Stoor stoor and mair stoor!

Which translated means dust, dust and more dust. A pretty hard couple of days making our way up the Carratera Austral, the tarmac bits (very little) are fantastic, the ripio bits (most of it) are scenery wise outstanding but bike riding wise a challenge. We stopped last night in a small campsite in the small village of Puyuhuapi which apparently is in a Tsunami risk region, good to know when we were camping 100 metres from the shore! Yesterday we stopped for lunch at the side of a sea lake, just after we stopped we spotted dolphins, result! apart from the big black and red flies that seemed to like me and the dust being thrown up by the passing traffic it really was idyllic. Today was almost all Ripio (and in my opinion very difficult) but again the scenery when you stopped made up for it. We had a problem with Fi's bike yesterday not starting when hot which was a bit of a pain, however we've just filled up with better fuel and its cooler here now in Chaiten by the sea, and also now we're underneath a active Volcano, so last night Tsunami possibility and now Volcanic eruption possibility, interesting! The Carratera has been a fantastic experience but my advice is wait till its all tarmac and come over to enjoy it. Tomorrow we hope to go to Thermal pools under the Volcano for a decent wash! Friday we get a boat to Puerto Mont if all goes to plan.

Local dancing girls doing a Patagonian dance

Local Dog gang waiting for us to get the bikes

Glaciers on the right, my head on the left!

Nice

Not so nice, stray cows not having good toilet manners lead to problems!

Yesterday's lunch stop

Right on cue, just for us!

Peaceful sunset

Rustic camping

Hmm, nobody told us till after we pitched the tent

Lunch stop today

Damn glaciers everywhere

Fi prepares for an after Lunch swim

On top of old smokey!!! thats our roof you can see

Damn Dogs

One thing about South America is that there are dogs everywhere, most with a bad limp due to no doubt being run over by the van/car/bikes/trucks they chase, no idea why they do it but they do, also since we got here dogs have taken to pissing on my bike! This morning I awoke to the sound of the campsite dog pissing on my tent! The nest thing I noticed it had also urinated on my wheel and lock and luggage straps, mans best friend my arse!!
So after a not great start to the day we tackled the ripio section from Puerto Tranquillo to Cerro Castillo about 75 miles before we saw some tarmac. Now i've said before Ripio varies from bad to worse, me I prefer tarmac every time especially with a heavily loaded and not very well sprung bike! The scenery though was fantastic, that is when you can see it after the dust from the trucks/vans / 4x4's that thunder along, you see them coming (on the straights) as a huge dust cloud in the distance, then you know, time to stop breathing until they pass . I was very glad to see the tarmac to Coyhaique where we've stopped tonight. As we looked for the campground we passed a hotel, not the Ritz or the Savoy but know what sometimes its nice to wake up without a dog pissing on you!! As always not sure when we will update again but since we have wifi here i thought I'd take the chance to keep the updates going!
 

Nice

Very Nice

This is how quickly it goes from tarmac to gravel!

Lunch stop Cerra Castillo, braw chicken and chips!

Nice scenery (did I mention that?)

This is the new "Dusty adventure" look from BMW

Hot Hot Hot

 

Glad to say that the wind died down so we could make our escape from Perito Moreno, after a few very large whisky's the night before it wasn't early though and we made the 40 miles to Los Antiguos by 12 noon , right in the middle of some carnival so a bit of faffing about to get into the petrol station, we need to re fuel at every opportunity as the range on the BMW's isn't good. We then had the Argentinia goodbye border crossing and the Chilean hello shortly after, all done in about 1 1/2 hours with more stamps in an increasingly filling passport. The frst town in Chile is Chile Chico (good campsite just before the welcome sign on the left) and we decided to call it a day after a measly 50.9 miles because the ripio starts here and we thought we'd be better getting an early start today which we did. Stunning scenery and as always all different types of ripio to contend with, the road knocks hell out of the bikes and the maniac driving by others does nothing for confidence, the scenery though, outstanding and it was scorchio so all good really. Quite glad when we pulled into Puerto Tranquillo and found the campsite. I still find the concentration 100 miles of Ripio needs is far more than 400 miles on tar, so thats it, all settled, tent up and hopefully somewhere I can find a beer!!

At Chile Chico, evening stroll!

High Five!!

Fiona getting her ears cleaned

Nice scenery

And again

Man at work, just like the A9 on a busy day!!

Hotter, windier!

Leaving El Calafate on Ruta 40 the road turned from asphalt to gravel at Tres Lagos, we hoped to fuel up here, the wind was strong and it was hard enough to keep you balance standing still never mind in the deep gravel road in Tres Lagos, no fuel station which was a bit of a disaster. One of the locals took us to a man who agreed to sell us 10 litres at $15 a litre, 3 times the garage price but when you need fuel its a cheap price to pay. The fuel was poured in out of two 5 litre water bottles, paid for and we both left happy. The road was terrible, hard work and high concentration, thank god it wasn't raining or we would have struggled more. We stopped in Gobernador Gregores where we wen't to the tourist office (even the very small towns have them) the camp site was closed but the guy took us to a place by the river where we could rough camp, excellent, back in the main street we met up with Marcus again and he joined us for the next couple of days. Northwards into the town Peter Moran, sorry Perito Moreno, more rough roads, te problem is the new tarmac road is finished in huge sections and runs alongside but you can't always get on it so its a form of torture! Now we're staying here until tomorrow so we can get some washing done and re charge our batteries for the border crossing back into Chile and the Carratera Austral!

