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.

It was quite an emotional day leaving the Abra Ushuaia..... Marga and Hector had been exceptional hosts to us and we had enjoyed practicing our Spanish on them almost as much as they had enjoyed practicing their English on us.... The hostel dog, Kaitek, knew something was up because she was pining around us all day as we made our final preparations to leave. So after getting our bikes and gear in order we mounted up and headed down ruta 3 with Marga and Hector waving us off literally until we were almost out of sight. We had no set destination for the first day choosing instead to play it by ear - or more correctly, by aching thighs.

The road out of Ushuaia took us up through our first little Andes. Finally crossing over them at the Paso Garibaldi. The road between Ush and Garibaldi is excellent - paved, without too much traffic and with absolutely breathtaking views... There was only a light breeze blowing and we ended up climbing up and out of the Paso Garibaldi at about 3pm, we had gone from near Sea Level to 490m above sea level in the space of a day.... this was our first taste of altitude but it won´t be our last.

On our way up to the Pass we noticed that the people tend to bib their horns and wave encouragement to you on their way past.... we´re guessing that they´ve seen a lot of tourists in their time!

Before we descended out of the Pass to our first stealth campsite by Lago Escondido we stopped at a Mirador (Viewing Point) to get some photos of the view over Lago Escondido and also Lago Fagnano..... Interestingly here was one of the first reminders that the Argentinian people still seem to hold the issue of the Falklands quite close to their heart..... the Mirador is graffitied with two slogans, the first: "Islas Malvinas = Argentino" (Islas Malvinas is the Argentinian name for the Falklands) and "Ingleses son piratas" (The English are Pirates)..... Photos of this fine political rhetoric will be on the website soon!

From the Mirador we had about 5km of pure downhill along a winding road cut into the side of a cliff face - it was fun! Especially after climbing for most of the day.

We stopped off the road just past the tiny Pueblo of Lago Escondido and were all asleep by sunset.

There is not much to report on the third day - it was simply a transit day really. The landscape became slightly more bleak and the wind got up a little bit but we pushed hard all day to reach what we thought would be a fair sized town - Tolhuin, on the Shores of Lago Fagnano. We needn´t have bothered!

It´s wrong to badmouth a place when you only spend a night there but the town of Tolhuin was in all honesty a bit of a hole. It looks like a back water town that has twigged that it has massive tourist potential and then upped all the prices without offering any service. I think the worst offer we had was a shared room in a hostel type centre for 200 pesos..... when you consider that we only spent 120 pesos on staying in the Abra Ushuaia for a week you can see how this annoyed us a bit. All the roads were ripio (unpaved) and everything had a run down / decrepit look about it. We were finally directed in the direction of a campsite right on the banks of the lake. We rode down to the site expecting nothing.... we were pleasently surprised to discover Camping Hain. A beautiful campsite on the shore of this beautifully blue, millpond lake surrounded by imposing tree covered hills. All for the princely sum of 8 pesos a night! We were also privileged to meet Roberto the dueño of this little site. We spent a very pleasant night here before starting our turn north up towards Rio Grande, where apparently there might be some wind..........