Despite the title of this post I already find myself wavering so if you will excuse me one short outburst.... I HATE THE WIND!..... Phew. Now that´s out of my system I feel I can carry on in a more partisan tone.

We left Punta Arenas relatively early in the morning and finally started, what felt like to us at least, our proper trek northwards. The day started relatively easy........ the road out of P. Arenas is well paved and realtively flat - there wasn´t that much wind either. We had an excellent morning knocking out a nice 30km before our first break for some water and trail mix - I say our first break.... what I actually mean is an opportunity to use some different muscles! We´d stopped for our break by a little roadside picnic area - grass, trees the usual kind of stuff and we noticed a couple of Spanish guys pushing a car trying to give it a push start - being polite chaps we offered to help and so there we were on our break, pushing this flat batteried car up and down the picnic area...... In the end we had to give up..... and we left the guys at the side of the road trying to flag down a car so they could use some jumper cables.

We carried on for another couple of hours and on our second break, after about 55km, we met a policeman who stopped his patrol car by us just to make sure we were okay and maybe to check we weren´t crazy. He was working out of Villa Tehuelches, a very small 'pueblito' about 45km further on up the road and said if we got there later in the day there were places we could camp for free. We got through those 45km in a few more hours and rolled into the sleepy little hamlet of Tehuelches about 5pm. The policeman we'd met earlier was standing by the roadside with his radar gun in his hand and he gave us a warm greeting. After a bit of chat about our trip and all the usual stuff, he showed us where we could camp on a piece of land at the top of the village. It was perfect: soft grass, flat, and out of the wind. The sun was beating down, the wind had eased off and we were generally feeling pretty chuffed with our first 100km day! If we'd known about the 'Policeman's hat' challenge earlier, this guy in Tehuelches would have been the perfect candidate for a hat photo... but there will be other opportunities im sure!

After a good night's sleep, we carried on down Ruta 9 in the morning. The wind had really picked up since the first day and the going was far tougher. Up in the hills, the wind was against us all day and persistent rain all afternoon really didnt help matters. We struggled through an uninspiring 80km and finally pitched up in another little Villa, this time in a man's front Garden! (we asked first of course

On the third day we only had to cover 65km to Puerto Natales, but it turned out to be the hardest of the three days. The winds were ferocious as we neared the coast and even going down quite steep hills was really hard work! The view coming into the town kept us going though - P. Natales sits on a natural harbour and across the water sits the start of the main "cordillera" of mountains that runs up the continent - splitting Chile from Argentina. Quite an impressive site - photo´s do not do it justice!

We arrived in town tired, but elated at the same time. We hooked back up with Dicky in the camp site we´d picked before leaving P. Arenas, pitched our tent and got down to eating a massive dinner of pasta (again) followed by some hardcore sleeping.

That´s about it for now - we leave for Torres Del Paine National Park tomorrow - our next blog will feature tales from our two days at the camp site and what we got up to when we met a crazy, yet brilliant, family of Ecuadorians! Hopefully that will wet your appetite for a bit more blog......

Next time you hear from us we´ll be in El Calafate and a stones throw from one of the most impressive Glaciers in the world, the Perito Moreno.

Speak to You Soon.

BigJay and Blenk.

After Rich had made the difficult decision to turn back to Rio Grande, J and I bade him an emotional farewell and began our long day to San Sebastian. We felt terrible for him as obviously we all want to pedal every inch of the way, but we all knew he had to get some good rest in and this was the best way. Initially we were planning on this leg taking two days, but we felt we could get there in one if we got our skates on. We did our best to push the pace on, but it was really tough, as we were battered all day by strong crosswinds. The strong gusts, as well as the air disturbance from passing lorries, meant that we were constantly being pushed off the tarmac and onto the gravel of the hard shoulder. The concentration of trying to keep the bike straight and on the road was, if anything, more exhausting than the pedalling!! The landscape had also become far less interesting since Tolhuin - flat and almost featureless all around - and the roads were long, straight and boring. Morale was very low all afternoon, but we were happy to roll into San Sebastian (Argentine) about 6pm at the end of a very tough 65km day.

San Sebastian was not what we’d been expecting at all. We were told there were places to stay, shops, internet and all the usual amenities of a town. But it wasn’t a town at all. There was a shop, a place to stay and nothing else. Just the border point. But we really didn’t care one bit. We got our exit stamp from Argentina, bought some food to last the next three days on the road and then passed out, exhausted, in the waiting room at the border.