 

Petrol from an entrepenuer!

Ruta 40!

Nice scenery

Preparing Dinner. Marcus in the background 

More scenery, the picture doesn't do the colours justice

Fiona going to meet the other birds!

Northwards, Chile & Argentina

Leaving Punta Arenas we headed north to Puerto Natales, good road all the way, windy as hell though just to make it interesting, we saw some Gaucho's on the way moving sheep, interesting especially when I spooked one of the horses! Oops, sorry mate, he got it back under control though. In Puerto Natales, stop for a coffee and met Robert, an American who stays down here and who tell us there is a Scot in the area, Duncan, and we should drop in. The campsite was good but noisy, the place is nice, like Applecross on the seafront but busier and more people, backpacker city so plenty music booming out till the early hours, not so good. In the morning we visit Duncan and his wife Gladys for a cup of tea and a good blether, apparentley there were several Scots in this area migrated including at least 2 from Applecross! Obviously they got fed up with the seafood at the Inn and came here for more beef or lamb (Joking Judy!) We headed to Torres del Paine the national park, pissing down with rain and Ripio most of the way, not a good day and very expensive, it may be good on a good day but on a bad day its like a dreich Glencoe with a poor gravel road, would you pay to do that? To be fair it was better in the morning but still not worth in my opinion the approx £22 to get in. Back to Cerro Castilla to find no petrol station, and then back into Argentina to join Ruta 40 (thankfully a paved section) up to El Calafate. El Calafate is a very nice tourist town, the main feeder for the world heritage site that is the Perrito Moreno Glacier, one of if not the only advancing glaciers in the world, $100ARG to get into the park and well worth it (£12) the road was the best we've been on, just like the Laggan road for those who know. The glacier is impressive, awe inspiring and no photo can do it justice. While I was there it seems the translation for Perito Moreno into scots could be Peter Moran (My brother in law) so thats it, now officially re named to the Peter Moran Glacier, and capable of supplying enough ice to keep my sister Laura going for a lifetime of Vodka!

Gauchos, easier on a quad mate!

Camping at the noisy place

Local Scot Duncan & Gladys

Petrol No more

Sunshine no more

 

Dry no more

Better in the morning though

Welcome to Potholes

Glacier Perito Moreno (Peter Moran) in the distance

Closer up

 

We were there!

Big Chunks falling off

Ice with that madam?

 

Penguins at last

Today we finally saw penguins, a reasonably early start saw us out of the town and then around 30 miles of Ripio to get to the Ottoway penguin reserve, funny creatures and glad we've ticked that one off the list! On the way back we stopped to get a tail light bulb for Fi's bike, we had to end up buying a box of 10, of which I got ONE to work, genuine chinese quality!! Then en route back to the hostel a mental dog chased us, catching us at every light snapping at the tyres, finally after a mile of this I got off the bike and chased it!! Well most people thought it was funny at the lights and the dog learned a few new words. Some pics & very short video to show you our day.

Saw some of these

Had to go on roads like these

Mr Penguin shouting at us

Party on the beach

Waters nice anyone for a swim?

 

Nah, nicer day for a wander!

 

Chile - Punta Arenas

So as expected a great party that lasted into the early hours, teaching Scottish country dancing to the masses, well Fiona was I was just falling about so I think its impressive we managed to get going and finish up back in Rio Grande at Ruta 40 Hostel with Willie, Christian & Mary were there also and thanks to Willie and his Father for cooking a nice meal for us (and supplying beer)! This morning we had the 160 miles to Porvenir, 80 miles of Ripio again and a border crossing, the ques were OK so we were through easily although we got a bit of a grumpy Guy on the Chilean side because we never gave in our temporary import documents the last time we left. We met up with Christian again and a couple of other guys we met in Ushuaia who told us they were trying to make the 2pm ferry, too much of a challenge for us i'm afraid but despite the dust, the mad car drivers passing us and causing dust blindness, the deep gravel in parts and the potholes (I think I scored nearly 100% and managed to hit most of them) we arrived just in time to get the Ferry ! Good effort, on with 6 minutes to spare. We met some other Americans on the boat and had a good crack with them trying to persuade them to give up normal life and hit the road (mind you after a few days playing on 990 KTM's they were heading by plane to the South Pole so it ain't all bad guys!) Pissing of rain when we landed so we holed up in the first Hostel we found, just been to the supermarket for food (and beer), amazing already the differences between the two countries who share a common border.

Passo De Garabaldi (could be Lochcarron)

Our genial Host Willie

Leaving the Island of Fire

Brossing the Magellan straights

In the Supermarket, full lamb with heid!! Just add fur and blood, instant pet!