Trips, Tours and Tierra Del Fuego.... Job Done

Well we got settled into our 5 star cabin.... when I say 5 star what I really mean is totally basic accommodation. Four bunks in the space that should occupy two and not much else.

We managed to see our sister ship


A quick run round the ship and we were off, cruelly passing so close to the luxury liner we had believed to be our transport that you could see the pisco sours in the hands of the jolly and partying passengers. As we sailed on I managed to get to look around the ship's bridge and did my captain John Luke Picard, "make it so" to anyone of the crew who would listen. Oddly enough no one took any notice of me.

"Make it so Pugwash"

The trip went really well and I learnt an important lesson about our personal hygiene. As you know it's been a concern of mine that we were becoming a bit scanky on this trip. Wearing the same gear and footwear for 6 months in heat, cold, wet and dry does not make for a pleasant thought. I was wrong to worry. Being (for want of a better word) trapped on an ex Japanese tug with about 700 back packers with tiny budgets trying to travel a million miles on $20 keeps everything nicely in prospective. These people stunk. It was great knowing you're not the smelliest person in the world (we were still in the top 400 though).

As I had said before, the point of this trip was to sea the Glacier, and see it we did. This thing is incredible. It's the only (goes into Jeremy Clarkson mode) "advancing glacier in the world". You could see this thing from miles away and as we approached the sea water changed from its usual grey colour into a light diamond pale blue as the ice melted into the sea. Lumps of ice could be seen and bounced of the side of the boat. Humming the theme tune to Titanic we approached what can only be described as the most incredible site you can imagine, a massive wall if white and deep blue ice advancing into the sea. The pictures we took will never do it any justice, but it was wonderful. Our old tug, thinly disguised as a sea going vessel, came very close to it and allowed a very close inspection indeed.


Turning to look into the ships bar I could not believe it had a handful of die hard back packers in it, all with a copy of lonely planet, planning the next stage of their trip instead of enjoying the part they had planned at the last great event. What a waste I thought.

It was also on this boat that we met a bunch of New Zealand overlanders on bikes. We liked these guys straight away. Great personalities but completely inept at travelling around the world on motorcycles. This made us look good, which we liked. These guys had planned a four month break to tour South America on a selection of 650 cc motorcycles.

Nothing nicer than a load of bikes on a ferry. our friends from NZ got this right.


There had however forgotten to bring the original ownership papers for their bikes which meant there where basically trapped in Chile and unable to move to Argentina or Peru. Being the thinnest country on the planet this limited there routes somewhat. There ineptness was even more apparent as we rode of the boat. They had pre booked their hostal, which was good , and had decided to employ the old hire a taxi to find it, something Sandra and I had used on numerous occasions. The Taxi arrived and was given the name of the hotel, one of the pillions jumped in and off the taxi sped. Unfortunately not one of our new Zealand friends had the thought to follow it. It was hilarious watching there faces as they realised what had happened.

We stayed at Puerto Natales just for one night and headed east in some pretty awful weather conditions to take our crossing across the Magallanes straights. This famous stretch of water is nearly our last barrier to our final destination. The ferry ride was quick and cheap taking only twenty minuets or so. We had reached Tierra Del Fuego..... incredible. We then had a 40Km run to Carro Sombrero where we stayed the night again for the very final barrier which was 100Km of gravel road to the Argentine border.

We take our time on gravel road, one more spill would see both Sandra and my reserves falter and fade. It should be noted at this time that a continuous state of tiredness is now felt by both Sandra and myself. Sitting on the bike for nearly 7 months had started to take its toll. Even taking a day off does not get rid of this feeling. It starts to really eat into you and we were both getting weary. The gravel road went without issues, the 100km being done in 2.5 hours which will give you some indication of our speed.

Much Better than the Dalton in Alaska but I was much slower.


The border crossing into the Argentine sector of Tierra Del Fuego went with out a hitch. We had thought it would be nice to stay in Rio Grande and take the short run into Ushuaia the next day. The town looked proper grim when we came across it so we decided to stretch ourselves and try and make Ushuaia.

Now I had no idea what this part of the world would look like. In my minds eye it was flat and featureless. Wrong, beautiful snow capped mountains and blue lakes and we were back on perfect roads so we made great progress that is, until the weather turned on us, so we decided to stay the night at a lodge some 100Km from Ushuaia.


A beautiful view from our room and a good nights rest saw us up and ready the next morning for our very last trip south. Great weather and great roads meant that it was done in no time. As we approached the town I waited and waited for the emotion to rise. Where were the tears, the hysterical laughter, the punching the air and whoop whooping. I simply was just glad to have reached the town. We had done it and we were still in one piece.

We had travelled over 23,000 miles on the shed some 2000 miles in a car, about 1000 on a boat and the same on a airplane. Part of the lack of whooping for me was that our trip was nearly over. We had come to enjoy this lifestyle and reaching Ushuaia meant it would soon be over. However, being so weary now, I was glad it would be...... all very odd and leaving me with very very mixed emotions.

We reluctantly checked into our hotel, (we thought it was in an awful part of town but it turned out to be a great location) and went the extra 22 Km to the end of Ruta 3, the furthest south you can possibly drive or ride. All gravel road this was a very nice run, then suddenly it was there, the sign at the end of ruta 3. I had seen this sign in so many pictures, read about it in so many books and seen it on countless adventuring videos. Now it was our turn to approach it, to see it for ourselves.

Our turn..... at last

It was then that it started to dawn upon us just what we had done. Still tired and weary we began to experience some of the feelings of completing something rather important to us. I have forgotten to mention that all this took place on Christmas eve exactly 199 days after we set off. We had our picture taken, did a Christmas video (see previous blog) climbed on the shed and went back to the town.

The next few days went by very quickly, we had been told that Ushuaia is a busy town at Christmas, but everything was shut, so getting a beer in a bar was out of the question. We met up with John a chap we had met in Panama and had quite a Christmas eve party with some other travellers, John's Hostal host cooking a wonderful BBQ.

Christmas day was spent with Mr Jameson our very favourite brewer of finest Irish whisky and generally chilling out and Skyping our families.

The day after boxing day we had arranged to go and see the penguins, another great day out. Bus then boat took us to a small island where these chaps live. It was incredible to be able to get so close to there creatures. Now it must be odd being a penguin, very frustrating in my view. Incredibly ungainly on land, waddling about like it's all a bit too much like hard work but in the water these guys are good. I mean really good. Fast, agile, stealth like. It was fascinating to see these creatures change from fat wobbly thing to instant dart like creatures in a split second. It must drive them nuts.

There are two ceatures in the picture that are not penguins, can you spot them?

One more night in Ushuaia saw us heading for home, our first purposeful ride north. Good weather saw the miles eaten away and we crossed back into Chile and spent the night at the border before doing the same 100Km gravel road to the ferry across the Magellan straights. It was odd, for the first time we where retracing our steps but it meant we were going home. As we waited for the ferry across the Magallanes straights we saw dolphins jumping out of the water around the ferry. It was wonderful to see them at last, something we had expected but missed seeing over the last 7 months.

The ride to Rio Gallegos was uneventful with our very final boarder crossing back again into Argentina. The next time we cross a border will be back in Blighty, something that both saddens and excites me.