Another mile stone was reached when we got onto the famous Ruta 40.  The dreaded corrugated, potholed and rutted gravel road, beaten with high winds, that runs inland north to south in Argentina. Because the road would be bad, we estimated that it would take us about three days to reach El Calafate – yeah right!  We were pleasantly surprised to find the road in a better condition than the East African Highway and thankful to the Lord for keeping the infamous strong winds away.  Once again the scenery blew us away – we thought we were back in the Karoo, beautiful flat dry yellow fields with thousands of sheep as far as the eye could see.  The sky was mostly blue again and even though we had the warmth of the sun beam on us, it was not enough to take the chill out of the air, the temperature remained below 8 degree Celsius.  We refuelled at Bajo Caracoles as we were told that there would be no fuel until Tres Lagos some 409km’s south.  Thankfully this is no problem for the GS, so we did not have to carry extra fuel in bottles.  The road we would have taken if we were not stopped by the heavy snow would have joined onto Ruta 40 here at Bajo Caracoles. We looked at the mountains in the direction of Chile, and the road we would have come on from Cochrane and realised that we would not have been able go that way, everything was white, literally snow white. We were doing good time and continued south all the way to Tres Lagos where the road became tar again.  We managed to get into El Calafate as the sun was setting.  Thank you Jesus, for giving Johan the wisdom to read the road and handle the GS so that we had a safe journey.  The freezing cold weather and Ruta 40 took their toll on the poor GS as both her front fork seal went and after some investigation we managed to find a Honda dealer that sells that same size seal in Rio Gallegos.

One of the absolute highlights on our total journey has been the Moreno Glacier.  It should be an absolute must on everybody’s wish-list of things to see in their life.  It is another wonder of the world that makes us realise that we serve an awesome God and we get to see how great His creation is.  The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. It is a 250 km² (97 sq mi) ice formation, and 30 km (19 mi) in length. The front edge of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 5 kilometres (3 mi) wide, with an average height of 60 m (200 ft) above the surface of the water, with a total ice depth of 170 metres (558 ft). It advances at a speed of up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) per day or around 700 metres (2,300 ft) per year. It is mind boggling to hear the snapping sound as the ice cracks from the pressure of the huge mass moving forward, then seeing the chunks fall off into the water below. It is well worth standing in the freezing wind, waiting and watching for the pieces to fall. Thank you, thank you Jesus!

Ruta 40 in Argentina with Rheas running in the road. Rhea looks like a small type of Ostrich.

Sms sent 22 May 2009........... In Comodoro Rivadavia, temp warmer between 4 and 9 deg

From El Calefate to Rio Gallegos was a nice, easy ride. At one point the altitude rose above 700m and the temperature dropped as we gained height. As we were cruising along and steadily climbing up a mountain road and admiring the fantastic views it gave us, I felt the back end of the bike slip slightly in a corner. I noticed a darker section in the road and assumed it was oil or diesel spilled by a truck, slowed down a bit and tried to stay off the dark section.  A few corners down the road I felt it again and then as we turned in a direction of the sun I saw the road surface shine brightly as if it was wet. I moved off onto the gravel shoulder of the road and stopped to check out the shiny reflection on the road surface, it was ice and really slippery! So we got to see for the first time what I think is known by many as black ice. It is a thin layer of frozen water on the surface of the road. Dangerous for cars, let alone a motorcycle! From here on we drove next to the road for a few kilometres and the road surface turned white with ice. Needless to say the temperature was close to freezing, but by now we were sort of getting used to it. We made it safely to Rio Gallegos and picked up two new fork seals for the GS at the local bike dealer.

