Argentina
Beverly. Birthday. Chocolate.
Friday, 12/01/2007 to Sunday, 01/21/2007
After a good breakfast and tent assembly, it goes to today's short section to San Carlos de Bariloche, the chocolate capital of Argentina (or world?). The accompanying me in the next few weeks Wind macht sich auf den letzten 20 km schon mal kraeftig von der Seite bemerkbar. Doch da es nicht mehr weit bis B. ist, habe ich nur Augen fuer die herrliche Berglandschaft Argentiniens und fotografiere (auch in den naechsten Tagen) mehr als sonst.
Am Ortseingang treffe ich Beverly Wagner, eine 60-jaehrige (!) Radfahrerin (Amerikanerin aus Seattle, die aber 9 Monate im Jahr in Bolivien lebt, wenn sie nicht gerade mit dem Rad unterwegs ist, wie jetzt). Fuer Samstag lade ich sie in das groesste Schokoladengeschaeft "del Tourista" zu einer Geburtstagsrunde ein. Sie uebernachtet in einem Camp, waehrend ich mich - wie ihr es mir alle empfohlen habt - in einem guten 3-Stern-Hotel mit Seeblick und -zugang rent premises.
addition to the small "party" bar I on the day or cake, cocoa and chocolates and the next day also, and in the evening a nice meal in the hotel (but) with white wine (red wine followed by the conclusion in Ushuaia ). In Bariloche, you will find a chocolate shop at others, and some manufacturing factories. Who can afford it (I mean the weight) should have a ride to Bariloche - the way, is also ski in the winter (summer in Europe).
morning on 15 January, it goes further south on the hated, loved, always windy, and for the most part "gravelly" State Street 40th This applies to drive 40 (among motorcycle riders and even among cyclists) challenge . Also I will survive (I hope).
The "40" is stronger than me. The Atlantic coast.
continued on Sunday, 01.21.2007 in Sarmiento
I have not accepted the challenge! It just was not possible to drive on the gravel. Even on a small hill (and would be greater still come over the "40"), I was stuck with the narrow tire easily in the coarse sand. An upgrade was not as good as possible and the risk of unintentional descent is too large (I've already pitched three times in the right knee there - again and again to the same place, ouch!). For these routes, you actually need a mountain bike with wide tires. All I know or I have encountered, had this equipment. So I decided yesterday, to the east and continue to evade the Atlantic Coast (!). There is a paved road, almost in Argentina to Ushuaia, only 100 or 200 km of gravel (otherwise it would have been over 1,000 km). How to get to Tierra del Fuego, it does not matter, the main thing you get. Of course I miss doing some beautiful scenic areas in Argentina. But I can from Puerto Natales - if it can be done in time, since I now have a couple of days "Get out" - "enter" once more in the area of Torres del Paine and go some way to the Moreno Glacier, to escape me to this Glanzstuecke nature can not.
between San Carlos de Bariloche and Sarmiento, where I have now entered a rest day, I am also drove through a beautiful landscape, a day along with Mariano , a Argentina , who made his first big bike ride . Erica and Ryan, a Swiss / American Paerchen I met on the way from Ushuaia to Alaska (1 1 / 2 years) and in a one-house-village I met unexpectedly at a German-speaking Argentina.
The Pampa has its charms, however, are by the sparse population of the area also found small towns with gas stations or restaurants only in very large distances from each other (about 100 km) and you have to stock up with enough food and drinking water . I stayed here have generally in the tent, surrounded by the solitude of the Pampa. The wind blows here exclusively from the west, so I did - if I now move to the east - will usually have from the back (which is sometimes quite beautiful). As it is in the Atlantic coast to be seen.
steaks. encounters. wind.
Monday, 22/01/2007 to Monday, 29/01/2007:
today so I would have liked a few more pictures from Argentina entered, as I was that day for extra work in internet cafe had taken. But unfortunately it is somewhat difficult, but I hope to be able to implement it before the end of the tour.
But today a detailed text section.
The Monday (22.02.) Brings the same evening another erzaehlenswerte encounter. The first: This day has with about 700 meters while his pitches, but then flat on the Altiplana long distances. The road leads through a huge oil fields.
right and left of the Petroleum pumps are quiet, almost ghostly. For me such a Petroleum pumps always something mystical, weird in itself, as if by magic, it promotes the million computers-year-old oil from the deep and makes our daily life so only to what it is. How long will this wealth will probably still be present?
