El Calafate to Puerto Natales

6th to 9th March, El Calafate to Puerto Natales

6th March (60.15M)

So the inevitable happened and it was good to be back on the bikes, especially today as it was payback time! The road out of El Calafate was the same one we'd come in on against a horrendous head wind. Today the westerly wind was there and although not as strong it still provided a decent tail wind. The 30km that had taken 3.5hours on the way in now took us 1.5hrs on the way out! Happy days and good time for legs that were a bit out of biking practise. Our tail wind continued throughout today as we continued in a easterly direction, back on Ruta 40 for a while. Slowing us down and testing our legs was 10km of continual gradual ascent. Hard work, although Gareth still seemed to have his climbing legs. Looking back at the top of the climb we had lovely views of Lago Argentina (the lake that El Calafate sits on the edge of) and occasional glimpses of Mount Fitz Roy when the clouds cleared a little.

From the top of Cuesta del Miguez (pass of Miguez) we now had about 30km across a windy plateau. A Lesser Rhea decided to race us for a while, easily running along the verge at 15mph for a couple of minutes before deciding against expending more energy and turning around. I'm sure that it could have easily out paced us if it'd really wanted. Despite having seen a few potential camp pitches on the side of the road on the ascent, when it was too early to stop for the day, there were no sheltered spots from the wind on the plateau and nowhere to pitch our tent. We'd been told by other cyclists that you could often ask at puestos (roadside works areas for maintaining the roads in the winter, usually minimally staffed in the summer) for a sheltered place to pitch a tent. At the junction of Ruta 40 and ruta 5 just before we were about to turn southwest into the wind, was such a puesto and with no sign of shelter on the road ahead we stopped to ask for a tent pitch overnight. We were greeted by the friendly Argentinian, Claudio. In high speed Spanish which I had to get him to repeat a few times, we were directed to pitch our tent in the shelter of one of the maintenance barns. Complete shelter from the wind, a place to cook on and later that evening the arrival and company of a couple of Japanese cyclists also taking refuge from the wind.

7th March (41.4M) Average 5.5mph!!!

Woken up to the barn creaking under metallic expansion as the sun settled on it and the continued relentless noise of wind passing over the metal roof, it was with some trepidation that we packed our bags ready to continue on our way. We knew the next section of road was renowned to cyclists travelling in either direction as windy, usually with side winds and rough unsealed roads causing most of the problems. A big thank you and goodbye to Claudio for putting us up. I wished that we'd brought some small thank you gifts with us to give to people like him, unfortunately our food bag was only filled with dried pasta meals, cheap biscuits and porridge, not much of a gift to anyone except a cyclist! Claudio was obviously a strong fan of cyclists and showed me many photos of himself with other tour cyclists that had stopped at the Puesto. I've got and address so we'll post our photo back to him next time we are able.

So from the puesto it was now on rough ripio (gravel) road southwards. Initially the going wasn't too bad and we soon caught up with the Japanese couple, heading our direction, but who had stopped to chat to a Dutch couple of cyclists heading north.

After a while of chatting we all continued on our way, Gareth and I now in front of the Japanese couple. Gradually the road swept round more to the west and the going got a lot harder. We basically had relentless headwinds and any wobble on the bikes from the stony gravel road left us many times heading sideways across the road as the wind caught us sideways on. Then it was a question of wobbling back the other way to try and regain our forward motion or a stop, as the edge of the road approached, to correct the direction of the bike and then set off again. It was a true testament to the strength of the wind as we watched 5 condor soar over us in this none mountainous area, not really the right environment for condor, except for the incredibly strong wind.

The day continued and our average speed slowly continued to drop. We soon realised that we weren't going to complete this section of road and reach any civilisation today, so spent about an hour of our day trekking up to a fresh water spring that we'd seen on the hillside, Gareth building a mini-dam to deepen the pool it made as the water came to the surface and then collecting enough water for the rest of the day and cooking and camping overnight. Continuing on from the spring, feeling rather proud of ourselves that we'd managed to source water (probably would have been easier to have filled our dromedaries at Claudios, but we hadn't been expecting such a slow ride) we cycled ever onwards into the wind and slowly uphill. We checked out a couple of potential tent pitches, nowhere was quite sheltered enough or ideal and so we continued on in the hope of somewhere better around the next corner..... Unfortunately at 5mph the scenery doesn't change that quickly.

Very tired now, Antarctica hadn't prepared us for this, at 7pm we came to a small excavated area with mounds of soil on 3 sides. Perfect we thought, until we got closer and encountered the smell.... a dumping ground for cattle and possible sheep carcasses and other general rubbish. Without hope of anywhere else sheltered to pitch our tent (now we wished we stopped at the other less ideal places instead of checking around the next corner) we did contemplate it for quite a while, trying initially to pitch our tent in a much less sheltered spot away from the wind, no hope of the tent actually lasting the night in one piece. I sent Gareth back to check our the sheltered smelly area again. He was right absolutely no way either of us could put up with that smell fro the night. So tent packed away again we continued onwards. Head torches were now out as it was beginning to get dark and the agreement that we'd stop the next car hoping for a lift. There were no more cars that night. This was the only time that we have misjudged our riding and ended the day cycling in the dark. Despite tired legs the riding  actually got easier. We watched a beautiful sunset over the Torres del Paine mountain range (the national park we were ultimately heading towards to walk around in the next few days).In the dark we lost all sense of distance. There was no traffic to worry about. Soon we could see some lights from a building ahead which is what we were now heading for. There was a full moon and it was eerily beautiful.

Finally at 9.50pm we arrive at a road junction and a single building consisting of a police station and another road works puesto. Apologising for our lateness we asked for and were given a sheltered spot to pitch our tent. A late night pasta meal and then much needed rest.

8th March (37.55M)

Back on the tarmac today to the relief of both of us. Typically the wind had drastically died off, it still helped our progress today as we continued in a southwest direction. Throughout today we had beautiful views of the Torres del Paine ahead and despite tired legs we were both so grateful for smooth roads and very little wind we made good time.

A small amount of dirt track as we turned off Ruta 40 and passed from Argentina to Chile through customs and across 6km of 'unclaimed land' between the two border controls.

Reaching the town of Cerro Castillo on the Chilean side and after passing through customs where we declared and they checked that we weren't carrying fresh fruit, dairy or meat products we enjoyed an expensive but very appreciated coffee and cake each. After a bit of asking around we were directed to a sheltered area where we could pitch our tent, conveniently next to the public toilets.

9th March (40.2M)

Despite pitching our tent in the middle of their town/ village, no one bothered us, we were obviously not the first to do it. The only person to stop was a friendly local called Juan, who asked us in good English how we were, our plans etc. The police, fire service and everyone else just gave a friendly wave as they drove past.

Certainly the first half of today's cycling I really enjoyed, the scenery was good, the road was tarmaced and there wasn't too much head wind. Not much camping potential here, looks like the border was up for dispute with Argentina in the past with warnings of landmines in the fields surrounding the road.

Later in the day we were both getting pretty tired and were very grateful when we finally arrived at our goal, Puerto Natales. A short time later after asking at the tourist office and then checking on the Internet for ourselves, we found our way to the 'Singing Lamb Backpackers'. It came very recommended and with Puerto Natales having a lack of campsites except for hostel gardens, which are never that great. A warm welcome from Susan and then the priority for both of us (and probably everyone else encountering us in the hostel) after securing the bikes was a long hot shower...