Fin Del Mundo, The End of The World

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Wednesday 25th November
Kaiken to Ushuaia to the end of the road

This is it the final leg south to Ushuaia after lining up ready to eave as a group, Kevin (trip leader) told me to fall in behind him leading the rest of the group out. We had 60 miles of tarmac wending its way through the high pass in the snow capped mountains on this southern end of the island. It was very cold and we had been advised we may encounter snow, but luckily it stayed clear all the way to Ushuaia, we stopped once to meet up with another group of motorcyclists on their way north then we made the final ride through Ushuaia to the park and the end of the road.

There were 15 miles of damp dirt road and we then parked at the end near the sign “Fin Del Mundo” end of the world, this is the most southerly part of the Americas you can reach by road. Once the support van arrived the Champagne was brought out and we had an hour long celebration here with many photos and congratulations all round. It took a while for us to get back on the bikes taking in what we had achieved, ridden from the top of the Americas in the Arctic Circle to the most southerly part, almost 5 months and my odometer reads 21000 miles covered. Off the group only 7 (including myself) made it the whole journey without spending any time in the van, every inch travelled on our bikes. We stopped in the cafe in the Park for lunch and then made our way back to Ushuaia to the hotel.


Miles
Today : 91
Total : 20863

Odometer : Anchorage : 6206
Odometer : Ushuaia : 27592
Odometer Miles : Total since leaving England : 21389

Tierra Del Fuego South and back to Argentina

Tuesday 24th November
Cerro Sombrero to Kaiken

Almost 60 miles of more dirt road took me to another boarder crossing, on the way I was flagged down by an Argentinian, his 4x4 was parked on a banking. As it turned out he had not parked it there but crashed, the front wheel was broken and they were changing it for the spare. I was not sure how, as a lone motorcyclist, I could help it also transpired that the whole steering arm had snapped causing the accident. Two others of the group arrived and then the support van we got the vehicle onto its four wheels and then offered to send help from the nearest town some 30 miles away. It took another hour to get there on this rough dirt road. I’m not sure how they did but we left the garage with their location we then crossed the border into Argentina. After this a run on tarmac ended with a lakeside hotel with mixtures of cabins and rooms, I had a cabin shared with Mac and Gerald over looking the lake.

Miles
Today : 202
Total : 20772

Another short stay in Chile

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Saturday 21st November
El Calafate to Tres Pasos

With my ankle, shoulder and ribs still sore it was a relief to start the day on tarmac but after 60 miles this turned back to dirt road for some 40 miles then back to tarmac. The run was on wind swept roads and general flat plains, the turn off to the boarder was a small dirt road and most of us missed it having to turn round. Straight after the border we trued left and shortly came upon the Estancia Tres Pasos were I pitched my tent as I had elected to camp here a while back. The estancia was set in the valley between steep hills and a group of us elected to walk up the nearest hill as we had been told of the condors flying, after reaching the top we spotted a couple floating gracefully on the wind before landing on a rocky perch on the opposite hill. The hill afforded us a fantastic view of the valley and the snow capped mountains in the distance of Torres Del Paine.

Miles
Today : 164
Total : 20292
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Sunday 22nd November
Tres Pasos
Day Off
Despite the aches and pains and the prospect of more dirt road, I decided to ride into the Torres del pain park due to the reports of spectacular scenery and the unusual shape three peaks in the mountains. I was not disappointed, the scenery was spectacular and I spent the afternoon and evening touring the park, visiting a couple of waterfalls and stopping often to take pictures of the mountains and glacial lakes here.


Miles
Today : 137
Total : 20429
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Monday 23rd November
Tres Pasos to Cerro Sombrero

After waking up in a frost covered tent I prepared for another day of mixed tarmac and dirt road. We are now nearing the end of the main purpose of this expedition, Ushuaia. The country here flattens out and I encountered more strong winds with the bike presently leaning to the right after some miles of this I reached the ferry, meeting the rest of the group here. This is the end of the main land mass, the continents and could be considered the end of the road but we cross the Straights of Magellan to Tierra del feugo.

As a group we loaded onto the swaying ferry which uses its engines to keep in line with the ramp. As short 15 minute crossing accompanied by Connersonts Dolphins in the bow wave and we were unloading onto the last part of our journey. Another run across wind swept plains got us to our destination Cerro Sombrero a very small town based around an oil processing plant with little more than a petrol station and a hotel.

Miles
Today : 141
Total : 20570

Back to Argentina ..

