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..