning it rains.
After a dry breakfast we take off to Campground Grey.
Rain turns into snow.
Welcome in Patagonia. The weather changes so fast, sometimes it can be a bright sunny day with blue sky and in 5 minutes it can be like this; grey dark sky and raining or snowing.
Or everything at the same time. Snowing with a blue sky above it. Weird!
After a while the weather turns better.
Burned forrest because of bushfires.
What a view 🙂
We pass Campground Paine Grande and find this weather forecast.
Paine Grande.
We continue to Campground Grey.
Mountain lake.
Still those trees pointing at the same direction.
Burned forrest because of bushfires again.
Other hikers taking pictures from some wildlife.
Glacier Grey in a far distance.
Wild water in a narrow canyon.
At Campground Grey we check in and put up our orange shelter again.
Have a beer.
After we warmed up and had our beer we hike to the lookout point just 10min from the campground to watch the fallen glacier ice from close by.
Some info about this glacier. Too bad we still have the global warming getting worse and worse. Maybe in a 100 years or so no glacier at all anymore? 🙁
Hiking profile day 4.
Cornflakes and noodles for breakfast 🙂
Tent down. Last day of hiking.
We start the day with first going further up the mountain to hanging bridges number 1 and 2 to see more of the glacier before we go down again to the end of the trail at Paine Grande,
Kim at Hanging Bridge 1.
Bridge 1.
Bridge 2 is even longer.
Arjan at bridge 2.
What a view.
Looking down.... deep!!!
A little bit after bridge 2 we arrive at another stunning lookout point.
What a huge glacier.
We start hike back down again.
Hard Patagonia winds.
Back over the hanging bridges again.
We picked up our backpacks at Camping Grey again and continue to Grand Paine from where we will take the ferry and bus back to town.
A last view at Glacier Grey.
Down down down...
Lake and the end of the trail in a distance.
Welcome at Paine Grande. For us the end of the Torres del Paine trail.
Hiking profile day 5.
At Paine Grande, waiting for the ferry.
Ferry back
Bye bye Torres del Paine.
In the bus back to Puerto Natales we see a nice sunset and fall in sleep....
Back in Puerto Natales we stay an extra day at our hostel with campground. From here we will continue cycling to Ushuaia, our final destination of our 1,5 year cycling trip. It's around 780km to Ushuaia, not far anymore but we will go via an isolated bikepacking route over artic tundra and along a colony with 1,2m high King Penguins.
When we arrive in Ushuaia we will try to put the last blog online before we hop in the airplane back to Holland at the 22nd.
Will be continued...
Thanks for reading, Kim & Arjan
After cycling the Ruta 40 in Argentina we hop over into Chile to cycle further south. In Chile we picked up the famous Carretera Austral. The Carretera Austral is a road to connect a lot of small rural villages in southern Chile. The road is roughly 1240km long and leads through a very rural but stunning part of Chile. Beside Alaska we found this one of the most beautiful parts of our cycling trip through the Americas, for so far. 😀
Have fun watching and reading again.
In the snow over the mountain pass into Chile.
Loads of melting water is coming from the mountains.
Welcome in Chile.
In National Park Puyehue we wanna stay at a ranger station but no one was there.
We cycled up, looked around but couldn't find anyone.
We didn't search further for a park ranger and did put our tent up beside the toilet building.
Nice waterfall straight behind our tent.
In the morning still no ranger seen.
We put down our tent, eat breakfast and take off again. Thanks not seen rangers.
The road is easy and with nice views around.
Fisherman
At night we find a nice spot along Lake Rupanco. The spot is very populair by fisherman but most of them don't have a license to fish. At some point the boat in the photo came along filled with police officers. All fisherman were running away.
10 minutes after the boat with the police was gone a lot of fisherman came back and fished till sunset 😀
The rain and the winds are getting worse.
Lunchtime.
Rain but big smile.
Another National Park to cycle through.
