Hello Sportsfans,

I realise that you must have been disappointed not to get the evening update from Biker Pilot and El Toro his wingman, but we have been riding hard, very hard, so hard that most grown men would be weeping at this stage. Good thing that Scope and Panto are not on this trip because the tears would add to the already huge rivers we have witnessed. Their bleating would be epic especially the Cambridge Pom’s.

We have ridden 1,200 kms of which about 800 have been on extremely difficult dirt roads, most of which have my personal worst surfaces on them, being loose gravel of a depth of between 5cm and 50cm due to all the road works being undertaken at the moment.

This means that the lady you are attempting to ride becomes a bit of a bucking bronco and is very difficult to keep on the straight and narrow. The only way out of this predicament is the opposite of what we do in these situations. Not a firm hand but rather a very light touch. Lots of power applied smoothly and weight forward.

Like all good things once the technique has been mastered it results in endless pleasure and enjoyment for all parties. The rider (who knows that he/she has mastered the steed) and the steed who does not end up mangled on the side of the road. However it is exhausting and at the end of each day on this trip, El Toro and I are collapsing and fall into bed.

Last night he and I shared a room at Casa Ludwig in Puyuhapi, on the Pacific coast in the middle of Patagonia. I left dinner earlier than he did and was absolutely fast asleep when he got in about an hour later. Our days generally start at about 07h00 and we try to get wheels up by 08h00 to get ahead of the gang who only leave at 09h00. SO at best we are only getting 7 hours sleep which is simply not enough given that we are physically active for about 10 hours every day and in a state of “close to terrified” for about 6 of those hours while on the dirt!

Right now my eyes are drooping and I cannot finish this so it will all have to wait to Friday at the end of this week when we have a free day in El Calafate. By then we would have broken the back of the trip with a few very big days of riding under the belt.

I have lots to tell you about including a major front tire puncture between Bariloche and Esquel. Abandoning my “blau maedchen” on the side of the road and been ridden to our destination on the back of El Toro’s mount. Discovering that the hire company had crooked us on my tires, which were not new as they were supposed to be but that my tire which ended up with puncture had already had a previous puncture in the same spot which had been repaired!

So until then Good Night, Goodbye and Good Luck

Please remember that the photos appear nightly on the following Instagram accounts:

Simon_is_travelling

Friedman2111