AN OVERLOAD OF SPECTACULAR SCENERY - PATAGONIAN NATIONAL PARKS

It was Christmas eve, a time to relax with the family and enjoy the festivities... well normally, this year  we set off into town with the bikes to run some errands, dad’s bike needed a new chain whilst mine had a broken rear rack which needed welding (urgently!). We found a mechanic who said he wouldn’t weld that day but pointed us in the direction of a shop for us to get some parts. After buying a new chain and I bought some wheel bearings (had to treat myself) we returned to him to see if he would do the fitment. Here we met a Hungarian bloke who lives in Argentina riding a GS 1200 who happened to also speak fluent German! After some friendly banter the mechanic decided to help us out and did all the work we needed, love that Christmas spirit!

Broken luggage rack was once again whole!

Dig in, it's Christmas!

Christmas day we took an amazing road through the mountains for a few hours before detouring to stay the night in National Park - Alerces. On the road we met a Brazilian biker named Fernando who we crossed paths with a few more times that day... but he continued further South.

Lunch stops were mostly conducted on the plaza of small towns.

More petrol station ques... it seems there isn't enough of these around, same goes for ATM's.

Beautiful roads complimented by the weather!

Camp fire dinners... enough said right?

The following day was windy... like proper windy! With a head wind of around 70 to 90 km/h the bikes were reduced to a measly top speed of 80 km/h with full throttle thrashing the engine for hours and guzzling down almost twice as much fuel as normal! I almost ran out of fuel after 400 km when usually my range is about 700... an expensive day!

Leaving the campsite that morning... just magnificent.

Yep... the bike has been blown over at least once by the wind!

A pretty neat way of dealing with dead trees!

My first armadillo! Oh and the bike snuck into the pic as well.

Meeting more and more bikers the further South we get!

Arrival in El Chalten, the city where everyone is apparently sponsored by The North Face. Everyone is kitted out as if they are about to climb Mt Everest, dad and I were the only people that wore jeans in the entire town. It is a beautiful little town though with an amazing backdrop... but its entire existence based on the tourists that come here. Yes that means a beer costs three times as much as anywhere else in Argentina!

Ruta 40 - over 5000 km long with lots of gravel!

Lunch at an amazing lago, the camera really struggled with the brightness.

First glimpse of the mountains surrounding El Chalten.

Getting close now!

For $1 more per night we stayed in the dorm, totally worth it considering the temperamental weather conditions here! 

24 km hike up to see our first Patagonian glacier.

Storm clouds started rolling in as we reached the summit, somewhat spoiled the view but fascinating even so.

Watching a movie... writing some blog, a glimpse at the typical setting for this kind of stuff.

Bikers from around the world, great dinner with many stories! (Brazil and Belgium)

At the summit of our hike we bumped into Fernando again which was pretty crazy and walked the return route with him, turns out he's a mechanical engineering professor (go figure!). After 2 days in El Chalten we rode beyond El Calafate to an amazing free camp in the national park Los Glaciers.

On the road again with stiff legs!

Patagonia signs line the highway heading South.

The amount of spectacular scenery was difficult to process and became a blur.

Arriving at that nights camp with a monster cloud in the sky!

Patagonia... so many wow moments.

This picture makes me hungry again every time I see it.

BBQ and beers with an amazing view, what more can you want!

Eagle? The birds are getting pretty huge down here. Wingspan was at least 1.5 m.

The morning view from our camp...

At the entry to the park we were warned “be careful there are over 200 curves in the next 20 km” ... WOOO braaaap, off we went! After viewing the glacier for a few hours we rode the 2 hours back to town and did a quick repair on dad’s luggage rack (missing bolt). From here we rode another 3 hours to the Chilean border and made the crossing, it was very fast and organised however they took our bananas and apples which was a bit of a bummer. That night we found a nice free camp by the lake but sheltered well from the wind.

One of our first glimpses of the gigantic Perito Moreno glacier.

It's 30 km long, 74 m high out of the water... 170 m deep below.

It grows by 2 m per day but remains stable by 'calving' off slabs every 30 minutes or so... the sound is pretty unreal!

Heading back to El Calafate, the town lies next to the bluest lake you'll ever see!

Crossed into Chile... Patagonian traffic jam!

Camp that night, lots of trees to shelter us from the wind.

BBQ'd sausages for breakfast.

Torres del Payne national park... “wow” is the only word to really describe coming into this place... the further South we ride the more spectacular it becomes! After a short hike we came back to the bikes and discovered my first flat tire for the entire trip (at the 49,800 km mark). Many onlookers enjoyed watching us change the tire, however one or two seemed to disapprove of it happening in the car park?? Torres was stunning nonetheless! New Year’s dinner that night and then camp fire stories with Italian, French and British travellers.

Riding in to the park... scenery getting progressively more amazing again.

It was usually a 2 hour return hike to get to a viewpoint... of which there are many.

Some ice bergs the size of small houses beached along the shore.

Glacier Grey in the distance... 14 km away to be more precise (on the left).

Oops it's flat! Out she comes...

A sharp splinter had found its way through my tires, new tube in and away we go.

After the 75 minute repair was complete (yes I'm slow) I was rewarded with this road!

Writing in my diary at camp. Beers are out, New Years that night!

I woke up in 2016 with brutal hay fever... even through my blurry vision and intense discomfort the park remained stunning. A few short hikes that day and then a nice camp in the Northern end of the park, that night the clouds began to roll in.

The roads were actually in shocking condition, but with a backdrop like that...

Waterfall hfghkdsjfh... sorry I can't remember, it was cool though! (Literally).

As close as we got to the famous peaks of this park.

More riding and another waterfall.

Is there such thing as too much of a good thing? That road though...

Guanacos... the wild version of Lamas. Almost as dumb as kangaroos when it comes to running onto the roads!

Our beautiful campsite at Lago Azul...

A wild skunk approaching our campsite, it's been amazing seeing so many new (to me) animals.

The morning of my birthday, January 2^nd... 70 km/h winds and rain smashed away ferociously at my tent, with about 5 degrees outside temperature, not ideal but OK! During a short lull period in the rain we packed up camp and hit the road without breakfast, trying to outrun the storm. Just before lunch we arrived in Puerto Natales where for breakfast we had the most amazing burgers, a shock to the system after freezing all morning! After that we rode on to Punta Arenas in the ridiculous wind with my bike reaching another milestone of 50,000 km. Here we found a nice apartment like hostal for the night... after spending a week in our tents this was absolute bliss! Not to mention a hot shower!

Fin del Mundo - End of the World.

Patagonian lamb for dinner, taste-bud heaven!

Only 500 k's and we'll reach the end of the road, fingers crossed anyway!

Over the next few days we caught the ferry to Isla Magdalena to visit the 69,000 breeding penguin pairs and also got a few repairs done on my bike. My baby needed new fork seals which had started leaking a few thousand k’s ago and also a new rear tire since the current one was totally bald again (having done 10,000 km in South America)! Now we are continuing South along the road to “world’s end” but we are almost there, Ushuaia will be the turnaround point on Fire Land where the road totally ends.

Not very shy and definitely posers!

The cutest couple on the block.

Feeding the young was a pretty wild thing.

Basking in the sun!

And if you were wondering what them mating looks like... you're welcome!