Raphael and Bettina

Met a great cycling couple from Switzerland at the campsite. They have cycled from Ecuador and were kind enough to answer some of my daft questions. Here is a mini interview with them I recorded. Listen to find out a great tip to get more from your cycling tour and to find out how fast dogs run.




Also I spent the day checking out the amazing Perito Moreno Glacier.

21 of the World´s Most Famous Walks

I´ve just finished a week trekking around Torres del Paine national Park in Chile. I had a fantastic time and its great to translate those photographs I had seen into actual memories. (This process is a bit like when I saw Chuck Berry play at Portsmouth Guildhall when I was 10 years old. It was my first gig and I went with my Dad. I was so excited because I had worn out my Chuck Berry tape by playing it a thousand times and was obsessed with him. Nothing compares to seeing the man in the flesh playing "Johnny B Goode".)

Anyway, I´ve been thinking about other treks for future holidays/expeditions. Here is my international wish list. Is one life long enough?

1. Torres del Paine circuit (Chile) (Pete has done it!!)
2. Los Glaciares (Argentina, options to veiw Cerro Torre and Mt Fitzroy)
3. Cordillera Real (Bolivia, 7 day circuit)
4. Bruce Trail (Canada)
5. Inca Trail (Peru)
6. Pacific Coast Trail (USA)
7. Continental Divide Trail (USA)
8. Appalachian Trail (USA)
9. Kerry Way (Ireland)
10. South West Coast Path (England)
11. West Highland Way (Scotland) (Pete has done it!!)
12. GR5 (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxombourg, France)
13. Snowman Trek (Bhutan,21 day hike in Himalayas)
14. Israel National Trail (er...Israel. 1000kms)
15. Everest Base Camp (Nepal, 18 days)
16. Annapurna Circuit (Nepal, 3 week loop)
17. Great Baikal Trail (Russia)
18. Nordkalottleden Trail (Finland, Sweden and Norway)
19. Grand Italian Trail (Italy, 6000kms)
20. Heysen Trail (Australia)
21. Milford Track (New Zealand)

Torres Time- 7:22:01

Torres del Paine to El Calafate

Took a rest day at Hosteria des Torres campsite which consisted of reading, eating and composing hillarious poems. Then built giant bonfire to cook my pasta with peas and salami and warm my weary body.

Yesterday I took to the road on my bike again and it feels good. There was a section of gravel road that was the worst yet but I had a tailwind so pressed on racking up a good 120kms or so. Then when I was packing up my tent this morning a guacho (kind of a cowboy) rode up to have a chinwag and stare into the distance looking menacing. I patted his horse which look round and stared at me as if to say, "Do I look like the kind of horse who gets patted. Do me a favour..."

Then I breakfasted on crackers and peanut butter and rode 100kms into a head wind. On the way I got back to the paved road, finished all the crackers and ran out of water. I then had to try out the "Dave Technique" taught to me by the guy I met cycling the other way.

Step 1: Stand by side of the road with an empty water bottle and point to it.
Step 2: Hope someone stops.
Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 as necessary.

It worked pretty well. I got 300ml the first car and then as I was cycling along later someone rolled down the window and threw a 1 litre bottle at me. I think they´d been phoned up by the first car. How cool is that. Now I have a "support team".

Things went steadily up hill (literally) with the headwind continuing, and then steadily downhill (in both respects). My back tyre has seen better days and gave me another puncture. I patched the puncture but then split the valve somehow and had to change the tube. I was just looking forward to hitting the headwind when a bus offered me a free ride to El Calafate. How could I refuse! It would have taken me another day I think as it was 66kms to go when he picked me up.

Here in El Calafate I have been on a spending spree buying a new camera, a new tyre and now spending a fortune in the internet cafe. Tomorrow I will go check out the Perito Moreno Glacier (probably by bus) and maybe have another rest day too as I have just spotted that there is a Folk Music concert on in town.

Rose Tinted Torres Del Paine

After eating like Lords, and drinking like fish, a group in the Refugio Chileno looked at an attractive guide book photograph of the Torres del Paine bathed in a pinkish light at sunrise. But how early must they wake to see this spectacle? Someone knowledgable of the sun was consulted, calculations were undertaken and at last a time was held aloft.