The wind does not blow too much time from the front, sometimes from behind, but bearable. When I get lunch that day the first time two really big Argentine steaks (the gives strength). Then it goes slightly uphill and down. Commodore Rivadavia is a larger city and I have to buy again and will then - go out a piece of the city, as I have a note for stay-Cabinas had seen - as it is still early and long bright. In the supermarket I ask a man who looks at my bike in amazement, then. He knows nothing. So I go running for the first time. About 3 km further on is the man with his car on the road. He makes it clear that I hold and to follow him. 5 blocks further he has his "Office" (he is hauliers ) because I can sleep. I follow him and have a shower one night, and may surprise us he is preparing two more depending a steak (the third that day, I eat). But he and I have to leave the next morning at 6 clock the office because he has to go away. So early I have only once on the track. Overcast, cool but pleasant. And about 150 km today I will do easily. By noon everything's all right. Strong side wind with a small Rueckwindkomponente make driving while not easy, but you will thrive. Once again I made the statement this time without the wind. After dinner in Caleta Olivia, the wind is fully over. 6-7 km / h - my speed. 75 km that day I would have still had to go. It drives me to the other side of the road (where I'm going further for security for me and oncoming Cars - there are fortunately not a lot - on the verge back out). 3 x Throw me to the wind, I hurt myself slightly above the knee, calf and shin. After 40 km I give up. But where and how to set up the tent? Under a Brueckendurchbruch (without water only for emergencies with very heavy rain) of 2x2 m just so I can set up my tent - Cerro. Here I had the concern: "If this is the hated, Patagonienwind cold and it goes on, you have to actually give up yet!" The next morning - the wind like "blown away". Sunshine. It rolls and with 176 km of this day, I get the "loss" from the previous day again. 2 German cyclists ( Harry from the Black and Olaf from the Spree Forest - the first that I meet here in the south - to Argentina Tour), I learn that they had the day before a strong storm, so that "my" wind "was only" an appearance at the edge of the storm front. You tell me also where can I find a good disembarking at a gas station on this route. The hotel is indeed busy, but a nice tent possible, and a good restaurant (again, steak), make the stay pleasant. Alas, that day there was an encounter on the road: Louis, Antonio Carlos and Vitor , three Brazilians (one doctor of nuclear physics) - also on (Auto) Tour - hold on and do necessarily Photo make of me. As a "fee" I get 6 large nectarines and orange juice powder.
When I had breakfast the next morning and assembled tent, I still want a "coffee con leche drink as there is a touring bike in front of the station restaurant. Ted is sitting in there , a bearded biker from the Netherlands. Of course we are in the same conversation. He is on tour in Argentina (7,000 km) and travel to the north, sometimes even drove around Australia (21,000 km) and Alaska-Panama, was with the wheel in China and who knows where or what he has not told me . He intended from Vladivostok, Russia "roll up". And now is amazed he is 4 weeks older than me!
It runs on diesm equally good and the advice of Ted to distance and wind conditions are useful to me, and he says - and this experience, I've been doing exactly that - that we here predict the weather and the wind direction can never be. Yesterday he had on my upcoming track tailwind today, today I'm with a strong cross wind and I Rueckenwindkomponente moving in the opposite direction. I get to Pt. San Julian, a little harbor town, with tourist attractions. The next morning I do with a boat still a field trip to a penguin island (also had recommended to me by Ted), photographing some of the 37,000 living here penguins, see Comoran and dolphins. So I'm only away lunch. The 130 km should just be to create (it is light to 22 clock). Again it is the wind that makes me a spanner in the works. After 5 1 / 4 hours I drove 53 km. I give back to time and must look for a reasonably Cerro campground. 've Already experience with bridges. This time the cross section is everywhere but only 1x1 meters But the slope break (or as it is called brueckbautechnisch?) Offers a wind shadow that makes it also possible to camp there. After supper I sleep here, too - like two days before - excellent. Now the next stage only a short step to the previous day urspruneglichen target (Piedrabuena at Puerto Santa Cruz - Santa Cruz What number probably already on the tour?). It is a pretty small town with an excellent almost family campground.
The route the next day is a bit problematic. The wind will force me to 2 x 125 km (or less) and I have to go camping somewhere, I think. But there are surprises. After I had driven the first 100 km in exactly 6 hours (one for the situation here is still acceptable speed), I got the wind from behind - 100 km in 3:55 hours so I decide dranzuhaengen still 50 km to Rio Gallegos to drive - the last major city before the short re-crossing to Chile - knowing that the last 27 km will be tough because the road as a right angle turns and the wind is coming from the front. So It was also, and I needed about 2 hours for this route. Clock by 23 I had decided on a (good) hotel and home to do a break. 29 km before the destination of the day I saw for the first time a sign for "Ushuaia 749 km). From here there are now only 720 km, of which 210 km but "gravel". Nevertheless, it is nearly there.