Cabañas Am See. (Translated from German: House for rent along the lake) In Chile we see a lot of German language, but why?
A place to set up our tent was hard to find. This spot close to the road will do but it rains hard 🙁
It rained all night long. We pack up and continue in the rain again.
Asphalt becomes dirt road. With all this water indeed dirty.
Some roadworks.
Fisherman
Big fish farms in the lakes.
Another camp in the rain.
Finally the famous Carretera Austral is coming up.
No Rain 🙂
Gravel roads and waterfalls along them.
At a viewpoint we pitch our tent.
In the morning finally sun again after four days of rain.
But as soon we want to leave our camp spot it starts raining again.
Rain turns into hail. Not funny if you're in a downhill at 50kmp/h.
The hail was short but intense. When we pass this roadworks it's dry again.
The Carretera Austral does not continue by land all the time. Sometimes you have to take ferries. From this town, called Hornopirén, the ferry goes 80km over a lake because there is no road around the lake .
Ferry booking office. We have to wait. Everything closes here between 13:30 and 17:00. Siesta, although the weather isn't hot at all.
In the meantime we enjoy the little town.
Because there is just one ferry going a day we have to wait till the next day. We check in at a cabaña and dry our stuff above the woodstove.
Leaving the cabaña again. The ferry is leaving in a few minutes, we have to hurry.
Just on time. The ferry is still there.
There we go. 7 hours on the ferry for a stretch of 80 kilometers.
Views from the ferry.
The ferry crossing also includes an 30 km ride over land for which there is a bus waiting for us to bring us to the next ferry.
Our bus, just 30km.
And the next ferry.
Me and my boat.
In the evening we hop of the boat and find our way to a free campground. To reach it we have to cross a hanging bridge.
Not to bad for a free campground.
And back again to the Carretera Austral the next morning.
Look out point.
Lakes and waterfalls.
Dusty roads at some parts.
Camp spot along the Atlantic Ocean.
Atlantic Ocean.
Romantic dinner at sunset.
Just 10m from the beach we spot sea lions and a lot of dolphins.
Birdy
Hi 😀 I'm ready to go again.
Dahm!! Arjan's back rim cracked. Made something out of old found plastic to hold the rim together. The next town is 350km away so it has to hold for a few days.
An abandoned campground is our place to stay for the night.
No one there but beautiful spot.
We don't put up our tent but sleep in this old cabaña.
Free rainpants. Not to bad and even my size.
Insects found on the campsite.
The next morning we wake up again in our cabaña and take off again.
In 2016 a big mudslide washed away a lot of forrest and even parts of a town. 20 people died 🙁
It is in this town we meet Jochen from Germany. We start cycling together.
Snow...
The crack in Arjan's rim turns bad. A second plastic part has to be made.
It's a rain again.
A few waterfalls in a row,
Because the bad weather we sleep with this family. Warm and cosy.
Still rainy the next day.
50 shades of grey.
Some bridges on the Carretera Austral are just washed away.
Time for chocolate.
5km up.
On iOverlander we found this campsite. No one there, not even the owner but we camp underneath the roof. Nice and dry.
Crack is getting worse and worse. We hope we can make it to the bigger town and find a new rim.
Just 81km to Puerto Aysén. Hopefully Arjan's rim will hold.
So far so good.
We check in at a small hostel along the way.
Cracked... no longer possible to fix 🙁
Walking instead of cycling and thumb up for a ride with a pickup car or big truck.
After walking 10km a truck with logs stops and gives us a ride to halfway the town we need to be.
Thanks for the ride!!!!
Dropped of in the middle of nowhere.
Walking again and hoping for a next lift.
Nice views around.
Long way to go.
After a few kilometers a farmer stops and offers us a ride with his pick-up.
He had to go to town because his dog, Dooly, is very ill. Poor old dog.
Dropped of again, now close to a bicycle repair shop. Thanks!!!
