The Real End in Buenos Aires

Location:

Buenos Aires

Leaving Ushuaia is emotional. With most journeys when you turn for home, it’s sad because you always want to go a bit further. However with this journey there is no-where further to travel. We cannot go south any more and this has been our route for five months. So while turning north is a major step and not without regrets, it is the only way we can go.

We retrace our route back to Cerro Sombrero in Chilean Tierra Del Fuego for our last night on the Island and then the next morning recross the Straits of Magellan. It is a choppier crossing than previously but just as quick. Our route then diverts and we turn east to head towards our final land border crossing. We cross on Ruta 3 from Chile back to Argentina for the last time. We have crossed 17 land borders including 7 times between Chile and Argentina. Ruta 3 is basically our home for the next 4 days as we take the only paved route up 2000 miles of the east of Argentina. We stay in a few little oil and gas producing towns, which are basic towns with some lovely hotels to keep visiting workers happy. As we ride north we enter the Welsh settled areas of Patagonia and start seeing dual language signs. Policia / Heddlu! We divert off Ruta 3 to visit Gaiman an Old Welsh community with road names such as JC Evans and Ruta Rodgers. It is a strange mix.

We travel through Pampas terrain. Huge, flat and open with low scrub plants that are trying hard to survive and keep out of the treacherous winds. Guanaco and rhea are still plentiful but start to fade out the further north we get. They are replaced initially with stretches of desert terrain with the sand blowing across the road, and then later with arable farming and then cows and sheep. We ride our biggest day which is 490 miles of Ruta 3 made tiring and challenging by the in-secant cross wind which is strong enough to move the bike, forcing the tyres to slide across the tarmac.

Then without much warning we are staying in a nice remote hotel at the edge of Sierra De La Ventana National Park and it is our last night before Buenos Aires and the finish. A relatively subdued night and then off early for 300 miles before lunch and a re group to ride into Buenos Aires.

Into Buenos Aires and along Julio 9th which is the widest road in the world, and to our hotel, for more hugs and congratulatory pats on the back. This, only after we ride down the incredibly steep slope to the hotel underground car park onto the newly painted concrete floor and in a final moment of symmetry Aaron drops his bike in the hotel car park. (Ed dropped his in the Anchorage Car Park just as we left!)

All that remains is a final night out to celebrate. We are going to Tango Night the night away. Professional dancers and the Argentine Tango close up is absolutely amazing. A truly fantastic way to end the trip.

Spaces for the 2011 Trans Am are limited and filling fast, so to experience the journey first hand e mail us soon!

Reaching Ushuaia

Location:

Ushuaia

Back to the tundra which, while not the last gravel everyone will ride, it is the last very tough section of Ruta 40 and so everyone is solely focused on “don't fall off!”. Over the border once more to the Torres Del Paine National Park and we are staying in a lovely Hacienda. During the evening the owner arrives in his pick up with two young lambs that a puma has killed. We are here for two nights so we can spend a day riding in Torres Del Paine. There are herds of guanaco, rhea and small foxes. Even after 17 weeks travelling, there are still plenty of surprises when several riders see at the side of the road a guanaco giving birth. It takes ten minutes and mum spends most of this still grazing. Within 15 minutes the newborn is walking, somewhat unsteadily but wking all the same.

From Torres, we head off to cross the Straits of Magellan. This means we are at the end of the continual land mass of the continental Americas. We ride past abandoned estancias on the coast and rusting ships on the way to the ferry to Tierre Del Fuego. The ferry runs about every 30 minutes simply on a when it arrives it loads up and goes back timetable. At each end the boat rams the ramp and the captain keeps it driving into the concrete ramp while cars, trucks and bikes load and unload with the tail of the boat drifting left and right in the current. Nothing as time consuming as tying up!

Once on Tierra Del Fuego it is a short ride to Cerro Sombrero for an overnight stop. The next morning we are back on unmade roads and cross the moor like terrain of the north of the island to another border crossing. The island is divided between Chile and Argentina. We ride on and mountains rise in the distance. The south of the island returns to mountains, forests and lakes. We stay on the north side of Lake Fagnano just 65 miles away from Ushuaia where Ruta 3 ends.

This is the most southerly road in the world. The end of the road - literally. We ride away in the morning in convoy and make our way gently over Paso Garibaldi and down into Ushuaia, the most southerly city in the world, through the city (more of a big town) and onto the Lapataia national park and to the end of the road after a final 20 miles of dirt and mud track in the park.

We park up and then there are lots of hugs, a few tears and a glass or two of Champagne. This is the first Trans Am where every-one who left Anchorage has arrived in Ushuaia. One rider is now pillion with her husband. One bike is crashed and unrepairable and has been stripped of parts to get another back on the road, but we are all here and all on bikes.

After an hour or two, beating off curious tourists we turn and head north. We haven't really done this for 5 months.

We have two days in Ushuaia to reflect and enjoy Antarctica. Time to visit Penguin colonies and boat trips out towards the cape. The second day is Mac's 60th birthday and a bit of a lunchtime party follows. The rest of the day is spent quietly to get fresh for the 3047km ride north to Buenos Aires and the real end of the journey.