Panniers to rucksacks

Leaving El Chalten


A bit of a westerly ...


Camera-shy armadillo


Iceberg


Spegazzini glacier

Well, we are now back in Chile in Puerto Natales, having completely failed to update the blog in El Calafate due to continuing internet connection problems. However, we seem to be back in the 21st century and we have a lot to tell you ...

First of all, a confession. Technically speaking, you are no longer reading The Cycle Diaries because our cycling days on this continent are over. We had always planned to stop in Puerto Natales anyway but we decided to burn our cycling shorts in El Calafate instead, mainly because in order to get back to Buenos Aires, we need to take an internal flight from Argentina, not Chile, and we don´t have time to cycle all the way to Ushuaia (approx 700km from here). It`s also pretty bleak round here for cycling - 30km cycling into Calafate into a brutal headwind was quite enough for us! The best thing about cycling on the pampa is the bizarre array of wildlife - armadillos, massive birds of prey, and emu-type things, to name just a few.

Having recovered from the two-day El Chalten to El Calafate cycle, we went on a catamaran trip to see some glaciers. (We haven´t been to the world-famous Perito Moreno glacier yet but will probably do so on our return to El Calafate.) It was a truly memorable day out, too much to take in really - massive 5km wide glaciers cascading into the Lago Argentino and huge blue icebergs floating around. The scale of it all is just mind-boggling - there is so much out there and the only way in is by boat.

The further into Patagonia we get, the more amazing the scenery becomes. We are now planning our trip to the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine for some world-class trekking. The complete circuit takes a week so let´s hope our legs don`t seize up again ... watch this space. And then we´ll be flying from El Calafate to Ushuaia for some more outdoor adventures in Tierra de Fuego. The blog lives on, even though it´s two feet from now on, not two wheels.

(Clive adds - As trip statistician, I´ve crunched the numbers and they are as follows:

Totals: 114 days cycled; 7230km (along); 71,070m (up). Daily averages of 63km and 623m.

Maximums: 122km along (on the Arg. pampa); 1570m up (crossing Andes to Santiago), altitude 4700m (crossing Andes S. of Huaraz, Peru). About one-third of total milage was off the tarmac).