In two days the bicycle was fixed again. We say good bye to our hosts and hit the road again.
Waterfall full of ice.
Next National Park is coming up.
Camping in a National Park is not allowed but here we found a nice hidden spot, unseen from the road.
Jochen is still with us. (or we with him... I don't know haha..)
Deers.
More deers on the left.
Bye deers.
Ice fall.
Winding down the next few kilometers 🙂
Lunchtime.
Road construction. The Carretera Austral (which is the main road from north to south Chile) is closed every weekday between 13:00 and 17:00 because of explotions. When we pass this part of the road it's Sunday so we can pass through. But still it is dusty.
Work is still in progress.
End of the pavement.
Dusty again.
At an old shelter we put up our tent.
Full moon party tonight 😉
The Carretera Austral is definitely one of the most beautiful parts of our trip through the Americas.
Hi Jochen.
From here we say good bye to Jochen. We cycled together for nearly two weeks.
We continue. Jochen stays a little longer because he is not flying back home in five weeks, as we do.
The cows and Arjan going up the mountain at the same speed 😀
Campfire at night along a wild, deep, blue river.
Coffee...Tea...???
In the morning cows around our tent.
Hard to see on photos but the colour of the rivers are so deep blue here. Unbelievable!
Enjoying the view.
Campsite.
We met Piero from Italy while he and we where cycling in Mexico. He was on his way to Canada, we on our way south. Now we meet again in the deep south of Patagonia. He working now at a brewery brewing good beers, we still cycling further south to Ushuaia.
Funny how paths can cross again after so many months and so many kilometres.
Wild river in a narrow cayon.
Going all the way down to the river.
And down.
And down.
There we are.
Most of the time when having a flat tire it's not hard to find the hole in the tire. This time Arjan needed a small stream to find it.
The Carretera Austral (Ruta 7) is going left. We go straight to Tortel from where we need to catch a ferry because the border crossing at Villa o Higgens, where we wanted to cross into Argentina again, is closed till the first of November. We don't have enough time to wait for that so we are gonna take a ferry for 3 days and sadly skip Villa O'Higgens 🙁
Close to Tortel we camp along a big river.
Breakfast
Mate (tea)
Freedom !!!!!!
Freshly washed on the bike again.
At Tortel we met Roel from Holland. 73 years old and still going (very) strong. Cycling through South America on his own on a plustire 29er mountainbike. "Why sit alone at home when you're older and don't have to work anymore if you can explore the world as well?" Inspiring man 🙂
Tortel is full of stairs.
And stairs
and stairs.
Cycling around in Tortel is like this.
At night we check in at the 3 day ferry to Puerto Natales.
Here we meet up with Frank (NL) and Jacinta (B)(@spinningsouth on Insta or spinningsouth.com) They came cycling from Vancouver, Canada and also will end up in Ushuaia, as we do.
On the second day we pass a ship wreck in one of the many fjords.
Puerto Eden. The only stop in the whole ferry ride.
We go off the boat for an hour. Stretch our legs.
Walk around the little fishermans town.
Kim making new friends.
At peoples home we drink a coffee and eat cake. Also we do a small workshop in local crafts.
Back to the ferry again.
Bye Puerto Eden.
Arjan does some photo editing while cruising.
The first night on the ferry we had a lot of rain but now the weather is sunny 🙂
Beautiful views along the trip.
The last night on the ferry to Puerto Natales. From Puerto Natales we will hike in the famous Torres del Paine National Park. But that will be in a next blog. Good night for now. Cheerzzzz....
After we had some resting days in Mendoza we continued further south via the Ruta 40. It took nearly a day of cycling before we got rid of the city and cycled into the country side again.
On our open street maps a large part of the Ruta 40, a bit after Mendoza seemed to be pampas (gravel) but it was actually pretty good brand new asphalt. Much more south our map promised asphalt but we ended up on an 250 km bad ass pampas road. Every day gives surprises, even in Argentina.
