Torres Del Paine

I had my 1000km party a couple of days ago and have now cycled 1170km. I´ve had the first casualties on my bike too with the front pannier rack cracking on one side and the bolt attaching the other side to the forks shearing off. The bolt wasn´t such a problem cos I had spares but I might soon have to start carrying all the weight on the back of my bike if the front rack breaks completely.

So, I´m in El Calafate now a little further north. It took me two days to cycle from Puerto Natales to the Torres Del Paine in the worst wind so far. Again, the landscape was desert like with no shelter. In the evening to get some shelter to cook and get a bit of sleep I set my tent up in three separate places, each of which were the best I could find. The wind was swirling though so it was impossible to find anywhere calm. If I hadn´t taken the tent down each time, the poles would have snapped. I managed to get a little sleep though at least in the third place. During the second day, I pushed my bike for the majority of the afternoon, covering 40km but with another 20km to go until I was at a campsite where i knew it would be sheltered. Anyhow, I ended up stopping a pick-up and getting a lift, which only took 15 minutes and would have taken me a few hours.

I spent three nights in the national park and did a bit of walking and chilling out. I had a walk up to the Torres base camp which was pretty impressive. The national park is obviously quite a popular place and it was funny to be around brits and aussies again after not seeing anyone for a while.

The day I left the national park, one of the rivers had burst its banks because of glacier melt from the warmer weather. I managed to get my bike onto the back of a truck though which made it through ok. That morning I bumped into a group of 4 american cyclists who I´d met the week before, so I rode with them for a couple of days back into Argentina and on to El Calafate. It was great to have a bit of company.

I´m planning on heading north again tomorrow, to cross the border back into Chile in five days or so. The border crossing should be a bit of a mission cos it involves taking one boat, then pushing my bike for a day over a pass, then taking another boat (hopefully) which takes me to the southernmost point of a road called the Carretera Austral.