Toe2Top of South America
DAY EIGHT
Camp spot to APSV
Distance: 75.12 miles
Time: 5. 16 mins
Av speed: 14.2mph
Wind: 15-20mph tailwinds
Perfect morning - treated us to a lie in after seven gruelling days woken up by the sound of twittering birds followed by scrambled eggs!
Back on Routa 40 and wow what a road - rolling hills and open plains with snow capped mountains on our left
Came across the first petrol station that wasn’t in a town just in time to find out Sheffield Wednesday had scored a 90th minute winner at Portman road!
Took shortcut off Routa 40 - swapping tarmac for 60 miles of bumpy gravel road in awful condition.
Thank god for our bikes and thank you to Roos amazing cousin Rafi as we flew along. Other bikers we met were really struggling with the bumps but the rule with ours is the faster we go the smoother the ride so happy days!
Nowhere to camp as it was getting dark so pulled up the Argentine equivalent of the AA and the man let us sleep in his shed. Perfect set up although he failed to mention he would be running his generator until it got dark!
DAY TEN
El Calafate to Camp Spot Rio La Leona
Distance: 60 miles
Time: 3 hours 50mins
Total Feet: 5,020
Wind: a little
Had much deserved lie in and spirits much higher after a warm shower and clean clothes
Free hotel breakfast and the second restaurant breakfast. If you are ever in calafate Peritos does XXL portions of anything with grease on it head on down!
Failed to find anything we needed except gas to swap with petrol we had been using for our cooker. We had so far failed to even boil water!
No socks so Roo has one pair for the trip after leaving other pair behind :)
Gorgeous evening ride as first heat wave of their summer - 30 degrees and not a cloud in the sky
Both of us had flat tyres but like real magic they resealed themselves thank you Rafi and our tubeless tyres!
10pm getting pretty dark and then stumbled across an abandoned building right on the river bank.
Slept on the beach with the stars above our heads as no need for the canopy. Best camp spot so far - unreal!
DAY TWELVE
El Chaten to Punta Norte Lago Del Desierto
Distance: 26.5 miles
Time: 3 hours 30
Door to Door: 1.30pm to 4.30pm
Wind: bit of a headwind
Because of the ferry timetable short day cycling to catch the 430 ferry that would take us to the northern shore of Lago del Desierto
30k gravel road that was heaven after yesterday cycling along the banks of glacier water river with glaciers either side
Very appreciative of the ferry and the chance to put our legs up
Camped on the northern shore with an amazing view of the glaciers.
DAY NINE
APSV to EL Calafate
Distance: 59 miles
Time: 4 hours (6 in total)
Av speed : 16.5 mph (35mph fastest new PB!)
Total Feet 3800
Up at 4 am to build ourselves a rest day
Miserable start but soon were at the top of the valley that towered over Lago Argentina and downhill the whole way
Couldn’t stop smiling with the sun just rising and the thought of a proper breakfast and coffee in a few miles time!
Arrived at 10am for a whole day of feet up and eating!!
DAY ELEVEN
Rio La Leona to El Chaten
Distance: 75 miles
Time: 7 hours
Door to Door: 10am to 9.30pm
Av speed : 10mph
Total Feet: 10,450
Wind: 30/40mph gusts from 1pm onwards
Today epitomised the trip
Incredible start waking up next to the river as the sun rose followed by bacon and eggs - couldn’t have been happier
But then...
Four days of easy riding came to an abrupt halt as we turned off Routa 40 (what a road and sad to leave) onto the 50 mile road up to El chaten
Whilst routa 40 had been tailwinds and rolling hills la routa provincial 23 was long and straight with fierce building headwinds coupled with a steady 1-2% gradient.
Hardest 7 hours of the trip so far as the battle with the wind was relentless and got harder as the day progressed
It is impossible to describe how hard it was but there were times that we both thought of just throwing the towel in it was that miserable! But the thought of the bigger picture and the four charities + Billy Clark’s last two remaining brownies kept us going
Arrived at 930 and greeted by the awesome siloette of Mt Fitzroy and a place to camp at Casas de ciclistas, very happy to have made it.
DAY THIRTEEN
Ferry to Villa O'Higgins
Distance: 11 miles
Time: 1 hour 25mins
Door to Door: 3 hours and 5 mins
To reach the ferry to Villa O’Higgins we had to push our bikes through a beautiful 5k hiking trail. Some steep hills and lots of bogs but we managed to make the ferry!
Stupidly we left our bikes at the front of the boat. What we thought was going to be a relaxed hour trip ended up being a wavey, windy 3 hour round trip. We had people being sick around us but we were more worried about our stuff getting soaked!
Even though our clothes got drenched it was amazing to see the incredible turquoise blue glacier water and beautiful mountains all around us.
Finally made it to Villa O’Higgins.
DAY FOURTEEN
Really frustrating day. We planned to sort out all our necessary ‘wifi jobs’ and stock up on more food but unfortunately Villa O’Higgins wasn’t much help here. All shops were closed and if there were open there was no WiFi available. After finally picking up some gas for our stove at 3pm the rain started and we headed off to try and get 30 miles in.
Non stop wind and rain through an incredible rainforest was awesome. Awesome, until we had to put our tent up. All our belongings were wet, we were cold and desperate to get into our sleeping bags. We got the tent up and lobbed all of our bags into the homely tent. After we polished off couscous for 8 people we slept praying the rain and wind wouldn’t be around in the morning.
Villa O'Higgins to Camp Spot
Distance: 26 miles
Average Speed: 13.1mph
Door to Door: 2 hours 25mins