(18th-22nd of February)
With a strong Mt bike rim on the rear I felt confident again riding my heavy set Gurly through the next and last phase of this journey.
We camped at the border to Chile..there is this tiny little "pizza pie" corner of Chile we had to ride through to get to the southern parts of this continent AND I knew not all of it is paved. I did swallow my promise back in El Chalten: "I'll never ride "ripio" on this tour again"....never judge a day, or a journey before the end/evening. I just knew it was coming and it came....
The ferry ride was rough but short. There was some fast and big black and white fish accompanying us part way: Dolphins! Tried to get a photograph, but they were too fast and my digital camera too slow.
Strange how I am always surprised to see these amazing mammals in cold/icy waters....I associate dolphins with tropical, warm waters only and that is just plain wrong!
My first "step" on Tierra del Fuego (it is actually an island at the very tip of south A. -hence the ferry) was a downfall. Literately! James was already on land and up the steep "ferry launch driveway" waiting behind a bus while I was poking around down by the water's edge and the ferry. I was being told to keep to the left so the cars and busses can pass me while leaving the ferry. I guess I went too far left and wound up on the slippery slops by the slimy green algae and found myself and Gurly on the ground before I could even look up to see where I was supposed to go. Every attempt to get vertical again was useless from then on until I got help from a crew member who came rushing to help me and Gurly -struggling himself with the extreme lubricous surface. It was probably a humorous sight, but nobody was laughing in that row of people standing right at the top of the hill (or maybe I couldn't see the ones hiding their face....or maybe it just wasn't funny?)
I felt my mouth forming a "pout" when I told James what happened while he was waiting for me up there in the sun.
The wind was doing it's thing and we were soon done with the day. We hadn't gone very far when we admitted to ourselves we were looking for our spot for the night....and then there was this little house. At a closer look it had a sign: Refugio. So, this is for US! Yeah!
Out of the wind, a metal bunk bed skeleton and an oil barrel, a concrete mounted table and bench. We can make this work! There was some fire wood laying around - good potential! James braved the start of a fire and smoked us both clear out of the shelter....
That little pipe on top of the barrel wasn't doing it's job at all.
James took on the task and soon had an acceptable fire going for us. He found an extra little pipe in the draining ditch near the road and mounted it to the right place and through the roof...let's just hope it isn't raining..This turned out much better than we had hoped for!
Well rested and with enough good food in our bellies we tackled the next day. We felt pretty confident finding another refugio before the day was done and we did. But this one was cluttered with human feces - no door and right next to the road. No, not for me...I am used to better and we kept going a few meters further to a concrete plant. (The "paved" road was concrete) The little house I wanted to sleep in was right there - but no, we were told, this house is for the night guard.... Shit!
Back to the baño refugio next to the road. The friendly man mentioned another refugio further down the road - some 15km, but James and I were highly suspicious ...there didn't seem much out there and we didn't want to get stuck with absolutely no shelter. I made a broom out of dried weeds along the road and we swept the place clean, set up the tent, cooked our food and all is well..
Next day we found the dirt road
- right after that beautiful new refugio the man the night before was talking about. Only 13km down the road. He had spoken the truth...oh, well..
Onward and slightly upward this time and to the border back to Argentina. Toward Rio Grande with a stiff tailwind. I was just flying down the road, feeling inspired by the young cyclist who we met at lunch time. A high school PE teacher who was pretty sure of himself and that this "old couple" wouldn't be able to keep up with him. We left the poor guy "in the dust" once we hit pavement again. He was pretty impressed by our "ground speed" as he told us catching up with us close to town and out of breath. I think we did about 155km that day....don't have much to say about Rio Grande, but we left the next morning with the worst and most unpredictable fierce wind we had encountered thus far. (Now it seem to me that I have said that before.....hmmm...it's true though THIS WAS THE WORST) If the wind comes from one direction you can lean into it, but if it keeps changing around or even stopping and then picking up most aggressively and unexpectedly from a different direction- chances are you going "where ever the wind blows" and on a street with quite some traffic......it's clearly a dangerous situation. I was pushing my way out of town and when I saw James on the road getting pushed into traffic and the cars swerving around to avoid hitting him it was clear to me: We either go back to this unattractive expensive town or hitch a ride to continue.
We didn't wait long and were picked up by the perfect empty truck for easy bike loading and friendly chats. He was going all the way to USHUAIA - now that was kind of weird....are we really that close?
He was so friendly - trying to talk us into going all the way with him, but we stayed firm. No, we really NEED to RIDE into Ushuaia on our very own bicycles now - nobody can take that away from us! We knew of a little town (Tolhuin) with a charming and helpful bakery 100km before Ushuaia and that is where the good man dropped us off. We thanked him with a cup of coffee at the panaderia and after we assured him that we really don't want to ride with him the rest of the way he took off with his empty truck.
We were there early in the day, sat down and started eating all those goodies this wonderful place had to offer.......eating for the rest of the day. Our favorite thing to do!
Not only was the Tolhuin bakery a well of yummy homemade and baked foods and chocolates, but the friendly owners (and we could never figure out who they actually were....all the people seemed to have some kind of authority or ownership) let us sleep behind their kitchen in the adjacent house. In fact they had an extra room for cyclists with four beds, which were all taken and we got to sleep in the much quieter fitness room downstairs.
We didn't hear the rain, but it rained slowly and quietly - the world was fogged grey in grey the next morning. Question was: Spend another lovely day eating in the bakery or head to Ushuaia.
We had hooked up with a Spanish and British guy. The ladder had helped me fix my iPad with his Apple Computer the night before - though highly suspicious that I could "mess up his device" he still let me figure out how to activate my dear iPad again. Between the "back to factory setting" and downloading/activating some of my data from the cloud it took about 4 hours. It threatened us with 6 hours, but luckily the server connection sped up after the bakery quieted down - by 11pm all was done and I treaded the hero with some extra chocolate from the bar.
The four of us headed out of town together that next day- into the rain, the fog -to the end of the world and the end of this trip........
Last climb before Ushuaia:
(If you want to read about the day we reached Ushuaia go to: "Dear Journal" a few entries back)
