We left Punta Arenas with trepidation; our first hand experience of the winds in Tierra del Fuego as well as nightmare stories of other cyclists being holed up for days had made us a little nervous to the say the least. However, in retrospect we have been let off quite lightly so far. On a normal day we can average about 14kmph which makes 100km tough but possible.

The landscape is a seemingly endless succession of parched hills with few trees or villages to break up the monotony. When the wind dies, the sun shines and our mood lifts, the sheer emptiness is oddly beautiful but for the most part it is rather boring. One wanders what possessed people to emigrate to such a barren land in the first place. It was mainly inhabited by Croatians in the 19th Century and this is still evident in the distinctly un-spanish surnames on gravestones and shop fronts. The early settlers cleared the land, built large estancias (ranches) and have reared cattle, sheep and horses ever since. The land is far from productive though; to prevent over grazing each sheep must have no less than 4 acres of land, which explains why the estancias are so huge. As well as the livestock we also see a fair bit of wildlife – Llamas, Patagonian skunks, Condors, Eagles, Flamingos and Darwin`s Rhea (a small ostrich like bird).

Human life, however, is more scarce and this means that the few settlements we do come across are close knit and self sufficient communities. On our first night out of Punta Arenas we camped by a rodeo stadium – an extravagant facility in a village of 300 people! We got talking to a couple of kids called Valentina and Fabio who had helped us to fill up our water bottles. The next day we saw their photo on display in a cafe 80km further down the road and we discovered the owner was a close friend; obviously if you don`t have many neighbours you make sure you know them all, even if they do live an hour`s drive away!

In Puerto Natales we took four days off to explore the famous Torres del Paine national park on foot. This is where the traditional image of Patagonia is found with glaciers, waterfalls, forests, turquoise lakes and, of course, the incredible towers of rock. The park is a bit of a mecca for walkers and there are good paths, camp sites with showers and restaurants which make it all a bit too easy. However, it is popular because it is spectacular and the crowds don´t detract much from the experience.

After a proper day off back in Puerto Natales we headed out of town and back into Argentina again via a pass through a ski resort. After Gary discovered that he has already gone down 2 notch sizes on his belt we made the executive decision to take much more food than before. With the wind there is no real way of knowing how long a given stretch will take and so we ended up lugging around the following, designed to last us 7 days:

50 bread rolls
3kg pasta
500g rice
8 tins of sauce
2 tins of Dulce de Leche (a caramel spread that packs a hefty 8000 calories per tin)
60 frankfurters
6 packs of biscuits
6 packs of peanuts
14 sachets of powdered fruit drink
6 bars of chocolate

As it turned out all this proved a little excessive as the gods were kind and we covered the 270km to El Calafate in 2 and a half days.

El Calafate is a well groomed town where all the rich Argentinians come to spend their pesos. The reason for our visit, apart from the all-you-can-eat steakhouse, was to see the nearby Perito Moreno glacier. This is part of the Patagonian ice sheet which is the 3rd largest in the world after Antarctica and Greenland. Where it meets the azul waters of Lago Argentino it forms a stunning 50m high wall of ice. The whole glacier creaks and groans as it melts and occasional huge chunks break off with thunderous roars and cause miniature tidal waves to spread over the lake.

Tomorrow we set off for El Chalten which is the gateway to the difficult Villa O´Higgins border crossing into Chile. Hasta Luego!