This was an impressive bike shop for such a remote town. There were lots of new bikes on the showroom floor, from small Moto-X bikes to some big Yamaha FJR1300’s. It was an easy task to replace the seals, once you have the correct tools. I don’t carry any tools other than the basic BMW kit that comes with my bike, so I had to borrow a socket from a toppie (elderly man) in a washing machine workshop. It worked and luckily there were no damage to the chrome on the shafts. Rio Gallegos is quite a big town and has big shops and lots of crazy drivers too. I still don’t understand the traffic rules in these towns. At the intersections (big and small) there are no signs to who must stop or not, so you have to stop at almost every intersection, and if you do the cars behind you ride about 2 inches from your back-end. They clearly have no respect for motorcyclists here in Patagonia. You stop at a red traffic light in the middle of the lane, like you would do back home and in most countries, and the car behind you will squeeze himself next to you and the car in the next lane. They seem to have the same driving style I saw in Pakistan, where driving lanes doesn’t mean anything.

The next day we were on the road again, this time on Ruta 3 south, the end of the road was another 600km further south. We crossed the Straight of Magellan on a ferry to get onto the Tierra del Fuego Island. We spent a night at Rio Grande and left again the next day for the last section of road. Not far from Rio Grande the scenery slowly changed from flat Karoo-like plains to trees. It eventually changed to complete forest similar to what we saw in Alaska. The mountains were white with snow and we saw amazing scenes that we would not have seen if we were to come down here in summer. 80km or so before Ushuaia the road goes over a small mountain range. Ahead of us we saw that the road goes above the snowline, so I let some air out of the GS tyres for better grip in snowy conditions. As we came to the top of the mountain pass we saw that the other side (Southern side) had lots of snow till down in the valley. Because of the extreme angle of the sun down here, 20 or more kilometres of the road was lying in the shadow of the mountain, and does not get any sun all winter. This meant not only snow on the road, but ice. Luckily there were two tracks that were through to the road surface, all I had to do was to make sure I stayed in these tracks. All my concentration was on the road in front of us and stopping to admire the scenery was out of the question, as everything next to the driving lane of the road was snow and ice. Once we got out of the shadow and into the sun the road surface was clear which allowed me to look around and appreciate the beauty of the winter scenery. Everything was white and we saw people skiing on the nearby slopes. They must have thought that we were crazy coming down here this time of year on a motorcycle.

Yes, we are crazy, but if we weren’t we would have stayed home and watch other people’s adventures on Discover Channel or YouTube. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BORING!

Ushuaia seems to be dead this time of year, nothing going on. We struggled to find a hostel that was not closed for renovations nor had space for us. After more than an hour’s searching, we found one, but they sure aren’t cheap. This would mean that we will not stay as long as we would have liked. The weather forecast did also not look favarouble for us. Ushuaia is not the end of the road, and next day we left to ride the 30 or so kilometres further until the end of the road that lies in the Tierra del Fuego National Park.  We arrived at the entry gate of the park, paid our entrance money and drove in. 200m down the road I realised with horror we are riding on solid ice. Like I said everything around was white with snow, but the roads was graded in town and up to the gate we were fine. When I realised we were on ice I wanted to stop and turn around. This was a difficult task and as I touched the brake the wheel locks up, so I released the brake. The same with the rear wheel when I wanted to slow down on engine brake. Clutch in and I applied the most gentle rear wheel braking I’ve ever had to. We came to a halt and I struggled to get enough grip with my feet so that Charmaine could get off the bike and help me turn the GS around. We made it without falling over, the bike struggled to get going, as it was now uphill and as soon as I released the clutch the back wheel just spun, no grip at all! I started to get angry at the ladies who took our money at the entrance gate and did not even warn us about the ice on the road in the park. This was crazy! Somehow the Michilen tyre found grip and I got the big GS to start moving forward. Again, it was the most gentle clutch release I have ever had to do on a bike, but it paid off and I made it back to the gate, Charmaine had to walk back in the snow next to the road, as the road surface was too slippery to walk on!.

