Distance: 46.80 km
Ride time: 3:10:32
Average: 14.78 km/h
Total: 21246 km
When I opened my tent this Christmas morning the first thing Petter said was “look, the sun is shining on the little Jesus child”. I thought this was very funny as Petter is something like 1.90 m tall.
The sun didn’t shine for long though. As we made our oats for breakfast raindrops were hitting the roof of the stable. We were happy when we found out that the village’s café was open.
A couple of cappuccinos and a sandwich later we hit the road. In Punta Arenas another cyclist had told us about a police checkpoint where it was possible to camp. This place was only 45 km away, but after the long 9 hour day yesterday we decided that a short and easy day was just what we needed to recover. Luckily the wind had died somewhat down and the kilometers went by fast.
At some point I was making myself a sandwich by the roadside when I looked back over my shoulder: dark clouds and heavy rain was approaching fast. I packed my food and started to cycle as fast as I could. It is really not easy to find cover for anything in Patagonia, so even a small tree would have been good. But, much to my surprise I spotted a perfectly new bus stop with door and windows just as the first drops fell. Petter was already inside lighting his stove. Talk about being lucky!
We spent several hours in our new ‘home’ and even thought about staying for the night. The bus stop even had an attached toilet, the most advanced bus stop I have ever seen. We wondered if this said something about the reliability of the buses here.
In the end we packed the bikes once again and cycled the final hour to the police station. Here we were shown an old barn where we could pitch the tents for the night.
Like the new tent! Looks roomier than the old one!