Distance: 101.47 km
Ride time: 7:21:26
Average: 13.81 km/h
Total: 21347 km
Last night I asked Petter what he thought of our chances of making it to Puerto Natales today. Not good he replied. The route would take us directly west, straight into the wind. To make a go for it we set the alarm clocks for 4:30.
The early start worked well – at 9 am we had clocked the first 33 km. At this point I passed a restaurant. I had seen this restaurant mentioned on a map, but I had forgotten about it again. When I saw it was open for breakfast I got even happier. This would be the only house we would pass today. I went inside an ordered scrambled eggs and toast. Petter arrived shortly after but instead of breakfast he ordered the biggest steak on the menu. Bonne appetit!
Dmitry, the Russian cyclist we had met on Tierra del Fuego, had told us that rainy weather is the best for cycling in Patagonia. At the time we thought; yeah yeah, the Russian is crazy. As we got back on the bikes it started to rain and then magic appeared – the wind had completely stopped! We were now cycling with normal speed of 20 km/h and big smiles on our faces.
Later in the day when the blue sky and the wind returned our conversation went like this: “Wow, we were really lucky to get that rain earlier…” Only in Patagonia! 🙂
As we got closer to Puerto Natales we cycled into the mountains again. This felt really exciting after 700 km of flat Patagonian landscapes. It felt good to arrive in town as well. Three days ago several cyclists had warned us about this stretch of road, even suggesting that we took a bus or hitch hiked instead. Now we had done it on bikes.
We found another hostel/camp site to put up the tents. I think we can say that we are toughening up by now. Sleeping outside does’nt really feel cold anymore, and we have even beaten the wind – so far.