In the end, the road was not the problem but the strong head winds. At some days so strong we had to walk and push our bicycles. We did camp underneath bridges and slept in water wash-outs underneath the road.
Our goal of this all was the touristic town of San Martin de los Andes and the stunning Seven Lake Road into Chile.
Have fun reading 😉
Packing up again after a few nights in Mendoza.
Leaving this nice place again 🙁
Cycling out of Mendoza, a lot of fascinating graffiti.
Picking up Ruta 40 again. Narrow bridge over a dry river.
It's a long way out of Mendoza before we're in the country side again. By the end of the day we find a camp spot close to the road. A former picknick spot.
Watch out for the dog. R.I.P.
Some green in the dry yellow landscape.
New friends (again).
Hi doggie.
Trying to hide from the strong wind.
Long long roads.
The first mountains coming up again.
Volcano coming up.
Coming closer.
Checking out the top of the volcano.
Impressive clouds in the west, hope they stay there.
3066 km to the end of the world.
Leaving the volcano behind us.
The sky gets darker and darker.
But.... no rain for us 😀
Watching the moon and the stars in the cold night.
Wild horses along the Ruta 40.
Like a rolling stone.
Campsite with place for many tents. We where out of season and just one tent more
White mountains in the distance.
The lonely cyclist.
Climbing to another mountain pass.
Up!
Camping in a dry river bed.
---
The nice asphalt stops here. Gravel starts from here, also a lot of wind.
Pushing hard
The road is hard but the landscapes are wort it.
"Say cheese..."
What is more worse than a gravel road? A gravel washboard road!
Crossing Rio Grande.
Rio Grande.
Condor in the sky is watching us.
More washboard road.
Desert sand.
Hiding from the strong winds again. Camping under the bridge.
In the morning we found ice and some snow on our tent.
Welcome in Patagonia!!! The wind capital of the world.
Patagonia is the area below Rio Colorado and covers the south of Argentina and Chile. This part of the world is popular by outdoor enthusiasts because it's rough and beautiful nature and landscapes.
Cycling around this big snow peak did cost us three days.
Two flat tires at the same moment.
E-reading by a nice sunset.
Not to bad hey.. View from out of our tent.
Cold in the morning. Breakfast.
The town of Chos Malal is halfway Ruta 40.
The goats keep an eye on us.
The horses also.
And a bird.
An 20 meter antenna disc is looking in outer space.
More birds along the road but they are not bothered with us at all.
Mate tea
Mate, Wurst und Käse.
Pssssssssst......
Doesn't look yummy but it is yummy.
Open road.
Because there is so much wind we try to camp under the road in a water was out. Lucky us it's not raining 😉
Stampot!
Sleeping under Ruta 40.
Before sunrise we get up in hope to avoid some heavy winds.
As soon the sun rises the wind starts blowing. We walk and push our bikes.
A shelter to hide from the wind and eat lunch.
By the end of the day we're looking for another out of the wind spot to camp or sleep. We find this old gas station but it's to dirty to sleep in.
People use the place as a toilet 🙁
The sign says the place is for sale. So if you want to start your own smelly gas station call the number on the sign 😉
We push further up the road in hope to find a spot out of the wind.
Check... another under the road night is coming.
Not the best place to camp.
Horses on and along the road.
Making pictures.
Making pictures of making pictures.
Like Scandinavia.
It seems a car crashed here.
Ready to dive into this canyon. At the horizon we can see how high we have to go again after we past the bottom of the deep canyon.
At a lookout point.
Map of Patagonia. Also on the Chilean side it's also called Patagonia
Birdy, Birdy, Hola, Hola!
Approaching San Martin de los Andes.
Welcome in San Martin de los Andes.
Enjoying San Martin, the sun and a blond beer.
Leaving San Martin de Los Andes. One of our favoriete towns in Argentina for so far.