Monday 16th November
Puerto Guadal to Los Antiguos

After yesterdays accident it was not a pleasant surprise to see the pouring rain in the morning, the warm and dry wooded accommodation was tempting me to stay, but we have to keep moving. The awful dirt path beckoned so we all just got on with it and successfully rode it up the hill and out, however as I made the sharp left turn out of the gate the front went into soft mud and slid down the ditch at the side of the road, I jumped clear making sure not to aggravate the injury from yesterday. The ride was only 60 miles but after the second fall was as hard as I’ve done before given the driving rain making visibility poor. The road was not forgiving either, combinations of gravel sections and slippery up-hill switch back stony sections making the ride the most uncomfortable, and it was with relief that he rain stopped as I got the to border town. After stopping for fuel I crossed the border with relative ease and a short run to Los Antigos, along the way I could hear a knocking sound from the rear of the bike. Half the group was in a hotel in town and I was with the other half some miles out of town, the support van was in town, so after dropping stuff in the hotel I rode the bike back to get Jeff to check it out. We found the rear brake pads had worn with the outer one now metal on metal. With no spares Jeff came up with a genius idea, use the spare pads for the 1200s that were in the van and as they are different mounting, weld the worn pad to the back of it. We spent some time trying to find a welder, and found a back street car place, but it was shut … siesta time, returning at 5 it was open and we managed to get the guy to weld the plate. The garage was a tin-roofed building with some old cars and parts in it, and he used an arc welder without a mask! 20 pesos later we had a working brake pad and with thanks we left and fitted it to my bike.

Miles
Today 261
Total 19612
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Tuesday 17th November
Los Antiguos to La Angostura

Back onto the famous Ruta 40, a dirt road with miles of gravel sections and sand. The first 40 miles or so were on tarmac, the rest was gravel, a type of gravel we dubbed marbles, round stones that throw the bike all over the place. I tried to keep the bike in the clearer tyre tracks but the side winds were fierce and tended to blow us off course and into the deeper gravel between. Battling this for hours and nursing the sore foot it was relief that we found the entrance to the Estancia, however another 4 miles of a narrow rough track need to be ridden before arriving at the estancia, a lovely farmstead looking across a wide plain to the distant hills. Here I set-up a tent to camp for the night as there were not enough bunks in the estancia to accommodate everyone.

Miles
Today 228
Total 19840
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Wednesday 18th November
La Angostura to El Calafate

Today we rode more of Ruta 40 another 100 miles of gravely dirt road flat and windy for most of it, 60 miles in was running at about 50 mph in 6th gear suddenly came across deep gravel covering the whole road, with the bike in 6th gear I could not get he drive to push through it and the bike went into a “tank slapper”, handle bars moving wildly from side to side until the bike flipped around, I slid to a halt some yards down the road. After picking myself up I checked the bike for damage, lucky no damage, only the left pannier popped off. The support van came up 5 minutes later and Jeff helped me to get the bike up and running again. As I rode the last 40 miles my shoulder started to hurt, though as it transpired the next day, it was only bruising and strained muscles. Once at the fuel stop the rest of the day was spent mostly on tarmac past some spectacular glacial lakes all the way to the next stop at El Calafate


Miles
Today 196
Total 20036

Thursday 19th to Friday 20th November
El Calafate
2 Days off
Spent the first day riding into the glacier park to view the spectacular Moreno Glacier. The secondary we booked onto a tour on a Catamaran which took us around all the accessible glaciers.

Miles
Today 92
Total 20128

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Back to Chile

Thursday 12th November
Bariloche to Futaleufu

For this day we had a change of destination, Futaleufu, on the Chilean side of the border, with an option to go via a dirt road. The road out of town was nice sweeping tarmac after a short run on dirt to join Ruta 40. After 100 miles some of us turned off onto the dirt road, this being more gravel and deep in places. I, Ed and Lorraine stuck together and after 15 miles of dirt entered a town, after much searching we found a tourist information office which directed us back up the road to a turn off by a small police station. We followed the instructions to find a small shed with a sign “Butch Cassidy” a little disappointed with the view Lorraine recalled the instructions in a guide were to go over the fence and walk some 300 metres along. We did so and found the farmstead that Butch Cassidy and The Sundance kid used whilst here in Patagonia. After taking some pictures and eating lunch we proceeded on the dirt road towards the border, this took some hours as the road was difficult and we reached the border posts around 6.30 luckily they were still open. Another 5 miles brought us to the small village of Futaleufu

Miles
Today 248
Total 18909
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Friday 13th November
Futaleufu to Puyuhuapi

We were going to be riding on dirt road all the way today, it started off relatively easy on a gravel strewn road with clear track created by tyre tracks of cars and lorries. However as we proceeded short sections had deep sand were the road had been repaired making the going slow, after 90 miles we got to a small town filled up with petrol and had lunch. Once on the road again we met the roadworks, on dirt road this consists of dumping a load of soft muddy sandy gravel and then compacting it, added to this it started to rain turning sections into very slippy mud pits. One section was a least a half mile long with the bike snaking around on the slippy mud as I tried to keep it in one of the many ruts. It was with relief that the roadworks ended after about 8 miles and the dirt road became more compacted and easier on the run into the village of Puyuhuapi.

