My wheels have officially come off and admit exhaustion.

After eight days of riding, about 2,500 kms so far, with much of that on very difficult dirt roads, but all of it an incredible experience with emotions between ecstasy and intense fear of crashing , I have taken a full day off in Puerto Natales. This is a small coastal town in southern Patagonia. Check out our Instagram posts at Friedman2111 and Simon_is-Travelling. All the photos are there.

We have two nights in the same hotel, the Costa Aurelis, with an out ride to the nearby Torres del Paine National Park. As spectacular as this may be, my body more urgently needs the rest. Starting tomorrow we get going again and have 5 more days of riding, with expected strong winds and more tough terrain – so I need to regroup a bit. El Toro has gone and I am worried about letting him out of my protective clutch, although truth be told it is he looking after me.

Puerto Natales is a very pretty town, in the throes of a rebirth from squalid to hip, much like the Bree and Kloof street revivals in Cape Town.

I am off now to top up my caffeine levels at a very cool Australian Coffee shop nearby. In this part of the world not doing any sugar is very, very difficult. In addition I have the most focussed “Sugar Policeman” watching my every move, ET himself. So when I have a moment of weakness he is on my case and will not let me buckle! This is of course good as it would be tragic to start undoing the good effects of all the hard work to date on the ketogenic diet, something that I am convinced has gotten me this far and enabled me to get to Patagonia. The hard work riding is also chewing up the calories big time.

We have hooked up with a great British couple, Andy Hill and his partner Emma. They both ride. he is a brilliant motorcyclist and she is not too shabby either. Both are much quicker than us on the dirt and ride this very competently. She is a proverbial pain in the butt being able to do all this stuff better than most men. I know the feeling as I am married to one of the kind! Skis better than me, could ride a bicycle better, walk uphill more strongly and in general better at everything except where a ball is involved. Andy is an A320 Captain with EasyJet and Emma studying for a PhD in Psychiatry. She has three grown up children and Andy none. Dogs are their thing with a wirehaired Dachshund and two retrievers at home. Our sort of people and good fun to spend time with.

Andy and Emma are leaving the tour two days early as the bikes have to be dropped off in Punta Arenas in Chile. We go through there on Friday and they are going to Ushuaia to pick up a cruise to Antarctica. Getting bikes through customs in South America and especially Argentina is a nightmare, so the transfer of imported goods through the various borders involves mountainous paperwork and stamps. This means they cannot drop the bikes off in Ushuaia.

Last night we did dinner in a great seafood restaurant they found. The building made entirely out of shipping containers and featuring fantastic crab on the menu. King Crab and scallops are the area speciality, this suits me.

Yesterday our border crossing at Cancha Carrera between La Calafate and Puerto Natales was a nightmare, one that made the crossing at Kasane, between Namibia and Zambia, look efficient. There were about 30 people in the queue to exit Argentina at the customs check out. One young girl working and she had to check the paperwork, collect money from the Aussies who have to pay to get into and out of Argentina, in a welcome response to the cost of visas for Argentinians visiting Aussie – nice to see the wheel turning round! Nothing for Saffers and Brits! Then after every 3-4 people she had to get up, go outside to let exiting vehicles through and check those incoming!

Eventually we got through and made our way to the Chilean immigration and customs. Much more efficient but everything gets checked, which becomes tricky when you have your emergency supply of “tong” and nuts in the panniers!

We have had great hotels for the past few nights in La Calafate and then in Puerto Natales. Also special experiences in Puyuhuapi where we stayed in an old house B and B with ET and I sharing a room and then on a working Estancia – La Angostura- with the 4 bachelors in one room. ET and I  arriving first giving us the choice of the most comfortable beds. This farm was singularly beautiful with horses grazing in front of the farmstead, dogs everywhere. Geese and ducks on the wetlands which seem to be everywhere in Patagonia – no water shortages here! Patagonian lamb cooked on the open fire on the cross. Crisp and well done as I like it. Salads, fresh and crispy. Malbec rounding off a great meal. Then collapse into bed with ET sleeping sitting upright on his bed! We were tired after a super long day of riding, over 500 kms mainly on dirt. Wind blowing us off the roads.

The wind speeds in this part of the world are legendary and we regularly are experiencing winds of 60-90 km/h. Given the crappy road surfaces, staying in the track is essential, the riding is very challenging. I ride behind ET and we talk on our intercom all the time. On more than one occasion we have both almost come off as we inadvertently enter really loose areas of gravel. You have to look up and open up or a spill is certain.

In fact three days ago our intrepid tour leader, Bob Rees, from Wales who is an excellent rider, came off quite spectacularly, denting his bike and ego. Lucky not  be seriously injured!

I have come off once. After riding the whole day with some very tough dirt I managed to lose it as we entered our lodge at Malin Colorado in Puerto Guadal. Literally in last 30m as we went up the entry drive, on some soft sand, the bike’s rear wheel came around and down I went with my face on the grass and the bike on top of me. I could not get out as my foot was trapped between the rear foot peg and the pannier. So I had to lie there stupidly with the bike at rest on top of me. Eventually a joint effort between ET and myself freed everything up and ET gallantly offered to ride my trusty stead up the rest of the way. I think he was making sure he did not have to pick my bike (or me) up again, but I was not arguing.

Tomorrow we head further south. We are currently at about 51° South. Cape Town is at 30° S so this is well into the “frantic 50’s” which is tougher than the “roaring 40’s”. We have been very fortunate with the weather other than the wind, as by normal standards it should have been colder and wetter. No complaints. We are getting used to riding layered up in ambient temperatures of under 10°C. The part of my body taking the biggest strain appears to be my thumb where the wear and tear inside my glove means that my fingerprint recognition on my iPhone and iPad only works intermittently.

I am going to sign off now as I need some time to sort out the mess that my bags are in and then get ready to enjoy the dinner tonight. When I get to Santiago on the coming weekend and then on BA back to London, where I have 16 hours to pass, I will update the blog with more details of specific days. No photo’s though as these are all on Instagram

So goodbye and goodnight.

©Biker Pilot 2017.