Bye bye lovely people from the Alhue hostel.
From San Martin we follow the famous and beautiful "Seven Lakes Route" to the Chile border. By the way, this Seven Lake Route is still part of Ruta 40.
Lake #1 is a good start.
Through the mountains up to the next lake.
At a valley we find a sign with all lakes called in one line.
At the next lake we meet some cyclists coming from the south.
Big waterfalls along the road.
Making waterfall pictures.
The road down to the next lake.
At this point the river splits in two. One side goes into the Pacific Ocean, the other side into the Atlantic Ocean. This means we are at a continental divide. 🙂
From the divide we cycle further towards the west, towards the Atlantic Ocean.
Long shadows means end of the day, we need to find a spot to camp.
Not to bad for camping.
View out of our front door.
Huh!?!
Magic skies when the sun is down.
The next morning. Ice.
Cold but sunny sunrise.
As soon the sun is there the temperature starts to rise fast.
Breakfast view.
Some sheep come along to say "Bla, Bla."
A bit further from out tent these birds walk around.
"Mirror mirror in the lake, whos is the....?"
A last view on the lake before we take of again.
Leaving camp.
"Run Forrest, Run!"
Snowtops and lakes means waterfalls in between. We like it!
At some mountain passes we still find snow. We've heard from other travellers this Seven Lake Route is just open since a week. Before that it was closed because of the winter.
Our next lake to camp on.
Chilling
Wild camping is not allowed along the Seven Lake Route because it's all National Park. Instead of that, there are designated areas close to ranger stations where you can camp. At these spots campfires are allowed as well.
Kim builds one. Nice and warm in the cold night.
Because we like this camp spot very much, it's nice weather and we have enough food we decide to stay a second night along this lake. Time for swimming.
The water is just 13 'C. We don't swim for a long time hahaha.....
Nice hat bro 😀
Cooking dinner above the campfire.
At night another beautiful sunset.
After two night in paradise we continue our way to Chile.
But first more lakes to visit.
The customs near the Chilean border. From here to the real border is another 30km. This because the real border is at a mountain pass which is often covered in snow. The custom officers don't like snow we guess.
It's illegal to bring fresh fruits, vegetables and meat into Chile. Our bags were checked. We did eat our bananas and salami. They didn't discover the rest of the cheese, meat and fresh carrots. Luckily we can cook dinner tonight 😀
At customs we also met Mel and Juli from Melbourne, Australia. They did nearly the same route as we did, starting in Alaska and riding to Ushuaia but by BMW.
Chile here we come.
We climb higher and higher into the mountains. More snow is still here.
1,5m of snow along the road.
Check the halo around the sun, amazing to see.
Halo.
The real border. The altitude is just 1321 meter but loads of snow.
Bye bye Argentina, see you soon again. Hello Chile 🙂
Thanks for reading again 🙂
Our next blog will be about the Carretera Austral in Chile, together with Alaska one of the most beautiful parts in the world we ever cycled for so far.
Cheers,
Kim & Arjan
So in the coming months we will actually be cycling from Libya to the Mediterranean Sea, crossing it to Greece, from where we will cycle through former Yugoslavia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany to finally arrive in Denmark. 😀
We created an upside down map to make this story clear, hopefully. If not… whatever, it’s a long way south 😉
We always thought that the south of Patagonia was very deep south, but it is actually just as far too the south as Denmark is to the north, seen from the equator.
Because it is quite a long piece, we will divide the blogs from Argentina and Chile into several stories. This blog is about Northern Argentina where we will pick up the famous Ruta 40 and tells till city of Mendoza.
Enjoy reading.
Up to country number 15 of this trip. Argentina 🙂
It was already getting dark when we entered the migration office. They where still open so we pushed all our stuff through an X-ray machine, got our passports stamped and here we are… Argentina.