Miles
Today 117
Total 19026
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Saturday 14th November
Puyuhuapiu to Coyhaique

More off road past some spectacular scenery, rivers and mountains, the road stayed better than yesterday with long runs of clear compacted dirt allowing the run to the next town to be really enjoyable.

Miles
Today 145
Total 19171
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Sunday 15th November
Coyhaique to Puerto Guadal

We continued on the dirt roads this time with more up-hill and down hill sections and more loose gravel sections, the road was good with long straight sections and clear tracks to follow, although cold the rain stayed off till later and then only light helping to bind the gravel and give good grip. Running quickly we made good time arriving at the entrance to hotel mid-afternoon, the track down to the hotel was however awful, but we all negotiated it well, at the bottom there was a steep up-ill section to the parking area, I waited till the others had parked and then open the throttle to get the bike up the hill, however the back wheel was in a section of deep gravel and this flung the bike out from underneath me. I landed heavily on the left side with the bike on top of my left leg, as it slid it twisted my left ankle whilst I fell onto the small fence at the side of the track, I managed to extract myself whilst the others came to help pick me and the bike up. After one of tem parked it for me they got ice for my ankle and I spent some time with this on before going to asses the damage, the bike was fine with just the bracket for the left pannier bent. Once bent back into position the pannier was remounted on the bike, proving once again that the Metal Mule pannier system lives up to it’s reputation as the strongest on the market.



Miles
Today 180
Total 19351

Argentina .. again

Monday 9th November
Osorno to San Martin de los Andes

This was a cold day very reminiscent of England, even the scenery looked familiar. I was riding with Gerald and Ed and Lorraine and we stopped at a very nice small car museum outside the town, and had coffee while we waited for it to open. We then proceeded up the pass to the border and exited Chile fairly quickly just before a buss load of tourists.

As we proceeded between the borders we then hit snow on the high pass but with full off road tyres and taking it easy we had no problem negotiating the winter wonderland we found here. Again the crossing of the Argentina border proceeded well and we continued along. The road was a wet dirt road for some miles with sleet and snow, very potholed and had quite a lot of gravel on the bends to negotiate. All along the way there were spectacular views of the lakes and snow sprinkled mountains in this area of the Andes. The village appeared shortly after we turned onto tarmac.

Miles
Today 152
Total 18436
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Tuesday 10th November
San Martin de los Andes to San Carlos de Bariloche

Today was to be a short road ride but with an option for some 50 miles of extra dirt around lago Nahuelhuapi. I and 8 others decided to take to optional route. The road to the turn off was spectacular, a smooth winding road between the peaks of the Andes here in Patagonia. It was quite cold, more like winter weather than the usual summer weather here, after a fuel and coffee stop we turned off onto the gravel and dirt road. Some 15 miles in we came to a view point over the lake.

The views were spectacular with snow sprinkled mountains framing the blue-green lake. Continuing on the journey the dirt road dipped and twisted through a lightly forested area at the side of the lake giving the opportunity to stop for lunch at the lakeside. Towards the end of the road I cam across Kevin and a few others waiting for the van, one of the riders, Andy had hit a very large embedded rock and broken the entire swing arm on the 1200GS.

The damage was extensive snapping the casing for the drive shaft and the swing arm all the way back to the swivel point, he was very lucky not to fall and brought the bike to a stop some 30 yards down the road. The front wheel was badly damaged and it is now not certain if he will have to ride the rest of the trip in the support van. Once in the van we continued the rest of the dirt road with some deep gravel bits and soft earth where the road had been graded, then back onto tarmac to the hotel in the lake side town of Bariloche.

Miles
Today 225
Total 18661
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Wednesday 11 November
San Carlos de Bariloche
Day off

Miles
Today 0
Total 18661

Chile .. again

Monday 2 November
Uspallata to Santiago

A shorter riding day up though the cold pass and crossing the Border back into Chile, we rode out as a group, the ride along the pass was accompanied by very strong cross winds. The pass wended it way up through the Andean mountains with a number of tunnels until as we approached the border, there was a very long tunnel through the mountain. The border crossing was very complicated as it was a combined Chilean/Argentinean run post, with numerous forms to be filed in and stamped at a confusing array of windows.

