Return to Argentina

02 Feb 2012

Lie in this morning, we have a ride in front of us, but we weren't in any rush to do it. What was especially nice about this morning was that we were woken by sun on our tent, which hasn't happened for a week or more, it felt really good and was a good omen for the day. So with our bodies fuelled with porridge and bikes loaded we started the ride to Argentina.
1km up the gravel road we arrived at Chilean border control, we had to stop to get our passports stamped to leave. There was a little confusion and we ended up with entry stamps instead of exit stamps, so we pointed out we were leaving Chile and we had to fill in other forms and everything was OK. The guard was very helpful, although if he had bothered to read the stamp already in our passports he would of seen the word Entrada. This done, we headed on.
The first 17km was a sort of gravel road, which in places was smooth, but also loose, rough and hard going in places. We wound our way up enjoying sunshine and lovely views back across the lake and at one point a Condor came drifting over the horizon in front of us, I always think this is a good omen, as what respectable Condor would fly on a crap day? We pedalled and pushed our bikes up the road and finally got the first view of Mt. Fitz Roy it was a very special moment as we both knew we were getting closer to our next goal, Argentina. Not to far from here we crossed the Chilean and Argentinian border limits (we had Argentina Customs yet to come) and the end of the road.
The next part was nothing more than a foot path though forests. Now I'm no mountain biker and certainly no mountain biker who could manage to ride my bike loaded down though some of the terrain we encountered. River crossings, tree roots and parts of the path had been worn away so much a whole new way of riding our bikes had to employed. The bits we did cycle were fun that was until I saw Sarah rapidly going down hill, at first I thought she was still on the path then I realised she was running down a bank with her bike cartwheeling down behind her! By the time I had got there the bike was still and Sarah was standing over it. Thankfully nothing came to any harm. It turned out that she had decided to go one side of a rock, but hadn't had enough momentum to clear it, she leant the wrong way and ended up down the bank. We started pushing the bikes a bit more after that!
Not one to be left out, I also came a cropper and ended up sitting in a shrub, which as much as I tried to I could not get free of. Whilst in this distressing position Sarah though it more helpful to get the camera and take photos rather than helping me up. 
 

Once released we pedalled on and came to a river where for the only time we unloaded the bikes to keep the bags dry. The next hurdle was the trench path and like many other cyclists before us we employed the straddle position and wheeled our bikes though. The final bit gave us view of the lake and more views of Fitz Roy and plenty more fun on and off the bike.
At the bottom by Lake Desierto we came to the Argentinean border control, we went in and got our passports stamped with entry stamps! The guard who stamped them must of had a moment of job realisation and started acting a bit more official and asked a few questions about our plans in Argentina, even though he had already stamped our passports. There was free camping here, so we scouted around for a sheltered pitch as the wind was whistling up the lake. We found one, pitched our tent and then went and washed the bikes in the lake before another meal of mushroom pasta.