11. Cloudy and Rainy in Patagonia
DAY 176
I didn't sleep at all last night, exactly as expected. I was just lying in the tent looking at the time, making sure I won’t sleep through the alarm clock. It wasn't even worth the effort setting up the tent. Being right at the coast, it is very humid and tent is wet. I packed everything and rode to the ferry terminal at 1 o'clock in the morning.
There's already a lineup formed for the ferry. The bikes go first so doesn't really matter. There are two other bikers besides me. They are from Brazil and heading to same direction. One guy is on a homemade tricycle. It looks really bizarre, like a chopper. It has a VW engine and transmission. It just looks weird.
The ferry came on time and we all boarded it in a few minutes and are on the way. It is pitch black outside. The sitting area in the lounge is not that comfortable. I'm tired because I didn't sleep so I had a great idea that I just lie on the floor. I put my riding jacket underneath me and tried to catch some sleep. After a few minutes, I felt there is something wet underneath me. I got up and there is this huge puddle of water around my jacket which is completely wet. I knew right away what happened. My Camelback lives in the back pocket of my jacket. When I put it flat on the floor, the water leaked out. All 3 L of it. Great job genius! Now I have to ride in wet jacket in a single digit weather outside. I put my rain jacket underneath my riding jacket so I don't have the wet stuff soaking my layers underneath. And that was it for my sleep.
The ferry has two parts, the first one is about 3 1/2 hours. Then we all have to disembark and ride about 10 km and board another ferry for half an hour sailing. By then it started to get light outside. It was a good thing because first 40 km on land was all on a slippery dirt road. It was damp and foggy. You could see some nice view either of the mountains or the lakes or the ocean but it was chilli with all that moist air hanging around. I wanted to get a breakfast or at least a coffee in the first town, but it was still too early in the morning and everything was still closed. So I kept going and the weather got better. It was cloudy but later on was more sunny than cloudy. Absolutely beautiful views of the glaciers, snowy mountains, lakes, and rivers with clear water. I have some really nice pictures from that segment.
I didn't have any plan for today as I didn't know how long is the ferry ride. So I was going to wing it. There were really no town or villages on the way at all. I was getting hungry. I stopped at the gas station which had a small convenience store attached to it. The lunch of champions, sandwich and a Red Bull. I ran into a couple from Colorado, Sarah and Scott and we had a nice chat. They came from the place I was thinking to visit today. It is about 80 km to the west, right on the coast. The day still young so I have lots of time. If I like it I will camp over there if not, I can come back and find something at this place.
The road to the coast is a dirt and very dusty road. The good thing about the dust is that you can see the approaching vehicle way before you actually see it. It was a nice road, but quite tricky and slippery on the gravel. There wasn't too much traffic, I've met maybe a dozen cars all the way to the coast. It was a fun ride. There is a ferry across the river about 10 km from the village. The ride is free, it is considered to be part of the road. I'm not sure why the village was there in the first place. There was no commercial port or fishing or anything significant that I could see. There were only a few streets, no motels, no restaurant, and I couldn't even find grocery store.
I keep riding past the village towards the beach. The road was getting more and more narrow and it ended up to being a very narrow sandy two track. I kept pushing and the send was getting deeper. It was getting tricky getting through. I could see the dunes in front of me, but then the sand got really deep and I decided to turn around. But I went about 20 m too far. I got stuck in the deep sand while trying to turn around. I finally dug myself out after a considerable effort and was getting out of there. They where those gigantic flies there, which could probably carry my bike. The beach was nice, but it was too exposed and too windy. I have decided I will ride back as there is no reason to stay here.
I took the same ferry across the same river again. There was no traffic at all, so when I stopped freaking out every time my 700+ pound bike moved underneath me, I pushed it up a little bit. Quite a bit actually. It was so much fun, but it was a very hard work both mentally and physically. 80 kilometres pushing it really hard. The weather was nice and sunny, and I had a ball. It took me a half of the time to get back. This was my mini Dakar stage.
When I got back to the main road, I was really tired. I didn't sleep for two nights, rode 400 km today and pushing it hard at the end. It is time to find a place to sleep. I didn't feel like camping, I needed a real bed and a shower. Luckily, there was a nice hotel right in this little village and they had a room available. It was pretty expensive, but I couldn't care less at this stage. I needed a shower, sleep and food. Not necessarily in that order. I had a nice shower, went for a dinner in the hotels restaurant, and I was sleeping before even my head hit the pillow. It was a great day with incredible views, I have beautiful pictures but I'm exhausted. It is time to sleep.
DAY 177
I fell asleep right away last night, but when I woke up in the middle of the night, I was in cold sweat and shivering from cold. I can feel I'm really really tired. In the morning I felt like dump truck around repeatedly over my body. Two Advil before the breakfast will have to do the trick. A few things were quite clear. I am not 20 anymore even though I try to act like that many times. And yesterday I was really pushing it. When you see trace like Dakar rally on TV you know that those guys are in really good shape. But you don’t realize how good they really are until you try to do what they are doing. And it is insane. I pushed my face a little bit and I was exhausted. Those erasers probably could read a book and eat a sandwich doing my pace. But they are doing 800 km stages for two full weeks. Absolutely incredible.
Still feeling tired I went for breakfast. I could see that it was raining overnight. I looked outside and he didn't look that great. The clouds in every direction. I put on my rain gear as I pretty sure I will get wet today. And I was right. The shower started five minutes into the day. It was raining on and off pretty much the whole day today. The mountains were in the clouds, and from time to time you could see the glimpse of the peaks. But overall the landscape felt like home. It looks here exactly, like on a coast of British Columbia or Alaska. It was beautiful, but not stunning. That is probably because I can see this every day at home. nevertheless, it was beautiful. The legs drivers the untouched forest and fairly good road. There are some dirt section but nothing too technical or difficult. According to the signs of pretty much going from one national Park to another. Unfortunately, I didn't see too much from them. I took a small detour to a fishing port on the coast. Again it could have been any village on Canadian West Coast. just like yesterday I didn't have any plan, no place to sleep booked and no idea where I'm going to end up today. I had one casualty today, though. Because of the rain, I put a rain cover over my tank bag which is where my camera sits. I'm not sure what happened probably at one of those stops when I was sticking my camera out, I lost the rain cover. I didn't realize it until about one hour later. I'm not going back to look for it. It could be anywhere. But I needed so I have to get a new one somewhere. In the worst case, I can put a garbage bag on the top of it.
It is mid afternoon and I came to a small town of Puerto Aysen on the coast. I think it is enough for one day. I will try to find a place to sleep. I found a reasonable place for a reasonable price. I unloaded the bike and went to the main street. On the way in I've noticed a nice outdoor store. they might have rent covers for backpack which I can easily modify to fit my tank back. And it's exactly what I got. It is a little bit too big for my bag, but I can use it for his originally purpose to cover a back pack.
I had a great steak in the restaurant and walk around a little bit around the town. There's really nothing to see over here. Town itself and its location reminds me again, northern British Columbia.
It is time to write my journal and edit those two pictures I took today. For some reason I'm still cold. It is raining outside and it is 9°. So the weather is just like back home in the fall. Quite miserable.