Purely by chance I went to each window in the correct order and with the correct forms, leaving me 20 minutes ahead of all the others. As we had to ride in a group into Santiago I waited until the others we through and joined the group behind the tour leader Kevin.

We rode all the way to control point were we were to meet the police rider escort, however we were some 2 hours early so had to wait there until the appointed time. We were met by the owner of the BMW service centre and the police and escorted all the way into Santiago with traffic being stopped and TV cameras taking pictures.

Miles
Today 173
Total 17696
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Tuesday 3rd November to Friday 6th November
Santiago
Bike servicing and 4 days off

Miles
Today 0
Total 17696
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Saturday 7th November
Santiago to Salto de Laja

Long riding day south of the city on motorway it was very much more developed here than northern Chile and very like Europe. A colder day with temperatures closer to England had all of us with our warm clothing and layers beneath our riding jackets.

We had some rain along the way and other than a stop for lunch at a Bavarian restaurant we stayed on the motorway all the way to the small tourist village of Salto de Laja which has a very impressive waterfall. Lucky the late evening sun came out and I got some nice pictures of the waterfall with a rainbow in the spray.

Miles
Today 303
Total 17999
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Sunday 8th November
Salto de Laja to Osorno

This was another straight riding day along the motorway south of Santiago, and again very cold. As we had little to do but ride most of us were feeling the cold today even though it was n colder than yesterday. Osorno was were we were to get new tyres, off road front and back, so we had to get there as early as possible, an early start and straight riding with a few coffee stops. Having left the panniers at the hotel we went straight to the garage to get the new tyres fitted.

Miles
Today 285
Total 18284

Chile

Tuesday 27th October
Arequipa to Arica


This day is a long riding day on straight roads in the desert, we crossed the border into Chile. Chile is very much more developed but the scenery around is still dusty though impressive desert.


Miles
Today 279
Total 15859
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Wednesday 28th October
Arica to Antofagasta

Very long riding day again in deserts with some spectacular views as we went up and down the canyons and hills. Stopped at the ghost mining town of Humberstone. Great view as we moved to the coast near Iquique.

Stopped at La Portada on the way into Antofagasta, a view of a rock formation on the coast.

Miles
Today 464
Total 16323
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Thursday 29th October
Antofagasta to El Salvador


We turned inland to more desert riding, visited “El Mano” the hand, a large sculpture of a hand in the desert. Another long run of desert riding in the Aticama desert, one of the driest places on earth fierce side-wind had the fuel consumption high and a sore neck for me although a very enjoyable ride.

Miles
Today 305
Total 16628

Argentina

Friday 30th October
El Salvador to Tinogasta





Started off on tarmac then we turned off onto dirt roads on very worn road tyres. The dirt started with a little gravel then went to nice hard packed dirt. The views as we climbed into the Andes were spectacular, long road of dirt in a plain surrounded by the peaks of mountains, this is what this journey is all about, breathtaking. Slow riding to save fuel as no fuel until the next town in Argentina.
After the Chilean border we hit much more difficult dirt, deep sand pits and gravel, on these road tyres it took its toll, with two bad accidents. Paul then Nick both running quickly hit unexpected sand and gravel crashing heavily, Nick took a hit to his ribs and had to go into the van, Paul’s accident damaged his bike and he too took a hit to his ribs. Paul’s accident was seen by Nigel and he described the bike as cart wheeling at least 3 times.

Though he had been knocked unconscious, he decided to carry on using Nick’s bike, while his bike went into the van and Nick was taken to hospital. At the Argentinian border Nick was taken straight though in the van to hospital while some of the equipment was left at the boarder to be collected later by the van. In the mean while I managed to get 288 miles out of the 16 litre tank making it to the town without using my spare fuel. As we descended the temperature rose to a balmy 41 deg C.

Miles
Today 319
Total 16947
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Saturday 31 October
Tinogasta to Villa Union

A warm day riding on normal roads then up through a dirt road pass with great views to the town of Villa Union.

Miles
Today 212
Total 17159
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Sunday 1st November
Villa Union to Uspallata

Long riding day with 30 miles of gravel dirt road using very worn road tyres. No accidents this time, though tow of the group ended running through the mountains on what can only be described as a donkey trail. This all because they were following a GPS route and the GPS had been set for dirt! We moved into the mountains with some spectacular views and much cooler weather arriving in this basic but nice town.

Miles
Today 364
Total 17523