Fitz Roy Hiking

Wednesday 9th

El Chalten is famous for the Fitz Roy range of mountains and the hiking is reputed to be the best in Argentina - a bold statement. As Fitz Roy is 3405 metres and the cloud cover starts at 0 metres I could be hiking in my own back garden and see more, but..... there´s not a lot else to do in Chalten a town of about 1000 people, so I head for the hills.

The hike is a really nice route starting right out of town and climbing through beech forests to Torre lake where there are supposed to be stunning views of Cerro Torre - 3100m high towers of rock. I see clouds, Hmmmmmm.

And I´ve found another hiking machine trying to kill me. Nadia, an Australian from Sydney has a bus to catch and is on a mission. We make the lake (4 hours according to the guide) in under 2 hours and are rewarded by great views of Glacier Grande on the far side. There´s a snow covered ridge that takes us closer and as we´ve made such good time - it would be a shame to miss it.

We meet several people who turned back in the snow, and Irishman "David" at the top, replete in his straw boater hat (a de riguer piece of hiking equipment in Galway - apparently) and a waterproof jacket safely contained in a carrier bag. As it´s probably below freezing and the wind is pure ice, I just go along with the old stereotype about the Irish being crazy. At least the inside of his carrier bag is fully waterproofed and won´t be getting cold.

The scene is amazing and 3 sets of footprints in the snow is proof that we are the only ones to enjoy it that day. Shame about the cloud cover obscurring the mountains though.





The hike down is a blur - Nadia ("I don´t like going downhill") runs down all the steeps - apparently it´s easier that way and protects the knee joints. So we complete a 7 hour hike in 4 hours. She´s another one I need to take out on a bike to get my own back!!

Company

Tuesday 8th

Everyone is in El Chalten. I walked into a hostel and met 2 girls that stayed in Puerto Natales (Karaoke Claire and Michelle) so Tuesday was a rest day followed by another drinking night. The locals have a strange kind of chivalry here. One took a real fancy to Michelle and was asking my permission to talk to her (which really pi$$ed her off).
I just agreed to sell her to him - I still had Claire, and I think I would have got a good price.

Only kidding Sue (and Michelle!!).

Michael is a cyclist that I met in Ushuaia right at the start and we´ve been trying to meet up ever since after he got a bus out of there. He´s in Chalten as well, so at least I´m gonna have some company riding out of here, which will be a bit safer now the weather is turning.

I met another Spanish couple cycling into Punta Arenas about 3 weeks ago - they have been in Chalten for 5 days waiting for a friend - and the 3 of them may join us. Rumour is that 2 more Spanish riders are a day away, so I go from solo cycling to just another man in a peloton and it looks like I need to improve my Spanish rapidly!

What no Autumn?

Monday 7th

Well the weathers changed. It was light rain when I pitched the tent.
This was the camp in the morning.



I think Autumn lasted about 4 minutes before winter set in.

I got up early to try and beat the wind, and get to El Calafate, and it was just too quiet when I woke. I now know snow is a good sound muffler. And it´s cold as well. But I already knew that.

The snow was coming in horizontally on strong winds, and after 4 hours in the tent waiting for a break in the weather, I just had to break camp and hope for the best. I really didn´t want another night by the road in this weather.

By the time I had packed up the wind was back to full strength and the snow was coming in horizontally. 5 upper layers of clothes, 3 for the legs, 3 pairs of gloves, 2 hats, cycling hard and still cold. How can that be?

I made 14 kms in 2 hours and had set solid as a cycling shaped person with helmet icicles when 2 guys (Louis and Carlos) in a mobile home stopped and peeled me off the bike. I didn´t want to take lifts, but this was getting serious. They were going to El Chalten (my next stop after Calafate), but they had hot tea, so I went El Chalten instead.

This is the oldest mobile home in the world.



Comedy moment 1 when Louis dropped his phone and all 3 of us tried to grab it before it fell down the boot sized hole in the floor where the gear shift goes through.



Comedy moment 2 when the only working wind screen wiper dropped down and started polishing the front of the bus.

But I am oh so grateful to these 2 guys. Thanks Louis and Carlos.





Note gloves and coats - no heating in this old boat, about 2 degrees inside but it felt warm to me.