The four enemies of the cyclist
If you sit every day 8 and more hours on the bike makes you look at his thoughts. You meet friends and enemies. Today I would like to describe four times the enemy of the cyclist.
There are gravel, wind, mountains and rain (order is ranking).
first Gravel
This is the worst. He is on the road, or rather, it is the road. He grins at you, doing quite innocent. "Come to me just moving on, no problem." And you're letting yourself into it. Until he is found not only as a single small stone or even as mobile Laengsrille. No, now there are grooves that make your bike and hop up and let the stones are masses of large and small stones, pebbles, the sink up with the wheel. Now he packs up. His grin goes over into a scornful crunch. The front and / or rear wheel slides away and you fly in the face, and always on the same spot (three times on the right knee).
Er ist unberechenbar, du weisst nicht, ob er dich erst narrt und unschuldig, glatt und fest ist/zu sein scheint und nach 100 km in seiner gemeinen Form auftritt. Ich hasse ihn. Er ist immer schlecht.
Es sei nicht verschwiegen, dass es auch "Schotterwege" gibt, die glatten Waldwegen gleichen, auf denen man fast so schnell, wie auf Asphalt fahren kann, aber diese sind hier eher selten.
Strassen mit (vielen) Schlagloechern zaehlen auch hierzu, sie offenbaren aber ihre Schlechtigkeit allein schon durch ihr Aussehen.
2. Wind
Oh, du Schelm. He plays with you. Always. Time it enters into its general form as (strong) wind on the Vorwaertskommen and makes a pain or almost impossible. Sometimes he comes from the side and pushes up on the other side. Sometimes he pushes it up a little bit forward.
However, it can be nice too. He comes as a tailwind, and makes cycling a pleasure, but not automatically after a head wind, but the way he wants.
As I said, he is like a child, he plays with you and is only unpredictable.
third Mountains
They are solid and hard, honest and fair. "Here I stand, Come, I conquer, to climb me. "They are fully predictable. And if you have defeated them, reward them up always with a (rapid) exit if there is not playing just the wind as a headwind on you, and when to the steep descent can not be fast. And the joy fades, even if well-meaning and at the exit for it is a gravel road and you have to slow down your fast ride.
fourth rain
The Rain is actually not a real enemy. You can protect yourself from him. He does not slow down your speed automatically, only when it occurs together with the other enemies, or freezing rain, then it is unpleasant. It can be your friend. If you're sweating in tropical heat and a light rain falls, it's almost a pleasure to ride in / with him. If you get used to strong (warm) rain on him, he'll become a friend and accelerate your kicks (because you want to get to your destination).
The final .
Tuesday, 30/01/2007 to Saturday 03/02/2007
On Tuesday 30.01. I'm once again a great day. There are 173 km, but this is the wind conditions. He blows me forward control law. After the border (back to Argentina Chile) is a new concrete road and cycling is a pleasure. But do not be spirited! The road makes a big bow and a strong wind coming from the side and finally from the front. Because once you realize what you had before. It is not to drive. The map tells me that the road turns at right angles to about 10 km and then I would have tailwind. So the wheel slide for now. 8 km I brace the body against the wheel when a truck (which are huge and big) comes, I stop, I duck and hold on to it to make it and I will not get moved by the turbulence. Then comes the turn! Without a kick I'm going the first 5 km at a speed of 45 km / h. The remaining 12 miles to the ferry (about the narrowest part of the Magallanes Street) do not be below 30 km / h. There, I meet a couple from Erfurt . They have "all the time, not only all the money" down and, two years from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, now they wait for the summer before they return to Germany. (late March - is a friend to me and told me that he had met on a cycling tour in early March a Thuringian couple who had a bike from Frankfurt to Erfurt on the way you had met me and had something come back more of South America. . - How small the world) . On the ferry appeal to me an Argentine driver, we will arrange for a "cerveza" (beer) in Ushuaia. After the ferry is actually Schotterstrasse sein, aber zu meiner Freude hat man fast 40 km (bis zu meinem Tagesziel) asphaltiert. Die letzten 5 km geht es an diesem Tag noch einmal gegen den (nicht mehr so starken) Wind. In einem kleinen Ort (Cerro Sombrero - Berg wie ein Sombrero, Name gefaellt mir) finde ich eine schoene "Hosteria" und bekomme am Abend 1/2 11 noch ein excellentes Abendbrot (natuerlich Steak) und ein grosses (1 l) Bier.