A poor night´s sleep was broken at 3am when we got up and hit the road again- It would be poor gravel roads for the next two days now. It was just getting light as we finished the 16km ride to the Chilean Border, where we had to wake the guards up for all the usual border checks and passport-stamping. We weren’t allowed to bring any fruit into the country, so there was a brief pause while J munched down his 2 oranges and an apple, and then we were officially in Chile!!

By mid-afternoon we’d covered a good 60km into very stiff winds, but we were feeling good still so made the decision to try and cover the remaining 100km in two days, in order to catch the Sunday night ferry to the mainland from Porvenir. We tried to push on that afternoon but the winds picked up as we neared the Magellan Straits and when they got so strong we couldn’t even stand we decided to call it a day! We pitched up in a ditch by the roadside and slept like babies. Covering 90km the following day looked extremely unlikely.

We were upset to find that getting up at 2am the following morning didn´t help us miss the wind at all, but we pushed on in the dark for a couple of hours anyway. By mid-morning the wind was ferocious, but by midday it was unbelievable. ´Sitting it out’ wasn’t an option as it was not going to improve (and there was no shelter so we were forced off the bikes and had to push the bikes for a few kilometres. Meeting a couple of German cyclists who were hurtling down the road in the opposite direction did little to lift our mood!

But we rounded the headland and in the relatively sheltered hills the wind died down a little. Although by now we only had 40km to cover in 4hours, the 5pm ferry seemed impossible. We decided to push on to Porvenir that night anyway, as we wanted to be out of the wind and to get a proper night’s sleep. In the end though, we only ended up missing the boat by an hour and felt incredibly proud of our 89km day.

We’d have to wait in Porvenir for the next ferry on Tuesday, which was a shame, as we wanted to catch up with Rich as soon as we could. But we made the best of our rest day: We did a lot of sleeping and a good bit of eating and generally rested our achey bodies. Without a doubt, the road from San Sebastian to Porvenir was the hardest two days of our lives... but we're expecting worse to come!

We’ve been in Punta Arenas since Tuesday, giving Rich’s knee some rest, sorting out the bikes and poring over maps and guidebooks, looking for the best routes north to the Carretera Austral. All’s well and we’ll post again when we have some plans!

After the home brew night our rest day had rapidly become a hangover day, so we spent the day wandering about feeling sorry for ourselves and generally feeling a bit ill. My knee had started hurting the day before so I was trying to rest it as best I could and try to recover so we could be on our way again the next day. Unfortunately it seemed to get worse rather than better so we decided to just get in an early mornings easy riding before the wind would start at about 10am.

So the alarms went off at 5am ( !! ), we got up and had a nice breakfast of cold pasta and mince from the night before and headed out to find that the winds were already as strong as ever! Seeing as we had got up at such a silly hour and were all packed up we headed off into the wind, taking it as easy as we could, but after a couple of hours of going at walking pace the knee was still getting worse so I had to make the decision to take a prolonged rest. After a bit of a discussion it was decided that I would hitch or bus up on ahead to the next town and recover for a few days while Blenk and Jay caught up.

Despite the harsh conditions we were facing it was a really hard decision to admit defeat so early in the trip and have to miss a few days cycling and a couple of hundred kms. I really expected something to happen like this at some point in the trip but so early on was just so frustrating. I really wasnt in a good mood at this point! However, I knew that if I didnt get it sorted properly the problem could really drag on so it was best to sacrifice a small part of the trip now for the good of the rest of the journey (and my knee).

Once i´d come to terms with this we tried unsuccessfully to flag down one of the many pickups going by to take me on ahead so eventually I had to just say goodbye to the fellas and head back the way we came (with the wind), 21km back to Rio Grande to get a bus, while they went on ahead towards San Sebastian.

The trip back took no time at all, getting taken back to the town by the wind all the way, and I found myself back at the Hostel Argentino. I managed to get across what had had happend to Graciela in some terrible Spanish, and she immediately went and fetched her English speaking doctor friend ( and gave me ice cream and lots of hugs to cheers me up). The Doc was pretty sure I had just overdone it too soon, and said I just need to rest for a week or two. Not the news I was looking for, but at least it wasnt anything more serious.

I managed to catch the bus to Punta Arenas (in Chile) the next day, where I would wait for the guys to catch up. Here I spent a couple of really boring days hobbling around looking for some other travellers to talk to, there seems to be a hostel on every corner but no travellers anywhere! I did eventually find a nice place though and on my first night here got treated to dinner ( and wine and beers! ) by a nice couple from Alaska. I think I must have been looking a bit miserable, and hungry!

Anyway, the boys got here a few days after me, we had an emotional reunion and told me their own horrific story of their last few days (while I had been sitting on my bum ) which they will be posting up here soon.

