Necochea

Typical. After three days of temperatures in the high 30s I find a campsite with a swimming pool and the weather turns overcast and cool.
The receptionists at the campsite asked me about my trip. When I told them I'd riden here from England they went out and hoisted the Union Jack in my honour.




After countless nights in the tent I think I've finally found the key to a good night's sleep - Argentinian cabernet sauvignon.

Puerto Piramides

Activity of the week: swimming with sea lions

Gaiman

Gaiman was founded in 1874 by Welsh settlers. I did my best to lower the tone in a smart teahouse by turning up in my biking gear for an all-you-can-eat Welsh tea. It was rather good but you can tell you're not really in Wales - its warm and sunny.

Yep, still windy

Today the wind succeeded in what its been trying to achieve for the last couple of weeks - gusting hard enough to blow me straight off the side of the road.

The only way is up

Since landing in Canada I've been heading south for 20,493 miles. Now I've reached the end of the road there's only one thing to do - turn the bike around and start heading north.

Its the end of the world

Ushuaia is the southern-most city in the world. The road ends 28km further on at Bahia Lapataia. The only way of going further south would be to take a boat to Antarctica.

Still Windy

Perito Moreno Glacier

I visited the glacier as a day trip from El Calafate which meant I could leave my luggage at the hotel. It was a lovely twisty road and the bike seemed to appreciate not being heavily loaded for once.

Patagonia

Two days of dirt roads, which generally weren't too bad - there was usually an obvious line to follow to avoid the worst of the gravel. The fun starts around midday when the wind picks-up and gusts strongly enough to blow the bike sideways into the gravel. I had two especially big wobbles - certainly as bad as my Mongolian moment. But I learned from Mongolia and managed to stay upright.

.

Bariloche, Argentina

My two most loyal blog-followers have asked me to write something about these two pictures, so: one is of a big lake and the other is of my bike in front a yellow bush. Okay?

Maintenance

A day of looking after the bike today - a pair of new tyres and an oil change. Whilst out getting the tyres the sidestand snapped in two. Fortunately there was a welder just around the corner and within 45 minutes I was on my way again. I did consider posting a picture but I thought a photo of Chilean welding would probably only appeal to quite a niche audience so here's one of a local park instead.

Santiago

I'm in Santiago, but where's everybody else? The place is deserted.