Because it was already late we checked in at a nearby cheap hostel. The entrance was through a small shop. The room was freezing cold, the TV in the room only showed some grey contours from what a movie or show could be but the shower where hot.
Buckle up again to hit the first Argentinian highway.
Just out of town we start off at route 9. The year is 1970 and we are counting down in time.
It’s hard to find good wildcamp spots along Route 9 because it’s all fenced so we camp along it.
It’s the year 1886, time for a pee.
Empty roads but big smiles.
Still in the 19the century, we keep on moving in time.
The highest point of this part of the route, 3780 above sealevel. Can’t remember the exact year but is was definitely time for cookies.
Wierd mountains on the left side of the road.
When we checked our map before we started this road we saw also a traintrack. But this track had big gaps in it on certain places . Now we know why; the traintrack just stops so now and than.
Rail just hanging 10m above the ground
Extreme colours in the mountains.
Kim patching her sleeping mattrass. Dahm cacti 🙁
The whole railway bridge came down. The water washed the sidewalls of the river away.
Sergio, a trucker from Brazil. Drives between Southern Brazil and Northern Chile in a week time. He asked us if we needed fresh water from Brazil. How can we say no?
Small boys can also drive big toys.
The wide landscape changed to mountains with jungle forrest.
In the year 1650 we find a hidden campspot in the bushes.
Many sanctuaries to pray along the road.
The upper bird defends it’s nest against the attacker who didn’t give a s**t about the maneuvers.
We guess we are on the right track down to Patagonia. Cheers…
In a ditch on the side of the road drinking wine and waiting for the sun going down so we can put up our tent in the dark, hidden for the traffic.
Next morning. We had a safe night, not seen by anybody. We think 😀
Rusty bridge to enter the next town. The town was just nothing, not even a store to buy some food.
Hard to see but these cows are climbing the rocks as they are mountain goats.
A closer look to the mountain cows. Wierd to see cows so high up in the steep mountains.
Here are the real mountain goats
Impressive landscape.
Anne and Sergio from Brazil with 3 year old Jamil in the trailer. They are cycling from Brazil to Mexico.
Cheese…!!
And we thought we have hard times sometimes. Pffff… this is really hardcore, deep respect on these steep mountain passes.
Bird eating the fox.
Horses and farmers at the river in a postcard landscape.
At the campground in downtown Cafayate.
When we leave Cafayate again the campsite owner gives us thumps up.
Cafayate is one of the epicenters for growing wine grapes in Argentina.
Wine, give me more wine!
The first kilometers on the famous Route 40. One of the longest roads in the world. We “just” have to cycle 4338km to hit the border of Tierra del Fuego from where it’s another 600km to Ushuaia.
Max speed on Route 40 is… 40 😀
Some upcoming cyclists from Germany and Brazil.
We love the warm weather again…..
…. Big smile and thumbs up.
How empty can a road be?
Kim looking for wildlife along the road.
Wildlife??? Jup, wild donkeys.
Nice huge campers everywhere in Argentina.
The road to nowhere.
40 40 at the 40.
No towns at all in the area, no light pollution so millions of stars at night. @ ISO3200 | 10mm | f/4.0 | 30sec
“E.T. Phone Home”
Looking south. @ ISO3200 | 10mm | f/4.0 | 30sec
Looking north. @ ISO3200 | 10mm | f/4.0 | 30sec
Looking straight up. @ ISO3200 | 10mm | f/4.0 | 30sec
Local cyclists did share some dates with us… Jummy!
Most funny guy we met on the road so far. We bumped into him at a gasstation and had a fascinating conversation about the Big Bang, The end of the universe and everything in between.
Sun and Wine…. Make my day 😀
Looking over the edge.
Looking into the deep valley where we are climbing out.
Big climb for breakfast.
At the top we met Veronica from Chile. Cycling just by her own around South America, making money by being a street artist.
Yes, we may go down again.
Wanna play Angry Birds?
Hummmm….. A good start for this beautiful day in paradise.