As for the knee, after some more internet research it appears I have a case of Patellofemoral Syndrome, quite common amoungst cyclists. Its caused by a combination of doing too much too soon (im not sure how that could be with all the training we did , poor hamstring flexibility, flat feet and having wobbly knees when cycling, all putting too much strain on the knee and causing bits of the knee to rub together that aren´t supposed to. So while the guys are about town doing the chores I am now spending my days stretching and doing exercises, trying to become as flexible as Dhalsim from Street Fighter ( i havnt mastered the hovering yet )!

News of Blenk and Jays stroll in the park from San Sabastian to come..

Worn and weary from our four days in pretty harsh conditions we decided to spend a day regrouping in a hostel in Rio Grande. Roberto, of Camping Hain fame, had suggested the "Hotel Argentino" and after a quick check at the local internet cafe we were off.

From the outside the Hostel looks quite unassuming but the inside didn´t disappoint. Good heating and a homely rustic charm. Driftwood and carved mobiles hung from the ceiling. A wood burning stove sat in the corner - apparently for when the town has to go without gas or electricity! La Dueña, Graciela was a warm and inviting hostess who spoke very forgiving Spanish. She was also partial to a bit of a chat in French so quite often mine and her chats degenerated into half Spanish, half French ramblings (with lots of hand gestures and sign language for emphasis

Our first night consisted of a shower, excellent after four days without one, and a slap up meal of about 4 steaks each! This was followed up with 2 boxes of quite tasty red wine we´d bought in the local supermarket (at 40p a box quite a bargain as well might I add. The wine clearly marking us out as gentlemen of taste Graciela brought us out some of her special rum home brew to sample. One giant bottle contained Duraznos (Peaches) and another contained Carisas (which I know believe may be some sort of cherry.) Both drinks were wickedly strong - in the finest traditions of the motherland we knocked back our (large) shots of rum homebrew. The assembled locals sharing a drink with us, including Graciela, gave us horrified looks - apparently this stuff is so strong it´s really meant only for sipping! In all fairness that first shot was the start of our collective downfall. The locals became interested in what they could get the crazy gringos to drink and bottles of homebrew ale and homebrew whisky started coming out of the wood work. I think we acquitted ourselves quite well - and at least finished the evening standing!

The homebrew ale came in two varieties - there was a light and a dark version - both were excellent. The whisky was hard to describe - it was definitely whisky but it didn´t taste like any particular Scotch, Irish or Bourbon i´ve ever had. You could have stripped walls with it though!

Me and Blenk ended sitting up all night with a lady who worked for the Argentinian government talking Spanish and getting more and more to grips with the language....... An excellent evening.... unfortunately followed by a day with a terrible hangover, most of which was passed in bed.

J

We left the shore of Lago Fagnano quite late. Our tardiness was made worse by the fact that after 3km I broke my chain! Then while I was fixing my chain Blenk managed to break the valve to his inner tube! Not a good start to the day.

This entry is not dedicated to our misfortune regarding kit, nor is it really about the Road to Rio Grande, or Chile. It is about the wind.

We had read about the wind before we´d left and we´d been told about it´s strength but we weren´t ready for it. I don´t think anything can prepare you for the strength of the wind here. As we turned north on Ruta 3 from Tolhuin the full strength of the strong northerly wind hit us full in the face. It´s power is incredible, as is it´s relentlessness. You instantly feel the cold air sucking the warmth and energy away from your body. Your mouth becomes parched as each individual particle of liquid is evaporated in seconds.

When the wind isn´t in your face it strikes at your side causing you to ride constantly with a list. You still find yourself caught offguard by a gust that blows you onto the gravel hard shoulder.

The wind has the capacity to instantly destroy morale, moments of respite from pedalling (like freewheeling downhill) are taken away from you. The wind is so strong that it is necessary to push hard even downhill.

Rest stops seem to offer little comfort as well. The landscape is so bleak and shelter so sparse that there is never refuge from the wind.

To conserve energy we rode in closely ordered single file the man at the fron taking the brunt of the wind whilst allowing the two behind to ride in his slipstream. After a couple of km the point man would retire exhausted to the back and the second in line would take the lead.

The only good thing about the wind seems to be that it blows at it´s stongest from early afternoon to late evening. During the night and early morning the wind is not blowing.

This means that we have had to take the decision to ride at night and in the early morning - it would appear that in Patagonia cyclists must become nocturnal or else truly suffer for their art.

I can say that after two hard days in the saddle, and after Dick had damaged his knee slightly, we made it to Rio Grande and we were very tired but ecstatic.