Tom and Dave’s BIG Ride

Article from the Mercury, Nov 14th 2008

Herts and Essex Newspapers Ltd ©2008

Hi all,

Pictures first of all…

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Right, this is going to be a rather long update as there´s lots to say! We last mailed you all at Punta Arenas saying how bad it had been cycling into the wind to Porvenir/Punta Arenas. After a couple of physio sessions my (Dave´s) knee was all fine, but Tom´s not so good, so after much deliberation we decided to go our seperate ways until Puerto Natales giving Tom´s knee some much needed rest. I would ride and Tom would take a bus. In hindsight, i think Tom really did have the better deal here! The sessions with Kathy (the Physio) were REALLY helpful before leaving. She taught us a few stretches to help build the strength up in our knees, which have been really good over the past few days. She also spoke good english. It´s very useful to fully understand something for a change! So, with Tom´s knee on the mend, and a few days´ very hard riding ahead it was the best plan for me to cover the 250km to Puerto Natales and for Tom to catch a bus so he could recover fully.

So… now to the riding. To sum it up i can think of only one word.

W I N D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was ferrocious! I thought we´d left the worst of the wind behind us in Tierra del Fuego, and for the first day that was true. I clocked about 90km, leaving just before lunch and finishing around 8.30. The riding was pretty tough, amd seemingly all uphill. The wind was definitely against me but i could tolerate it quite easily as i was well over 12kph most of the time. It was quite a good start to my solitary 250km. My target was to do the stretch in 3 days averaging just over 80km per day, so i was right on. My 90Km was interspersed with the odd change of scenery ranging from the occasional sheep and flamingo to Geoff the cyclist who´d ridden all the way down from Canada, to 5 clowns (i kid you not!!!) walking down a deserted stretch of highway. I can assure you i really was not hallucinating. Tom saw them too from his bus!

By 7pm i was pretty tired and flagging a little, but then i turned a corner and got the most amazing tail wind for about 2km before turning back off, the wind now dying down, across a truly vast plain. I thought it looked about 15km long. I was very wrong! About 12km in the mountains in the distance were seemingly no closer so i found a rather exposed place to camp. It was amazing! I cooked up dinner to the sound of birdsong and the odd passing truck before watching the sun set over Laguna Blanca. It really was a great 1st day.

Then came day 2 with a measley 65km. first 2 hours went well, but i took 2 long breaks for brekkie and talking to Ruth, another cyclist from the states. If i thought i smelt and looked bad before, i take it all back! This woman was in a class of her own! Pretty hardcore too, with no tent or sleeping bag: just a dog-eared plastic sheet and 2 thin blankets!!

And then it hit me. WIND WIND and more WIND! This was far worse than before in Tierra del Fuego, reducing me to speeds so low i feel embarrased to tell you!! I soldiered on for most of the day taking shelter in the refugios along the way, clocking 55 miserable kilometres until a little hostel. I meandered down a gravel track overlooking an absolutely idyllic-looking ranch (the hostel). It looked so lush and green compared to the otherwise bleak scenery of Patagonia. I stopped and took a picture, thinking this is amazing!! i can´t wait! I got to the gate, parked my bike up and strolled merrily, but achily, to the door only to be told that booking was by e-mail only. I´m not sure how i suppressed my rage but i somehow did. Needless to say, the photo was swiftly deleted from my camera. 10km later i reached Morro Chicho where i spent the night in another hostel, and had a good meal.

Day 3. woke early to beat the wind, and it was plain sailing for just over 60km until 11am. YES, i thought. This is great. I´ll easily clock 100km (the rest of the way to P Natales) today. I stopped for a rest and a sleep til 4ish, having been up since sunrise. This, i thought, would mean i missed the worst of the wind. At 4, it started to rain and the wind was howling! The next 40km was truly demoralising! I seriously contemplated hitching, it was that bad. Luckily i didn´t, and ade it, somewhat bedraggled, to Puerto Natales to find Tom and another cyclist, Oliver, at the hostel we arranged to meet. And that was it. My ordeal with the wind was over. I´m now praying that there won´t be as much from now on, but i´m not sure we´ll be so lucky!!

So… what now? Well tomorrow, Tom, Oliver and I will head to hike round Torres del Paine for a few days, leavbing the bikes and gear at the hostel in Puerto Natales. we can´t wait! Check the website for a few pics soon, as there´re sure to be some good ones

I think that´s about it from us then. We´re really glad to be heading out on our first bit of sightseeing, and it´ll be a great change of scenery after the harsh barren lands of Tierra del Fuego and Ruta 9 to Puerto Natales. Check the website for a couple of pictures of the last few days.

