Day 6 – 27th November . First True Offroad

Casa de Piedra (Pampas) – Junin De Los Andes (Patagonia) 520 kms (105kms off road)

Total Distance So Far: 1,530 kms


The day started with some great news today. Lidy was hoping to join me on the Chilean leg, where it is possible to go two-up on the bike (although how we are both going to fit remains to be seen - ditch the tent or strap on a sidecar?). Flights to join me were proving impossible though. She had been on standby to get a flight into Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego (the world’s most southerly town), which is the starting point for the 2-3 months of each year where tourists leave for Antarctica voyages so everything gets booked solid well in advance.

Over breakfast using some newly acquired local maps which had off road tracks marked on them I saw the possibility later in the day to save 200kms of road miles by cutting over the top of a small mountain Co. Feo (1,392m) in the foothills of the Andes. It looked about 70-80kms, but turned out to be 105kms including a few navigational errors. This seemed the perfect opportunity to test the bike off road laden with all my gear before getting to the more remote tracks in southern Patagonia. I needed to see how she handled in the dirt and if there was going to be any problems. I also need to see if there would be any fuel consumption changes as this needs to be carefully planned further south.

The first 350 kms ridden today finished off the last of the desert Pampas. A very barren landscape. I noticed the temperature hit 37 degrees, which is the hottest so far. By the end of the day though it will drop to 4 degrees! One consolation though I had beautiful blue views of the Rio Negro on my left for some 150 kms. WELCOME TO PATAGONIA the big rusty signpost said in the middle of nowhere in half a dozen languages. I got off my bike to take a picture but a police/checkpoint control man rushed out of his hut and told me pictures were not allowed! A cursory glance at my luggage which he liked to shake back and forwards for some reason, and he sent me on my way.

The entrance to the off-road track was exactly where it should have been. Great news as I’ll be using the same maps when I get further south. In Morocco I have used old maps where roads and towns have disappeared having been covered by newly built 20-30km long dams that had not yet made it onto the charts! It took a good 20 kms to get the hang of riding such a heavy bike off-road. With luggage and juice it weighed in at about 275 kgs. I am normally used to riding an off-road bike fully fueled and without luggage weighing in at about 110 kgs. You just need to anticipate things much further in advance as the speed of turning, braking and general agility is just not there. Rob Hughes trusted me with his BMW 1200GS Adventure a few weeks earlier off roading in Wales doing some pre-trip training and the Honda behaved in a similar way, although not as smooth. I soon got into the groove and good progress was made. The shear vastness of crossing the mountain was a fantastic feeling. I passed two or three small farms but other than that I saw no one. Coming over the crest of one hill I saw a huge snow covered volcano, the 3,776m high Volcano Lanin. It was one hell of a sight and totally unexpected. It seemed the perfect place for a cup of tea. With the light fading I got going again, until I exited down a cutting back onto terra firma. The next 50kms to Junin de Los Andes was a breeze, snaking along the edge of a river, and then up higher into the Andes. It was a bit chilly after the sun dropped. I was not really prepared for the drop, and apart from a very gay flowery neck buff I had handy in my tank bag I grinned and bore it, as I was too lazy to stop and get some warm weather gear out. Missing heated grips!

The small off road section at the end of the day proved invaluable. I have confidence in the bike, and will make some improvements regarding weight distribution of the load (having lost one of my bottles of water, and almost losing my spare fuel). I ironed out a few GPS glitches. The petrol consumption also remained constant, so I know I’ll still get 300 kms out of the tank, plus another 120 kms from my spare plastic tank. It took about 3 hours to do the 105 kms, but that included many picture stops including a long stop for a couple of cups of Tetley’s admiring the volcano. The pace was ideal as I plan to be able to cover the 1,650 kms of off-road in Southern Patagonia in 6 days, averaging 275 kms a day. Or if I need to put in a rest day due to weather or tiredness then the average is 330 kms which should take no more than 8 hours. SEE VIDEO BELOW.


BIKER NOTES: This next paragraph is only really for the bikers out there. My advice for all normal folks is to skip it and move on.

On the dirt the big 700 handled pretty well. I kept the speed limit to 60 kph for both safety reasons being solo, and also I found the bike started to bounce a bit at anything over that speed. For the bigger distances in southern Patagonia 50-60kph is perfect, although I am certainly hoping the tracks will be wider than today though, considering the side-wind factor. The tyre choice was always going to be a hard one, with so many terrains to cover. In the end we selected Metzler Tourance which gives a good long-life (10,000kms rear/20,000kms front) and good mix of on-road, on-road wet, and off-road grip. It is useless though in off-road wet conditions so the mountain tracks in Bolivia are of some concern as I’ll be traveling through this area in the wettest month of January. I may need to change to full off-road knobblies. Off road today they really showed some limitations though as the rear end, especially with all that weight, washed out on many corners with a lot of loose on. I had get right over the front wheel to counter it. In fact the only way the bike was ride-able was on the pegs leaning very far forwards. With the weight in the right position though the big bike tended to handle well and remain stable. A good long torqy third gear (20 – 60kph) also meant I could keep gear changes to a minimum. I have never ridden a Transalp before this trip, but have to say I am very impressed. The main factor in choosing the bike was it’s excellent reliability record, but I am also finding out the handling on road is excellent, and off road pretty good given it’s weight and tyre limitations.