The friendly young ladies at the gate gladly gave me back our park entrance fee and were very surprised that I am not able to ride on the ice? They clearly have got no idea of Motorcycles do they? We spent some time at the gate playing with the snow and building a small Frosty. This was the first time on the journey that we were amongst snow that it was not actually falling from the sky, so we could enjoy the snow for a change in some sunshine. We drove back to Ushuaia somewhat disappointed that we could not reach the real end of the road and take the photo we were looking forward to take at the sign down there. Back at our hostel we saw that the weather forecast was not looking good in three days time, snow and more snow to come. I don’t want to be snowed in down here for so long, so decided to pack up and head back north the next day.

On our way out we stopped at one of the skiing resorts that also do Sled Dog trips. This was something I always wanted to do, going on a dog sled ride. It was not cheap, but it was lots of fun and worth every cent we’ve spent on it.  We were amazed at the speed these 6 x Husky’s were able to pull us at. They are amazing animals and it was nice to see how well looked after these dogs were. The guide who took us on the ride could speak some English and told us that they use these dogs to take part in various dog sled races down there.  After the dog ride we were back on our two wheeler on the icy road and over the mountain pass. We noticed that there was lots more snow than when we drove this road three days earlier. The temperatures was below freezing (-3degC) and thelakes were now frozen solid that were still water 3 days earlier. I would have loved to spend more time down in Ushuaia, but it was time to get out of there.  Down in Patagonia we don’t get to ride long distances in a day, the day is just too short and too cold. 400km is a long day for us in these conditions, and we ended up arriving at both Rio Grande and Rio Gallegos after sunset. Our rainsuits are by now completely tossed and is held together with lots of duck tape. We wear them every day for protection again the cold, rather than the rain. If we must get any rain now, even a light drizzle, we will be wet. We haven’t seen two didget figures on our temp guage for weeks now, and we are longingto get back to the nice tropical weather we enjoyed in Central America.

We drove north on Ruta 3, Argentina’s main road that will take us all the way to Buenos Aires. The ride from Rio Gallegos to Comodoro Rivadavia (850km) took us two days. We slept at the only noticeable town between the two towns. There is not much too see down here and the scenery is like the southern Namibia. It is the perfect road to kill some distance in a short time, but there is just one problem, the wind is howling like I’ve rarely experienced it. The morning of the second day we woke up with this howling wind. Thank God we were not in the tent, it would have been unpleasant to try and pack up in this icy cold wind. After breakfast we set out and had the wind directly from our left side. I was driving at an incredible angle and fought the wind the entire day. Every time a truck passes from the opposite direction we were all over the road and fighting to keep it within our lane. To top it all we almost ran out of fuel too, as we got 100km less out of the tank than what we would have in normal conditions. We saw another biker going south on his KTM 990 and he also seemed to have a tough time keeping his machine in a straight line. We stopped a few times to take photos and could not stand still due to the wind. That evening when we drove into Comodoro we were relieved and tired.

Comodoro Rivadavia was our entrance into the Chubut province of Argentina. This province has some local interest for me. Most of the province was settled and developed by Welsh migrants in the late 19^th century, but the south around Comodora Rivadavia and Sarmiento had been settled by Afrikaners that migrated here in the early 20^th century (1902-1910). It was one of my personal goals to visit these areas that was settled and developed by the Boers (Afrikaners) and if possible find some descendants that still speak Afrikaans, more about this in the next story (in Afrikaans of course)

Those of you with GS’s (and LT’s) will be delighted to hear than my rear wheel bearing is still going 100% after the modification I’ve done in the USA. We’ve done more than double the distance on this bearing than what we’ve done with any of the previous bearings. We’ve ridden on every thinkable road condition. We changed the dif oil in Peru, and it was mixed with water due to the deep river crossing we’ve done. This is normally not good for bearings, but like I said it is still going very strong with close to 40,000km of rough riding. Others failed within less than 20,000km. Anyone interested to learn more about this mod, send me a mail and I’ll gladly share my knowledge with you to make your GS’s diff (or LT) more reliable

Email sent 31 May 2009..............Buenos Aires Province Argentina