Our ferry was due to leave Punta Arenas at 9.30am, and we still had to buy our tickets…!!
Roberto and Carl join me for breakfast...
Carl seems well pleased that we got onto the ferry without slipping on the deck plates...
If we missed this ferry, the next one was due two days later, and spending another a few days in Punta Arenas was not an option we were willing to consider…!!
Our bikes were ready and loaded before breakfast, and after wolfing down the usual coffee and “sweetbreads” we left the Hostal Ainil, and refueled at the service station around the corner… The next fuel station was on the Atlantic coast, over 225 km away, at Rio Grande…
We bought our tickets while the cars and trucks who were already lined up on the dockside when we got there, began driving onto the ferry…
We rode our bikes up onto the slippery deck and were instructed to park them at the very back of the barge… It was going to be a case of last on, last off for us…!!
We hoped our ferry, would not end up in the same position as this fishing vessel...!!
By a quirk of fate, I would be making my last ride to Ushuaia in the company of Roberto from Mexico, and Carl from the United States... We lined up on the upper deck of the ferry for a quick photo-shoot... Roberto was feeling the cold more than most...!!
Carolina Guzman and her daughters kept us company on the ferry ride to Porvenir...
We were joined on the upper deck by Carolina and her daughters, and we chatted amongst ourselves for the duration of the two hour voyage across the Straits of Magellan, to Porvenir…
The first part of the crossing was made on flat seas, and then things got a bit more interesting… The ferry ploughed into rougher waters in the middle of the channel and began heaving it’s way over the swells…
It had been cold to begin with, and we were all wrapped up against the elements… Then as we neared Terra del Fuego, the island that is shared by both Chile and Argentina, it began to snow…!! The flakes drifted down around us, melting as soon as they landed on the deck….
The little flurry did not last long, but certainly had us wondering exactly what lay ahead of us on the ride across to the Atlantic Coast…
A large contingent of Chilean soldiers had made the trip over with us, and when we landed, they gathered their kit and set off into the hinterland… I think they were out on some kind of military exercise….or planning to take back the part of the island that had been given to Argentina by the Pope, many hundreds of years ago…!!
We rode into Porvenir, a run down little fishing village, with old buildings and very little to recommend it by… We found the correct road that would lead us directly east across Terra del Fuego, and set out to do battle with the ripio… We had 160 km of dirt road to cover, across one of the most inhospitable parts of the southern tip of the continent…
Windswept, cold and bleak... And to make things worse, it began to rain...!!
The first half hour, was probably the most uncomfortable part of the ride across to the Chilean border… It drizzled for awhile, and I was sure it was going to snow at some point… It was quite cold too, and a wind was blowing off the sea and across the road…
Once we had cleared the narrow coast road that afforded some spectacular views, and began inching our way inland, the weather improved dramatically… No more rain, and just a light wind that blew off the sea… The sun even came out at times to help us choose the right lines on the gravel roads…
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