Ushuaia – Tolhuin – Rio Grande, 14/01/2012 – 17/01/2012. 297Km (Total 297Km cycled)
Highlights: great views over Ushuaia as we left; our first passport control; wild camping and tasty camp food; meeting other cycle tourists heading south on the last leg of their journeys; heeding warnings about the wind and learning about what’s ahead.
Heading out of Ushuaia isn’t the most scenic route, but after the police checkpoint it all changed. Rolling hills and great views of the mountains made it a pleasant ride, though a bit hard on our untrained legs that haven’t seen much cycling in the last few months. So much for going to a training camp.
Not many miles into our ride we spotted Lucas from Switzerland zooming towards us and Ushuaia. He’d started in Quito and was sad to be reaching the end of his wonderful bike ride. It is great to meet such friendly faces on the road with whom you already have so much in common, and to share information about the route ahead and places to camp and eat.
We climbed over the Garibaldi Pass which we found quite tough so early in the tour, but if you had some miles in your legs …
But wasn’t this supposed to be the world cake pootle, I hear you ask? Fear not. We had our first cake of the tour around three miles from the end of the world (as we know it).
s a bit of luxury since we knew when we arrived from Buenos Aires we would be rather knackered, we booked into the Posada del Fin del Mundo for one night.
We hung around in Buenos Aires in the afternoon, keeping out of the sun and making preparations for our journey to the airport. We explained in vain to the very laid-back staff at the hostel that we would need a taxi which could take a LARGE bike box.
We toyed with the idea of going cycling on the free bicycles in Buenos Aires, or even to take one of the guided bike tours. But, it was simply way too hot and humid to even consider doing more than slow walking, or shuffling when it got really hot, for short distances.
Buenos Aires is built in a grid formation, and the bits we have seen so far are very flat, so if it wasn’t for the intense heat (yes, I know, stop moaning) it would be a great town to pootle about in. It really doesn’t look any scarier than cycling around back in London. Cyclists we’ve observed tend to cycle on the pavement, against the traffic and jump red lights too, though this is kind of understandable given that it is so blooming hard to figure out which of the many street lights is intended for you!
The cycling infrastructure has learnt a lot from the UK, unfortunately, i.e. bike lanes around 2′ wide, in the gutter with interesting ‘obstacles’, and covered in drain covers. That aside, it does seem possible, with a combination of good judgement and a preparatory glance at a map, to have a good – …
To help us get over the long flight from the UK we decided to spend a few days in Buenos Aires before heading further south in Argentina.
We needed something local, cheap and with space to store our gear. The first places we found were either too dear or advertised as party hostels, which we knew equalled little sleep.
But Circus Hostel & Hotel sounded like it ticked our boxes and it did. Great friendly staff, (albeit lacking a British sense of urgency when we tried to book a large taxi to take us and our bikes to the airport, but that’s another story), excellent mini cafe and bar where you could get a good priced meal, and a lounge area with tables and chairs where you can hang out while waiting for onward travel after you’ve checked out.
The room was nice and big and the bed extremely comfortable and wide – it was even just about long enough for my 6’4″ frame. The shower was hot and powerful, but just watch out – the toilet is about 5cm lower than most Westerners are used to, so it was a bit of an unexpected drop when going for the first visit. …
If you’re an optically-challenged cyclist like me, you may have considered getting some prescription specs designed especially for cycling. Riding in normal glasses is possible, of course, but they don’t perform too well in wet, misty or sweaty conditions. Having ridden with contact lenses plus fancy Oakley sunglasses quite a lot in the past, I was well aware of how much more comfortable proper sports glasses are when riding. They protect your eyes from the elements, allow a wider peripheral vision and don’t slip annoyingly down your nose when you’ve got better things to think about, like grinding up a 25% hill on a fully-loaded tourer.
But, my eyes had started to rebel against my wearing contact lenses – they got dry and tired too easily – plus, contact lenses and the related faffage are not great for cycle touring, so I started to look into prescription sunglasses. My usual opticians could provide me with some, but they had standard frames, and were not especially suited to sports. I then came across Optilabs, an opticians specialising in sports glasses based in Croydon, South London, and having read glowing reviews about their cycling specs, decided to cycle down to their shop …
First of all, if you’re wondering why there are no tales or photos of bicycles yet, it’s because we’re officially Being Tourists in Buenos Aires while acclimatising. The cycling won’t start until we arrive in Ushuaia (so if we’re boring you, you might want to wait until Thursday to hear about our adventures on two wheels).
