Tierra del Fuego - From Ushuaia to Porvenir

On the 26th of February we definitely left Ushuaia. After just a few kilometers we left the city and were immediately surrounded by absolute wilderness and apart from the road no sign of civilization was left! Soon we reached the first pass to cross and although with about 600 m of elevation it was for sure not the highest one to cross, starting from sea level it took us a while to reach the top. Once up there the scenery was amazing: both the Lago Escondido and the Lago Fagnano spread below us and we could enjoy this view during the first part of the descent. But even though the Lago Fagnano could already be seen from the pass, it took us quite a while to get there. Unfortunately our map wasn't quite correct and the road didn't pass along the shore of the lake, so we decided to put up our tent next to the street on the edge of the woods.

On top of the first pass we crossed :-)

View from the top of the Paso Garibaldi. To reach the lake in the back was the goal of the day!

The next day we met the first bikers coming the other way and therefore got a lot of good hints of where to pass the nights and which excursions are worth the money and which roads should be avoided and and and... After stopping in Tolhuin for lunch and to refill our water we continued northwards and just before twilight reached the Estancia Viamonte, where we were kindly invited to pass the night in an empty house (it was huge and even had 2 beds in it and we could hang up all our cloths to dry!) and we were offered a delicious meal in the evening and breakfast in the morning! We have to say that it's absolutely true that the people here are very kind and helpful!

The empty house we were offered to pass the night at the Estancia Viamonte

On the 28th of February we got to know the infamous Patagonian wind... Even though it wasn't especially strong yet, it is terribly hard to bike against it and if it's coming from the side it's even worse than from the front! Head wind is just terrible as you don't get anywhere anymore (less than 10 kmh are not unusual...), but side wind is terribly dangerous, as the gusts simply throw you across the road and every crossing truck almost makes you fall! Well after about 4 hours on our bikes we managed to get to Rio Grande (just 47 km from the Estancia) and were happy to have a hostel again for a night and a shop to get more food for the coming days...

Fighting against the wind on our way from the Estancia Viamonte to Rio Grande...

In Rio Grande I also visited a bike mechanic again as I was concerned something wasn't alright with my headset. He opened up everything, showed me what parts I have in there and what they are good for and put the whole bike back together! However, the headset of my bike had play and it resulted that one of the screw threads was damaged and had to be re-threaded and a bigger screw was necessary for my bike to be fixed again. The best, however, was that the mechanic was so friendly and liked the idea of foreigner biking through South America so much that he didn't even ask for money! :-) We then tried to continue towards the border with Chile, but before we got out of the city we had to admit that with the terribly strong wind that day there was no point so we ask at the police if we could leave our bikes  there for a while to explore the surroundings until the wind would calm down a bit. However, we didn't hit a police station as we thought we did, but we were at a police academy... Nevertheless, the police officer we asked was extremely friendly and immediately offered us a meal and a bed to rest a few hours. As we wanted to continue later in the afternoon, they told us that they wouldn't go on with this wind but wait till the early morning when the wind is usually less. So we were offered a shower, dinner and a bed for the night and then continued our way towards Chile in the early morning (we got up at 4 am to be ready to leave short before dawn) of the 2nd of March...
We were really lucky that day as there was almost no wind, so we got to the border quite quickly. The landscape wasn't anything special anymore, we were in the middle of the Argentinian pampas where there really is nothing at all, but we saw a lot of foxes and guanacos! Once in Chile the wind started to get stronger again, so we stopped as soon as we got to a little shelter that we used as a wind screen for our tent.

One of the many guanacos (they are part of the family of the lamas)
we met on our way through Tierra del Fuego...

The 3rd of March we got up early again to get to visit a King penguin colony on the western shore of Tierra del Fuego. Even though the owners of the land the colony is located ask for an incredibly high entry, it was absolutely worth it, as there were some baby penguins to be seen and the closest penguins were probably about 15 m from where you were allowed to go... I was absolutely fascinated by these animals, this mixture between fish and bird is just very special to observe in their natural habitat!

The King penguins with their babies we visited on Tierra del Fuego :-)

I absolutely fell in love with these incredibly cute and elegant animals!!

After leaving the King penguins we decided to try to get as far as possible that same day in order to try to reach the ferry to Punta Arenas the next day, as the day after there was no ferry. However, this meant that we had to bike another 55 km against moderate wind, as with the increasing wind a wind screen for the night would definitely be necessary! As we finally reached a small "refugio" (a tiny little shelter built for travelers like us) just before twilight, I was absolutely dead! The next day we got up at 5 am again to surely make the 65 km to Porvenir where the ferry leaves at 2 pm to Punta Arenas in time. And so we left Tierra del Fuego on the 7th day after leaving Ushuaia...

And yes, there are also a lot of horses on Tierra del Fuego - and in the background the mainland of Chile is already visible...