“Let’s make a deal…!!”

For the longest time, months on end in fact, I have been dreading the high winds that blow down in this part of the world… They know no season, and are part and parcel of what makes Patagonia the bleak and windswept place it is almost always described as…

Heading south to Esquel on Ruta 40...

Patagonia is renowned for the icy cold gusts of wind that can blow at up to 130 km/h and more…!! Of all the conditions that bikers get to ride in, the vast majority of them will tell you that strong winds are their least favourite…!!

On a heavily loaded bike, any wind over 80 km/h makes riding feel as though you are flying a double-decker bus in a gale…!! Not pleasant…!!

About 50 km south of San Carlos de Bariloche, I was tootling along at a steady 120 km/h, enjoying the scenery of jagged mountains that had been thrust up by volcanic eruptions, and the good road surface that wound it’s way through them… The sky was a bright blue, the temperature in the low 20’s…Perfect riding weather…!!

A steady breeze was blowing directly into my face, and this presented no problems at all, until a sudden gust of wind from my right gripped my front wheel and pushed me right over the centre line and onto the opposite side of the road…!!

My heart did a quick triple somersault in my chest, and I instinctively hauled on the brakes, and grabbed a handful of clutch before I jerked the Big Fella back into the right hand lane to avoid making contact with a huge tourist bus that was bearing down on us…

“Where the hell did that come from…?” I asked the Big Fella through gritted teeth and tightly clenched jaw…

“Buggered if I know…!!”, he replied, “But that was a little too close for comfort…!!”

I had begun to see distance markers on the roadside, which I soon realized were indicating how much more of Ruta 40 still lay ahead… One particular marker drew my attention, and I stopped to take a few pictures, and get my heart rate back to normal…!!

This road is famous throughout South America, and worldwide in fact… It has attained legendary status amongst bikers and 4 x 4 enthusiasts alike, and is akin to the status accorded to Route 66 in the USA, and the Stuart Highway in Australia…

Ruta 40 stretches from Argentina’s border with Bolivia, right down to where it reaches the Atlantic Ocean close to Rio Gallegos and the Chilean border… It runs the length of Argentina, mostly parallel to the Andes Mountains, and measures about 5000 km all in all…

It is a many tentacled monster of a road, that absorbs a host of smaller roads on either side of it…

It winds it’s way through 20 National Parks, crosses 18 major rivers, climbs through 27 mountain passes in the Andes, and at it’s highest point near the town of Salta in the north, it climbs to just on 5 000 metres above sea level…!!

I would be tackling this high section of Ruta 40 once I clear Paraguay in February…

I had 1964 kms to cover on Ruta 40... A significant number in more ways than one...!!

While I was standing next to the bike, another huge gust of wind buffeted me, making me take an involuntary step sideways… I was alarmed to see the bike rocking on it’s stand, and hurried across to it to ensure that it would not fall over…

That’s when I heard the voice… At first it was just a whisper, and then it came through loud and clear…!!

“Ah…!! The Gypsy Biker and his Big Fella…!! There you are…!! We’ve been waiting for you to arrive…!! I’m Steady Breeze and you’ve met Sudden Gust, I take it…!! Our superiors sent us up here to greet you…!!”

“Superiors…??”

“Si…!! Howling Gale and Icy Blast…!! They have more pressing business further South right now, and regret they could not be here to welcome you, but promise to catch up with you later, on your way down to Ushuaia…!!”

“Ha…!! I am sure they are…!! So this is how it begins, huh…!! The messing with my brain…!!”

The tourists in these buses have no idea of the conditions they are traveling through, until they step out of the bus...!! That's when their hats go cart-wheeling away...!!

I thought I heard a throaty chuckle as the winds pushed pebbles across the dirt in front of me…

“You didn’t think you’d get past us without a serious challenge now, did you…??”

“No… Your reputation precedes you, and is well documented…!! But I have not come to challenge you, I would prefer to work with you to make you part of my adventure, rather than the reason why it ended…!!”

I straightened my shoulders, faced directly into the wind and with only the hint of a tremor in my voice, said,

“Let’s make a deal…!! Let me get through to Ushuaia without too much trouble, and I’ll let you all have your wicked way with me on the way back up Ruta 3…!!”

“But that would take away from all the fun we have planned for you once you get onto the ripio…!!” came a long drawn out sigh, bending the long grass around me… “That doesn’t sound like a good deal at all…!!”

Ripio” is the local word for the gravel-covered roads that form part of Ruta 40 in the south, and in many places, have been the downfall of both man and machine, as they test their mettle against just about all the elements…

It can be smooth, hard and flat, or littered with stones from the size of marbles to those as big as footballs…

“Yeah, but look at the facts… I have come a long, long way to lock horns with you and the ripio… Let the ripio have a go at me first, then you can bully what’s left of my determination later…!! I’m bound to be an easier target then, no…??”

“Si…. This is true…!! But we have never negotiated with riders before…!! This is highly irregular…!! It is our business to blow people back to where they came from…!! Your friend Willie did not make it past us, so why should we let you through unhindered…??”

Riding to the east of the Andes... The cold winds come sweeping over the higher snow-capped elevations, and across the lower lying valleys...

There were two ways to deal with this, I figured… One was to throw down the gauntlet and challenge the Winds to do their worst… But there was a helluva long stretch ahead to be tempting fate on, so for the time being, I chose a more subtle approach…

“Well, Willie had a very nervous passenger sitting behind him, and decided to do the right thing under the circumstances, and turn back rather than risk injuring her…!! Come now, I let your brethren have their fun with me in the Sudan and across the Sahara; and in Norway you guys nearly killed me on the way up to Nordkapp…!!”

“You’ve already had heaps of fun raising my stress levels…!! I am appealing to the good in you now; the part that has cooled me down on those long hot days; the side of you that I have embraced and asked to carry my messages of love and longing to my friends and family across the world… You have been my friend in this regard, why spoil the relationship now…??”

I guess I must have made my point, because at that moment, the wind died down…!! One moment it was gusting about me, the next it was gone… Just like that…!!

I felt the heat from the sun on my shoulders which wasn’t there before; the long grass around stopped bending to touch the ground; and all I had to contend with for the rest of the day, was a gentle breeze that caused me little or no trouble at all…

I hoped that the winds down south had agreed to the deal as well…!!

©GBWT 2012