Back to Buenos Aires, the idea was to get up stupidly early and avoid the worst of the heat. We had in mind to visit the famous Cementerio de la Recoleta in the north of the city, best known for being the place where Eva Perón now lies (after some flitting about) in the Duarte family tomb. As usual, we faffed around quite a bit, so took advantage of the free hostel breakfast which started at 08.30 (more dulce de leche, medialunas and orange juice) before heading off on foot in the direction of the cemetery. I’d be lying if I said the walk was pleasant. It was hot, sticky and the traffic was bonkers.
It was, however, very interesting to see Puerteños (as folk from Buenos Aires are known) going about their morning activities in simply oppressive heat: walking purposefully to work wearing …
That’s a picture of a juicy steak, I hear you think. You’re right. More about that later.
We had breakfast in the hostel – some sweet little mini croissants called medialunas, tea (without milk as only hot was available – Peli deems this a serious situation, and a solution will be sought for future breakfasts) and bread with delicious “dulce de leche” (caramel milk, like the stuff at the bottom of Banoffee Pies) spread.
Armed with cameras we set off into the hot sunshine towards the Plaza de Mayo to do the tourist thing, somewhat reluctantly as we’re not that into touregging. In the Plaza de Mayo, we managed to find probably the only patch of soggy mud in Buenos Aires (where they were irrigating the plants) and managed to coat our shoes (not deliberately, but it did make us feel more at home).
Peli did a good impression of a tourist guide, reading the Rough Guide from her kindle and pointing things out in a generally accurate manner. This is always very funny to see, she is a good guide, and all done with a smile.
Having texted Peli’s Evita-mad friend that we were “outside the Casa Rosada crying Eva …
We arrived at the airport with plenty of spare time thanks to the help – in the form of a chauffeur to Gatwick – of our good friends.
We needed that extra time to get my massive bike box (large as it’s also containing the Extrawheel trailer) through the security checks since it would be too big for even their oversized luggage scanner. While waiting to have the box checked we saw a woman with two huge and beautifully-packed boxes of artwork have them dismantled for security checks – we felt for her!
The Lufthansa Gatwick to Frankfurt leg was easy, but when we arrived in Frankfurt it was very unclear where we should go to pick up our connecting flight. Arriving at the right gate the expected ordnung failed and chaos ensued. Our row numbers were called, and then people with children were invited to queue first. One person checked the boarding cards and we were then ushered through electronic gates with barcode scanners that most people didn’t have a clue how to use. They also closed and opened parts of this wonderful system at random. There was also the chaos that arose when they told people that …
View The world pootle aka cake hunt in a larger map
You know, that thing. That thing you’ve been day dreaming about for years. That thing that you’ve wished that one day you’d be able to do. That thing that your friends have become somewhat deaf to, since you have been going on and on about it for years, but have never got around to it. Perhaps you’ve been waiting for the right moment. Or maybe you’ve just never pulled your finger out and done something about it.
Well, that thing! It begins on 6 January 2012. Yes, we decided that if we waited until we were truly ready then we’d never get going, so on that date we begin our longest pootle ever, in search of the best tea and cake, and a smattering of adventure along the way.
We have already sold, packed or binned our gubbins and cycled out of the door of our flat. We also had all the vaccinations needed, booked the tickets and packed our panniers.
The plan? Well, after a quick family visit to the Pennines over the festive season we’ll fly out to Ushuaia, Argentina, then aim north for New York, USA, via Lima and Portland, …
We are getting closer to the day of departure so it is time to get the right jabs. What vaccinations to get, well that depends on where you are going. Our trip is rather open, with no fixed day-to-day itinerary which means that we’re not 100% sure where we will be in, say, 8 months’ time. You also need to start thinking a little bit ahead, since for some vaccinations you need a booster jab and others take some time before they work. And something that I learned today was: some of these jabs you need to get when you are back from your travels.
In the UK you can get most of the jabs you need from your NHS doctor. Some GPs will charge you an admin fee to administer them, but they should be slightly cheaper than at the private clinics. The main site that the GP gave me was fit for travel where you can find a world of information for each country and which vaccinations you need. I went to our GP today and got a cocktail of drugs, four stabbings which included seven of the vaccinations that we are looking for.
Typhoid: Should be good for …
