Life from Behind the Visor: Windblown nerve endings.

Dec 1-2 El Calafate to Chile Chico

Today the plan is to get to Gobenador Gregores (approx at RP27 in picture above), which is just a stop over on the way to Chile Chico, and as the name implies that is back in Chile. Chile Chico is going to be our start point for the legendary Caraterra Austral Rte 7, which cuts a path through the Patagonian region, right through the coastal mountain range of southern Chile. But for now all we can do is hold on tight to the handlebars as the wind is once again very aggressive with the task of blowing us off the road.

We stop in Tres Lagos for fuel and see what lies ahead, a huge cloud of dust, this is not going to be fun or easy.

The view from the gas station in Tres Lagos.

The quick loop through town proves that with even a short break in concentration can lead to a spill as both Brenda and myself are nearly blown over by the cross-wind. We fuel up and head off into the dust cloud. Within the first couple of miles I am nearly blown off the road and have to stop to regain my composure before pressing on. The wind, the restricting tracks, the large gravel and did I mention the wind all made for a challenging ride. After a few quick experiments I found the best method to deal with the variables was to hover off the seat to relieve the bike of some weight combined with aggressive throttle to move forward faster than the wind could push me sideways. That and a little luck would result with us making to the other side of this, wherever that is.

The main thing right now was hanging on and not loosing concentration in fear of losing control and ending up in a world of hurt. All things come to an end and this time it was none too soon as we first reached pavement and then turned East and the wind pushed us into Gb. Gregores. I will say that once we got used to the wind the road was rather fun to ride and with the intermittent construction we could see that in a few years this route would all be pavement, so we were glad that we got to ride it as a gravel road instead of just another section of pavement. Rte 40 is not going to be the a same once it is paved, no challenge, no danger, no fun.

Gob. Gregores almost became the breaking point of the day. We found a nice Hosteria, then made a quick tour of town looking for an open restaurant. This is Argentina so we are not surprised that nothing is open until later (8pm) but we are still disappointed that we will have to wait a couple of hours until something opens. A couple of hours pass slowly as we are a little hungry after muscling the bikes all day. The hunger is compounded when we sit down and the waitress gives us a verbal menu. I ask for a menu and she repeats it verbally. Hmmm, not really in the mood for this. I tell her I do not understand and ask her to write it down (via charades of course). She patiently obliges and we make a couple of blind choices that end with a tasty meal that has some unknown price attached to it.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Usually in this type of situation we would watch for a while and see what other customers are doing and then follow their lead. This time we were in the lead and truly blind. After gulping down the food we feel a little better and realize that we may just have been a little tired and impatient. We retire for the night and have a very good, long sleep. As I type this the news about the typhoon in Thailand comes on TV and the 175kph winds make our situation seem trivial.

Curious onlookers qualify for our Dog(s) of the Day award.

Morning brings a typical breakfast of bread, jam and coffee, then it was back on the road and into the wind. We had filled up the bikes last night so there was no stops this morning until we got 200km down the road to a gas station where we met up with a couple of Brazilian riders, one of which informed us that our planned route through Los Roballos was a bad idea due to time of year. There are many water crossings and at this time of year they would be very deep, a motion of the hand across his chest was enough to convince us that we should take the longer route to C. Chico via Perito Merino. This change in plan also allowed us to ride on pavement which made getting to Chile Chico much easier and faster. This is the first time in memory that I have had to lean to the left in order to make a curve to the right, if I did not do this I would certainly have been blown off the road.