"Four thirty!!!" they all cheered.

When the alarm clock beeped its merry tune, your faithful correspondant leapt from his bed, laced his boots and, with a spring in his step, skipped and hopped his way up the hill. Surrounded by a bevy of bronze skinned beauties, clad merely in bikinis and hiking boots, the intrepid young chap vaulted fences with the early sunshine shinning down on his face. Soon, there they were, the sight that defies description....

Oh, alright then. That didn´t happen. If you must know, it was too cloudy to see the torres when I poked my head out of the tent flap. I directed a clenched fist at the noisy aforementioned time peice (which didn´t improve my hangover) and rolled over and slept. When I did hike up to the torres, which are certainly towering, it was too late for the red glow effect. Perhaps I can add that later with photoshop?

Puerto Natales to Torres del Paine

Thanks everyone for the birthday messages. I had a lovely time at a mountain Refuggio quaffing wine, spining yarns, eating cottage pie with egg and cheese and sleeping like a log in my tent despite 70mph winds. The next morning I poked my head out of the flap at sunrise to see a reddish glow on the torres before going back to sleep with a hangover. I´ve now hiked most of the W route and am now considering making it into a loop. Cuernas and Torres were spectacular, tomorrow I hike up to the Grey Glacier. Loads of cool people on the trail. Brits, Yanks, Israilis, French, Belgium, Spanish, Swedish to name but a few. Good for company and conversation.

Route from Puerto Natales to Torres del Paine national park was a bit windy and a gravel road most of the way. Met a switz guy who cycled from Alaska at a cafe in Cero Castillo.

Bad news is my camera screen broke and I now have no idea what will happen. Nevertheless, I still take photos blindly and hope for the best. I think I will buy on in Calafate as a birthday pressie.

Also, sorry to anyone who got a spam e-mail. Don´t know what that is about.

Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales

A few miles out of Punta Arenas I crossed paths with Dave (note the machete) who has cycled here from Seatle and is nearly at the end of his journey.

Yesterday was the day of things breaking. This began in the morning when my plastic spork decided it would rather be a uselessly small fork and spoon instead. Then the button on my trousers broke and just as I was looking for a place to put the tent up I got my first puncture.

Puerto Natales is beautiful. It is set on the water with mountains all around. I´m looking forward to scenery becoming more dramatic and also to spending a week or so hiking in Torres del Paine national park. Right, I´m off to explore

10 gadgets for bike travel

There are a few gizmos that make life a bit easier for a bicycle traveller so I thought I would share my top ten

1. Thermometer: I picked this up this morning in Punta Arenas. How else am I going to brag about the extreme cold I endured in the Andes and the brain melting heat in the tropics. Also, should give me a sporting chance at some basic weather prediction.

2. SD card reader: More descrite (and therefore safer) than plugging in your digital camera etc.

3. Miniture tripod: I´m touring alone so have to be best freinds with the self-timer.

4. Flint and steel: My friend Lindsay gave me this as a going-away-pressie. It is indispensible. Works every time for lighting fires or stoves and doesn´t matter if it gets wet.

5. Swiss army knife: never does a day go by without me using this trusty tool.

6. Universal adaptor: Argentina has a combination of flat and round-pins (so you can use either) and Chile has round pins. Either way its worth having an adaptor mine will do any country in the world and also has a USB input which is ideal for charging up the ipod.

7. Combination bike lock: Cheap but hopefully enough to put an oppotunist theif off. I´ll never loose the key because there isn´t one.

8. Spork: Awesome eating utensil. Needed for stiring pasta, shoveling said pasta into mouth and then for spreading dulce de leche onto some bread. But I guess any spoon would have done.

9. Pen: Mine was a gift from CAAC and I probably would have forgotten one otherwise. Diary entries would be a bit minimal without it.

10. Toepeak Alien 2: It´s worth having a decent multi tool for the bike. This all-singing-all-dancing one is ideal.

Darren Alf is really the king of this kind of kit list. Here are links to his lists on a similar theme. . .
Top 10 Most Important Items on a Bike Tour
Thankfully, I have 8 out of 10 with me. I consider that a pretty good score, a First at uni. I don´t have a mirror or mobile phone.
10 Important Items You Should Have But Might Not Think of Bringing On Your Bike Tour
I managed 7 out of 10 with these, just a 2:1. Forgetting toilet roll (I´ve just stollen a wedge from the hostel), extra camera battery (which would be really useful) and mini USB cable (which wouldn´t).