Ruta Cuarenta

Saturday 5th Sunday 6th

Finally started to travel Route 40 (Ruta Cuarenta) the infamous road that travels the length of Argentina to Bolivia. It begins rather gently on tarmac heading East - the first time I´ve got to travel with the wind, and it´s just a joy to "be Lance Armstrong" and cycle like you´ve got an engine. It only lasts 30kms (less than an hour) but such an easy 30kms. I am a wind driven smile machine.



Then it all goes horribly wrong. The map has red lines - good tarmac. Thick green lines - good ripio, thin green - bad ripio, and orange. Ruta Cuarenta turns North - meaning cross winds, and orange - meaning I knew not what.

This is orange...



... and we got a man down - my first crash. This is more pebble beach than road.

To be fair it´s not all like this. There are some bits where the stones are embedded in mud and my delicate derriere gets minced like burger meat with the vibrations.

There are other bits where the stones are exactly like ball bearings and you slide and roll about and then the wind simply blows the bike from under you.

Other bits are just crap ripio and you try and follow narrow tracks made by cars - impossible in the cross wind. I go from a 30km per hour smile machine to 3 fall offs per hour and about 6km progress. I find that elbows are not the best tool for flattening stones each time I fall off.

If it sounds like I´m complaining - it´s because I am - I hate orange....

Puerto Natales to the Border

Friday 4th

Finally left! Back on the road - feels a little strange to be alone. Well nearly, Mark a cyclist from the Erratic Rock rode the first 20kms and we picked up a local street dog on the edge of town. He followed for about 25kms, long enough for me to start wondering whether this would violate the rules around crossing borders with fresh meat.

Views back towards Puerto Natales.


Starting to climb (view back down road)


Got to Cerro Castillo at the Argentinian border - a small town that seems to exist just to pick up trade from buses passing to Torres del Paine National Park. And be windy. There are 2 hostels - both closed, so I got a lovely pitch for the tent in a tree lined garden behind one of them.

Erratic Rock

Sunday 30th to Thursday 3rd
The "Erratic Rock" hostel is a dangerous place and it sucks you in. Where did the time go. I can justify some of it. I needed to do laundry - all that hiking and cycling makes a man´s clothes less bendy than when new! And I needed to rest the ankle, but 5 days! The place is like a giant magnet and I´m not the only "traveller" to not travel far from here. I have made the top 10% list of long termers though according to Bill the owner, and you know when you´ve stayed a while when the greenhorns start coming to you for information. Really cool place.

Not all wasted time though, checked out a few local restaurants including Africano - a well recommended (if strange) combination of African / South American food, plus a Pizza joint that does Pizza deserts - fantastic. The highlight was a 5am session in the local Karaoke bar with Claire, Michelle, Ian and Connor from the hostel. I don´t normally do Karaoke, but apparently Pisco Sours (Pisco - a whisky type drink from grapes, lime and egg white) has that effect. A wireless microphone really helps as you can "give it large" and strut your stuff in fine style all round the place. The bar owners tried to close the place by turning off the machine - but we just made up our own songs, playing Spanish tunes - but we just made up our own words (Pisco makes you fluent in Spanish). Eventually they gave us carry outs to get rid of us which seemed like a good deal. Ian made a 7:30 bus the next day which was impressive. Michelle slept til 2pm - less impressive.

On a more productive note, did a couple of gentle rides to mobilise the leg again, 60kms down along the Puero Natales sound where you get some great views of the mountains around the town and there´s plenty of (unidentified) birdlife including flamingos - I know that one. 25kms to Mirador (forgot the name) the rock outcrop that Erratic Rock takes it´s logo from, where there´s a nice 600m climb for panoramic views of the flat plains Puerto Natales is built on and the mountains and hanging glaciers surrounding. Fine views - sorry no camera.

Stayed long enough to see my hiking buddies Marcin come out of the park after finishing the circuit and Jeff arriving back from Punta Arenas for a steak and beer session.

Got my own back on Marcin (the machine who tried to kill me) by persuading him to cycle to some prehistoric Milodon (large pointy clawed sloth like beasty thing) caves 30kms away. He suffered the following day in a most satisfying manner. Marcin - you hike like a man but cycle like a girl.

This is Bill.... and Erratic Rock. Bill says "send all the cool people".