Hasta luego,

Tom and a very tired Dave

Hi all,
 
so… we arrived in <Punta Arenas today   and are really glad to be in a city with internet, loads of shops and general civilisation. The riding has been going pretty well until yesterday when a couple of issues stopped us.
 
The first day was AMAZING with the road winding through valleys surrounded by snow capped peaks. The weather was mixed, but mostly sunny. We climbed Paso Garibaldi (about 30 miles from Ushuaia)     quite easily and crusied down past Lago Escondido  and Lago Fagnano   without the slightest hint of wind. We did 110km that day, and wre  feeling great. We camped in a little wood that evening, had a nice fire and  lots of carbs before the next day´s riding.
 
So… all buoyed up by a fantastic 1st day of riding we set out the next day to be hit my a truly savage he adwind! it had us down to walking pace and we only managed about 60km. It really was bad, and it didnýçt get any better until we reached Rio Grande where we stayed at a lovely little hostel for 1.5 days before heading on, bellies full, to San Se bastian. We took 1 day to do 80Km which was great. It was my birthday that day, and doing 80km meant we could have a room for the night and a nice big steak. Yum!!
 
The scenery here is pretty monotonous. Just flat plains as far as the eye can see, interspersed by the odd guanaco, cow or sheep.         The wind is so bad here that i´m surprised they aren´t sheltering in ditches like we often are!  I´m sure you´ll agree when we   get a few pics up on the site. A las that will have to wait though as we have no cameras with us at the moment.
 
So… yesterday was when it hit us… We´d just crossed the chilean border, very sucessfully i might add as we managed to smuggle all of our fruit and veg through unchecked. Bonus! But Tom´s knee was playingh up a bit so we took it very slowly. Unfortunately through the day it got worse and worse until at 26km we decided to have a long rest. The wind was still pretty fierce, and progress very slow (average speed 7.9kph). We sheltered in a littler refugio on a hillside which gave us a break from the wind, although the corrugated iron shack made the most awful noise! When we went out to look at the bikes later we found that Tom´s sleeping bag was gone! We still have no idea how, when or where it went, but it was definitely not there. We had planned to camp fopr two nights until Porvenir, but with only one sleeping bag tyhat would have been pretty stupid, as the weather can change so quickly here and temperatures could easily get below zero. 
 
So… we decided that we´d take note of the miles we´d lost and hitch a lift to Porvenir.             As comeupance for our failure in getting to Porvenir under our own stean, guess who stopped to give us a lift… No, it wasn´t a stretch limousine, it was Carlos the dustman in his very smelly, very full garbage truck!!! The panniers went in with a load of old fruit and veg and the bikes wre strapped on top for about 100km.  Carlos was very nice though, anbd despite our bags stinking to h igh heaven we were very glad of the lift. To try and persevere under the circumstances would have been  stupid. We think we might make the miles up in Torres del Paine national park.
 
So that brings you all up to date. We´ve definitely had our ups and downs    opn the way to Pun ta Arenas, so we´re staying here until monday  when we´ll see a physio tyo check our knees, although we´ve done some research and think we know the problem already… Just needs a little rest.
 
Apologies for the bad spelling and typos, this keyboard is a little worse for wear!
 
Look at the website soon for a few photos etc.
 
Hope you´re all well
 
Tom and Dave 

The written update for these pictures will follow soon…

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kisses,

tom and dave

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Hi all,

So… we arrived yesterday night around 11.00 after a marathon 2 days of travelling. The flights with Iberia were really bad, so we were glad to finally land in Buenos Aires. It was pretty late, and we couldn´t really be bothered to haul the bikes to a hostel so we decided to crash in the airport until the morning before heading across the city to the Aeroparque for our transfer to Ushuaia. In hindsight, maybe sleeping on a hard marble floor and mesh bench wasn´t a great idea as both of us only got about 3 hours sleep interrupted by a cleaner whyo moved us at 3am to sweep the floor!

But… once we arrived at Ushuaia, it was all worth it. This place is amazing! The scenery is awesome with snow capped peaks visible from our hostel window. There´s even a little supermercado where we´ve stocked up on a few supplies for the next few days´ riding.

Today was our acclimatisation day. We decided to head up to the “glacier” above the city. it turned out,however, to be nothing of the sort. The road was worth the climb though. On the way down we clocked 36mph without even pedalling!!! That´s only 4mph off of our English land speed record! In all we rode a leisurely 20 miles and are now feeling pretty good about the journey ahead

So… i think that´s about it from us for now. But… Just to rub it in to those of you in rainy England, It´s lush sunshine here from 6am until after 10pm! It is a bit fresh though!

Hasta luego,

Dave & Tom