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A bike tour from Ushuaia to Rio Gallegos. From Tierra del Fuego through Patagonia, along the Andes. The windiest places on earth...

Against the Wind for Four Weeks in Patagonia

Waltraud
2004-03-05 17:53:18

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Mountain Bike Tour through Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia

Andy Heßberg & Waltraud Schulze; (1995)

The National Park Tierra del Fuego

It raining. But our good old MSR-stove is louder. Soon food will be ready. Since we cycled here from the Ushuaia airport it was raining. Should our start of the bike tour start with rain? Hopefully not.

Ushuaia is the southern-most city of the world. The impressive landscape along the Beagle Strait, the mountains and surrounding forests make this city to one of the nicest in Argentinia. After the strong rain in the night, the next morning welcomes us with blue sky, but the moutains are snow-capped. It is quite cold, but ideal for a day trip hiking in the National Park Tierra del Fuego. The forests seem wild an untouched. Birds can be seen everywhere, and trees are covered with layers of moss. After nine hours of hiking we return to the tent where we left the bikes for that day.

The next day is actually the first day on bike. We want to ride to the end of the Panamerican Highway, the starting point of our tour. It is only one hour from our current camping point, but we pack the bikes and ride with fully loaden bikes. The ride is through forests and bogs, and sometimes we can spot a view of the Beagle Strait. At the end of the road, a wooden sign marks the distances to Buenos Aires (3063 km) and Alaska (17848 km), and the Beagle Strait is now only 200 m away. A nice place for the start of a bike tour. As two buses arrive full of tourists, we immediately leave the peaceful place.

We want to spend another day hiking in the park, and ride to the Lago Roca. There is a wonderful hiking trail along the eastern shore through wild Nothofagus forests.

Start of the tour

The first real day on bikes welcomes us with a strong south-western wind and blue sky. Tail-wind back to Ushuaia – but the speed is limited by the number of pot-holes and ...