Der naechste Tag zeigt mir, dass ich mich nicht zu zeitig freuen soll.116 km Schotter sind angesagt und der ist wirklich schlimm. Es ist hundekalt und regnet ein bisschen, das hat allerdings den Vorteil, dass der Staub gebunden wird und man nach Passieren eines LKW´s nicht 5 min lang Staub einatmen muss. In the evening I feel the hurt and pain Rueckenwirbel I do the last 10 km [gravel roads in this length are really about are harmless only one (suspension) mountain bike]. 300 m off the Chilean border post to find a hotel (and still do not have to build the tent) and eat dinner there, well - naturally soft butter steak.
The next morning brings back a wind of unknown strength - but I got it as a tailwind. On the 16 km of gravel to the Argentine border control again, I have to brake the wheel sometimes, because I was not on the road surface can drive too fast. I met a couple from Austria, who have the wind from the front, Stefan (38) and Anita (23) with a tandem (with trailer - single-axle trailer) go on world tour since 2004 and want to quit in 2008 (!). After the border post, it rolls with the tailwind, like never before [part 50 (in words: fifty) km / h without pedaling]. As it is slowly becoming difficult to possibly control the bike properly. Once I had a headwind, because the road to cross a river in the need to make a bow. It says get off and run, min 600 m in 13. I think that says it all. When after 3 1 / 2 hours (for 99 km) lunch in Rio Grande am, it's over, because it would be necessary only once about 10 km into the wind to drive. Simply not mach-/fahrbar!. Even during normal walking on the street you have to brace themselves against the wind and thrives almost. I'm staying in a hostel scene and am very well received nice. The wind has subsided the next morning a little, but still blowing strong. After the first hour (9 km) the hardest thing about this penultimate day of my tour is over, but the wind is still only on the side and front, so that I need for 130 km almost 9 hours. I'm staying in a tent on a ranch, drive the next day the remaining lot 100 km. I do not get shown again what it means to go to Tierra del Fuego Wheel: 8 º C, rain, many slopes, 2 serpentine routes but - fortunately - no wind.
Stats
2597 km (+ 26 km), Hm 8575, 151:16 hours (193:05 hr)
18 ½ days riding, 4 ½ Closed
139 km / day 17.2 km / hr, 462 Hm / day, 330 km Hm/100
Route.
San Carlos de Bariloche - Tecka - Jose San Martin (258, 40) - Sarmiento (20) - Comodoro Rivadavia (26) - (! site) Fitz Roy (3) - Continue on the "3" to Rio Gallegos - to the border (Monte Aymond) (3) - limit then to Punta Delgada (255 ) turn to the ferry across the narrowest part of the Magallanstrasse (258) - Cerro Sombrero - border near San Sebastian (258) - Rio Grande (3) - Tolhuin - Ushuaia (3) FINAL .
Done DONE!
After 248 days (with rest days) on 3 February 2007 at 16.00 clock - a bit earlier (but I think quite beautiful deep) than planned - Al Feu born
long 25,828 km
116.275 km high (116 275 vertical meters)
about 8 kg in weight (weight loss of the father)
father doing well
and in the evening her birth celebrated with a good meal, celebrated (naturally buttery soft with good steak and potatoes very tasty sauce with chocolate Puddingsosse), red wine and champagne. The local press has asked for an interview.
With this trip I am
- the first one has finished the Tour Alaska-Tierra del Fuego in 2007 and started in 2006
- one of the oldest (possibly the oldest), this journey in such a short time has gone
- has one of the few that requires less than 250 days to be.
Und ich habe bei Vorbereitung und Durchfuehrung keine Unterstuetzung Dritter in Anspruch genommen.
ABER danken muss ich dafuer in erster Linie meiner Frau, jedoch - und das war fuer mich wirklich wichtig und ich schaetze es ungemein - auch allen, die mir geschrieben oder mich haben gruessen lassen. Wenn ich manchmal verzweifelt war, weil es nicht so lief/rollte, wie ich es mir vorgestellt und geplant hatte (besonders in Alaska, aber auch in Peru, Bolivien und sogar in Argentinien), dann half es mir zu wissen und wahrzunehmen, dass ihr mich moralisch unterstuetzt, mit mir leidet und euch ueber mein Vorwaertskommen freut. Dann habe ich gedacht: "Du kannst jetzt nicht aufhoeren, du bist es (ihnen) einfach schuldig, dass du dich quaelst und durchhaelst." Diese emotionale Seite ist nicht ganz unwichtig, dafuer sage ich DANKE ! Ich hatte in der ersten Version hier geschrieben, dass ich manchmal "die Schnauze voll hatte", aber beim Nachdenken darueber, merkte ich, dass es eigentlich nicht so war. Nur manchmal war ich etwas "down" und hatte "einen Moralischen". Doch mit der Zeit verblassen diese "negativen" Erinnerungen und man erinnert sich nur noch der schoenen Seiten dieser phantastischen "Wahnsinnstour ".
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