Ferry crossing from Porvenir to Ponto Arenas & visit to Los Glaciares

Day off in Porvenir

Stan & Marco visited a Penguin colony on our day off in Porvenir

Photos 25th Jan

Snow on Mountains as we leave Ushuaia

Fisherman's huts on way to Porvenir

House in Porvenir

Usual trees in main road of Porvenir

Hotel shower 

Check out my white eyes

Great days ride winds & all

After trying to make an early start, one member of the crew gets up an hour earlier than the rest but we still have to wait while packs his bike with colour coded bungi cords. Ride started with a breeze which turn into a full blown gale, the riding pattern has formed, first Tony in front because of his GPS, then Marco, Stan & me bring up the rear as the sweeper, to pick up if any thing had to fall off anybody s bike. At the back you get to watch how the others ride, Tony seems to do a lot of fiddling on his GPS, Marco just keeps a steady pace, then we have "Stantheman" well from the back it seems as if he is wearing yellow water-wings on his arms (big yellow bag across back seat of his bike) then you see a bit of his back and a silver helmet which is in line with the tops of  his two rear view mirrors, reason being that  he cut a big piece of foam out of his seat to lower his body, so his feet can touch the ground. Carried on to our first border crossing from Argentina to Chile. Argentina side took 3 hours & Chile side 2 hours and we also had a 2 hour wait for the ferry. Our bikes were rocking from the force of the wind, had to put on the center stand to stop from falling over, saw Tony hiding away from the wind on the side of a bakkie, so joined him. Heard a houter , look up only to see Stan & Marco had been invited into the back of a Fortuner  bakkie and drinking beer as well. After a long wait the ferry arrived and we rode onto it for the   crossing  over to Delfuego island, so we left the ferry we saw a huge storm coming, stop and put on our rain suits,  only to find 5km's down the road a great hotel, with good food and warm beds.
Left early to tackle the last 430km's to Ushuaia, nice ride, still lots of wind, 2 border crossing which meant smoothly, arrived in Ushuaia and found a hostel, great place.

Photo's taken 23 & 24th Jan

Mom lama trying to get her baby to jump fence

People waiting in line to Cross from Argentina to Chile

Marco & Stan taking shelter from the wind in back of a Fortuner while Tony  & I hide behind a bakkie back wheel  out in the howling wind

Ferry crossing from Punta Delgeda

Fixing Marco broken pannier bracket 

Our hostel room in Ushuaia

Inlet  on way to Ushuaia

More photo's 20 & 21st January

Slower way of doing Route 40

Stan in front of a small village Christmas tree

Lima's running across the road (saw lots of dead ones today Road kill)

Jet in to nights stop on top of a pole 

Rada Tilly beach front

Night from Hel

After a long  days riding through some amazing areas, lot of day is spent waiting in line at petrol station for  petrol which is an ongoing happening in every town we pass through. Landed up in Rada Tilly were it seems to never stop blowing, put up our tents in a howling gale, before we got to bed every thing was covered in sand. Went looking for food, which is a problem here if you want to eat before 9.00pm. Everything only starts opening after 9.00pm or later, Left today early, straight the wind did about 200km's starting falling asleep, after about 430km's all decided to stop before the whole crew fell asleep on their bikers. Stop over in Puerto de Punta Oulia got a nice 3 bedroomed house, of course my size does sometimes have its benefits, I got the double bed.

Wow what a great Day

Left Junin de los Andes and headed towards El Bolson after our first breakfast of eggs, rode straight into the most beautiful scenery so far, great  bike riding roads, alpine looking mountains, got our first view of snow on tops of the mountains, did a detour around  the lakes,  lots of  road repairs been done. Argentina schools on holiday at the moment so we found it hard to find a hostel or hotel to stay over night, so we got our tents out & found a nice camp site with hot showers and great food.

THIS IS REALLY ME NOW/PREVIOUS BLOGGER WAS LINDSAY ON MY ADDRESS

Lindsay's already described today (18th) which gives me an opportunity to discuss a couple of other things:
Have I mentioned my "BOOK",received from my daughter ( Lana i think) before I left on our trip.
No more need for phrase books/Spanish lessons  to aid in communication on those foreign trips to out of the way places with strange languages.
No more gesticulating wildly and pointing @ ones private parts to indicate your bodily needs.No more attempts to explain the shape of a banana/tomato/turnip.
No this book could be used in virtually any circumstance to communicate your every need as far afield as outer mongolia.Yes you might  say but ,in the event of a sudden desire for black fish net stockings on my trip to outer mongolia would this book suffice????
The answer is YES!There,on page 6,under ladies garments,an image of a lithe ladies limb clad in black fish nets.I KID YOU NOT!
Every time we've been in a fix with both parties("NO COMPREHENDO") @ a standstill and no where to go.Out comes the book followed by a "SI SI COMPREHENDO"Immediate understanding!
It contains pictures of most things that might come up & requests for a bacon and egg sandwich with lettuce become a cinch.It also acts as a great conversation piece with any foreigners and never fails to bring a smile to their face.
Have we posted any pictures of Stan on his Honda africa twin?He appears to have been inserted into his bike and looks a bit like the "weense worsie" in a hotdog (with a helmet).
He rode all the way today @ around 60 degrees in the wind (It was @#$%^& windy)

Lastly I don;t think I posted regarding yesterdays ride (17th) but we left the village we'd stayed in in perfect weather and the ride seemed to gain a rythm not yet experinced on this 4th day of riding thru karroo type country.That was for the 1st 400 kms till we hit a big city called NEQUEN.
Before and after there were a series of detours due to recent flooding (which we missed) and we hit the city right thru rush hour .So the last 2 hours were a bit testing but overall a good day riding.
We're now around 2500 km into our trip but have around 1600 kms of dirt road to Ushuaia.
Sorry another bit of info re prices so far for anyone interested:
~beer 8 pesos for a litre (R14)
~ACCOMM.:Weve got away with R70 and payed up to R200 each depending on vicinity
~camping 40 pesos (R70)
~MEAL: Anywhere between R30 and R80 but we're hardly eating /just riding

OK now really lastly Cheryl and family it appears that my contract has expired till top up on 21st (I  hope that's the reason) I can still receive though so  keep sending and i'll correspond via e mail in the meantime.
Love you all and keep showing my babas pictures of me so they recognise me on my return!!!

Now on the Famous Route 40 Road

We left our over night stop just outside Neuquen and headed down towards San Martin de los Andes but got hit by a wind storm for about 200km's, I was a big bus and did not realize how strong the wind was gusting around the front of the bus, well I was blown right off the road onto the gravel, didn't touch my brakes held a straight line, came back onto the road only to find the bus was still there, didn't even brake for me, tried again and same thing happen, but this time I made it past. Very scarer passing on the left, still need to get used to it. After battling the wind for a further couple of km's we decided to stop over in a village called Junin des los Andes, the trout fishing capital of Argentina, on a very large river, found our first B&B to over night at. Tomorrow we will head on down route 40 towards Bariloche capital of the Pataganian lakes district.