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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

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