Rio Grande to Punta Arenas

Phil and Joyce

The northern half of Tierra del Fuego is flat and windy. I headed out of Rio Grande and put in a longish day to reach San Sebastian, which is the border with Chile. Went through fine and then passed a sign reading "Fin de Pavmiento". From there on it was a case of eyes down and look at gravel. But there is a knack to riding on this stuff and soon enough I was looking around enjoying the scenery again. The scenery consists of miles and miles of nothing apart from the odd sheep or llama. At the Chilean version of San Sebastian 15km further on I grabbed a steak sandwich in an american dinner style place and changed over to chilean pesos you get about 6,540,000,000 to the pound (possibly) so your mental arithmetic needs to be sharp. Then I camped in the absolute middle of nowhere.

Woke up and there was a tail wind! Wolfed down some dulce de leche (a bit like condensed milk) sarnies and hit the gravel. 50 clicks later passed Phil and Joyce a cycling couple from Bath who have come from Peru a similar route to the one I am planning and gave me pleanty of useful tips and info. Ta! They told me of a campsite by the beach between 40 and 45kms from Povenir. So I nailed it to there and got a little campfire going with heaps of dried out sea-weed and drift wood. I love cooking on an open fire, it saves fuel and after I´ve finished cooking I have a nice cheery blaze to eat by. Only trouble was that the tide came in and the sea was very noisy with crashing waves that woke me up a few times. Today the going was tough as the road was washboard gravel tracks with several undulating hills and the head wind had reappeared. Took me 6 hours to cover 40km. Then I arrived in Porvenir (bit of a ghost town) and waited for the ferry to take me to Punta Arenas. I´m now safely installed in the Backpacker´s Paradise for 2 nights to get a bit of rest before heading up to Puerto Natales and then Torres del Paine (which I am very very excited about) where I´m hoping to do a bit of trekking in the mountains.

Equipment is all doing well. Especially the bike, she is a grafter. The sleeping bag is very warm. Tent´s ok but not really been tested by a soaking yet but does fine in the wind. Trangia for cooking is great and I found "alcohol industrial" easily in the supermarcado. Its usually easy enough to build a fire instead anyway. Panniers all do what they are supposed to, I like the Crosso´s for the twist closing but prefer the clamps on the Revolutions.

Ushuaia to Rio Grande

My lazing about in Buenos Aires is behind me now and the adventure has begun!!!

Arrived in Ushuaia and put the bike together and headed off into town to buy food and fuel. There is a sign saying "Ushuaia: fin del monde principio del todo". Then I wound on up into the mountains in, shall we say, not too bad weather. It sleeted a bit but generally the wind wasn´t too bad and nor was the temerature. In fact going up hill it got a bit hot. My first campsite was in the snow near the top of Paso Garibaldi surrounded by beautiful snow capped mountains (all about Ben Nevis sort of size). It was very chilly so I just dived into the tent and got some soup and pasta on the go. had a cup of tea and hit the sack. It was a cold and windy night, I would estimate -2C or so, but inside my lovely warm sleeping bag it was toasty! Next I summited the pass and free wheeled for about 10kms the other side past a gorgeous lake.

Then the scenery started to flatten out a bit. All the truck drivers, motorbikes and some cars wave or beep their horns to cheer me along which is great fun. Tolhuin consisted of a petrol station. So I bought a chocolate bar and a fizzy drink and carried on. Later I found a great free camping area with loads of Argentinians on thier hols. I set up the tent and bits of ice and snow fell out, but in sunshine it dried out instantly. Then I got a fire up and running and cooked some pasta and some tea and then just chilled out by the fire with a book. Doesn´t get dark till quite late here so I am usually in bed before dark and get up after sunrise.

Today was more of a slog because the wind has picked up. I fought a headwind all the way but its flat and featureless. Just the occassional llama. Arrived in Rio Grande and checked into the Hostel Agentina. Looking forward to a shower and a decent feed. Hoping to make it to Torres del Paine for my birthday (think that´ll make a good pressie).

Don´t foget there are more pictures on flickr.