We were running out of food and the next town for buckle up food again was a few days cycling ahead of us. We were thinking what to eat at night, a car stopped, a guy jumped out and did give us two huge sandwiches with schnitzels and fresh veggies. Is that karma out what? ?
Jummy!!
Emptiness.
Wurst und Käse by night.
Ruta 40 @ Belen
Bad hairday?
🙁
This endless freedom makes me happy.
Hi Doggie
Campsite close to San Juan, along a lake. Looks very promising.
The campsite was at a lake but it was not no allowed to swim… bummer…
Update some stuff.
We couldn’t find petrol for our stove nearby so we tried it with alcohol but our MSR stove didn’t burn on it. So we build our own stove out of two Coca Cola cans. The cooking was much slower than usual but it worked 🙂
The lake we camped on.
Cycling gets even better with wine in our cycling bottles 😉
Okay, one more flat.
Leaving the campsite. Like the trees.
We asked for water at a small shop along the hot road. All they got was this.
Dry ground to camp on.
Ezequiel is cycling with his dog Mancha around South America.
Hi Mancha!!!
The last part into Mendoza.
Into the big city of Mendoza.
HEY, what are you looking at?
Our home for a few days. Break in Mendoza.
Mendoza: Hotdogs with beer.
After a few days Mendoza we cycled further to the south to cross the border into Chile, a bit south of San Martin de Los Andes. The next blog will show hard winds, long gravel roads and beautiful National Parks.
Stay Tuned.
Kim & Arjan
Into Bolivia, warm jackets for sale.
Bienvenidos a Bolivia 🙂
100m after the border we try the fresh local banana juices.... jummy!!!
The border town doesn't look very pretty.
The Titicaca lake with on the horizon snowy peaks.
Keep drinking tea... We drink approximately 2 liter of hot tea per person every day.
Our first campspot in Bolivia. Also in this country, wildcamp doesn't look like a problem. The highway is just 100m away but no one can see us in the lower riverbed. We enjoy the nice sunset.
La Paz in a far distance with the snowy mountains as decor.
It looks we are going high up again.
But down first...
In one of the small villages along the way.
LLoco LLoco or Loco Loco?
Dirt roads again.
Welcome in Australia.
Dusty trucks on the dusty road.
Trucks hunting Kim.
Swampy area.
Arriving into town through an industrial area.
Out of town still dirt roads.
Old Volkswagens cars & vans all over the place.
Camping in an abandoned house.
Rare birds.
Route 1. The main highway from north to south Bolivia.
With strong tail winds we go fast over this otherwise boring road.
Another flat 🙁
Mobile bakeries on the streets, Arjan loves them. "Calories, give me more calories."
Colorful
More colors.
Dutch transporters in Bolivia? Indeed they are very international 😀
Welcome at Planet Mars | Route 12 to Sabaya.
Kims bike with the biggest mudguard ever. Arjan stays dry behind her now.
Melting water after a freezing cold night.
Pushing out of our hidden campspot.
The sign says....
Laaamaaaaa...!
Downhill to the higher mountains.
Endless empty roads.
Hello again.
🙁
Flat tire and a broken airpump 🙁 🙁
Under The Bridge - RHCP
Ice on the river in the morning.
Six people died in the car?
Nearly end of the asphalt road. From here the salt lakes will start.
Preparing for a few days of no food and water resources.
Slept in this crapy hotel in Sabaya and take of to the salt.
She's selling Quinoa.
On to the salt, not white yet but this will change.
Empty town.
Passing a "big" temple.
The salt is wet and soft. Hard cycling.
Halfway we pass a little town.
Because the salt is so soft and wet we take a bit longer route around it at some parts.
Pink flamingos.
Swampy salt/mud.
We camp on the beach of the saltlake.
At sunset amazing colors in the sky.
In the morning also flamingos for breakfast.
Start your day with a flat tire.
We follow the swampy edge of the salt again.
At some point we have to cross the lake.
Endless white.
DCIM102GOPRO
Between the saltlakes a sandy part.
Where to go? To the lamas?
Deep desert sand.
"Kom ie nog of wat?"
Pushing hard in soft sand.
LLica, the town between the two big slat lakes where you can buy some food and water.
Uyuni, that way! -->
Long days give long shadows.
Camping at the salt. Cars and trucks pass by sometimes. Our biggest scar at night for us; They don't see our tent on time and drive over us.
-10 C at night.... we need hot drinks.
Amazing sunsets.... again 🙂
Cold at night so jackets and hat on.
Breakfast with a view while warming up in the early morning sun.
Packing up again, nearly ready for an other day at the office.
Salty wheels.
Endless... Priceless... The whole route over both of the saltlakes was around 300km. Due the wet and muddy first lake it took us nearly 5 days to finish both of the lakes.
Have a break.
Some classic pictures. Due the intense white depht is hard to see and gives creative opportunities.
No Photoshop needed.
Just two colors for five days... Blue and White.
Welcome at Isla Incahuasi. This island is in the middle of Salar de Uyuni. We camped here for the night.
Yes indeed, maybe unbelievable but the salt lakes are at 3660 meter above sealevel.
Around the island.
Sun is going down.
The island is full of huge cactusses. Up to 12m high!!
The sign did give us some protection against the hard winds over the salar.
Animals around.
No fancy photoshop filter, just like it is.
Breakfast.
In the morning the touristic 4x4 trips leave again.
On the "road?" again.
Strange but true. We found water underneath the salt. This did give us the strange feeling like cycling on ice instead of salt.
Don't cycle in there!!
4x4 trips are populair, coming from Uyuni going to the Island we just came from.
Close to the end of the Salar the Uyuni there is this Dakar Rally monument. Here we met @fedeflores94 from Argentina
Inside the building close to the Dakar monument.
Dakar did pass this place in 2016.
Bye big salar.
Getting closer to the town of Uyuni.
At the Casa de Ciclista in Uyuni.
Cleaning bikes and stuffing ourselves up with loads of calories again. Preparing and planning for the last leg of our trip through Argentina, Chili and Patagonia.
August 4, nearly 6000km to go. (Google did a little miscalculation of 1000km) At the time of posting this Bolivia blog we are in San Martin de los Andes already.
Our lovely host Mirjam at the Casa de Ciclista.
Leaving Uyuni. Independence day Bolivia.
Filling our campstove up with gasolina again at the last gasstation for the coming days. Kim is making friends in the meantime with these twins.
Long road ahead to the Argeninan border.
"Buenos dias chicos"
Just 10m away from us while we are having our breakfast.
Lama for breakfast.
Unexpected amazing landscapes on the road south.
Empty towns.
Also lama for lunch? 😀
Snow close the top of one of the mountain passes (4000m something)
"Kim how do you transport 20 eggs on a bicycle?" --- "Just on the back with some soft mattresses underneath! :-)"
Camp close to the highest point of this stretch to the border. 4200m.
Yeah... going down again on this winding road.
Okay Laamaa!
Down we go!
Like cycling in an US national park but without the thousands tourists.
Lunchtime.
Going down means warmer weather. Long shorts out!!
"Hey Kim, what are you doing out there?" 😛
Into Villazon in the late afternoon. Villazon is the border town, we wanna try to get into Argentina this evening.
Yes, the migration office is still open... "Argentina here we come..!"
It will probably take a while before our Cycling Bolivia blog will be online. In the meanwhile this post with the first pictures from Bolivia taken on a Train Graveyard.
Close to Uyuni in Bolivia we found a Train Graveyard full of old rusty stream trains. It's a unreal place to visit in the middle of the Bolivian dessert.
Our "Cycling Bolivia" blog will be online as soon as possible. Thanks for watching 🙂
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