Days 1, 2 & 3 – 22nd/23rd/24th November

Buenos Aires

Getting off the plane in Buenos Aires at 9am on Sunday morning 22nd November, and the sun hit me square in the face. I thought perfect what a great start. My great start soon disappeared when my luggage did not turn up on the belt. All my gear what a disaster!. Luckily it turned up on the next flight from Sao Paulo. The 70 mins trasit there through the airport was clearly a bit quick for Brazilian baggage handlers early on a Sunday morning!

I arrived at my hotel at noon. The manager Juan told me the room would not be ready for three hours, so he took me to his favourite bistro – Josaphines – as it was lunch time. After far too much beef stroganoff and red wine the day just kinda disappeared. I put my head on the pillow at 8pm and enjoyed 12 hours catch up sleep.

On the 23rd I sorted out all the camping gear required. What a shitty word ‘camping’, still when there are no hotels it’s better than nothing. What was amazing though was how genuinely enthusiastic all the sales assistants were about the latest rip-resisatant tent, or new sub-zero sleeping bag. Sad bunch I thought! Tents for me all way down on the sleeping order, somewhere below homeless shelters and log cabins.

On the 24th, one day before I had planned to set off I met with Mariano and Juan from Motocare. First rate chaps who were very helpful. They had been working on my bike, a late model Honda TransAlp 700 xlv. It was the ideal bike for this trip, extremely reliable, fuel injected for some of the high mountain passes (up to 19,600 feet) I had to tackle, and spares were easy to get hold of in South America should a problem arise. They were very professional and really turned out a first rate machine ready for the trip. In the weeks before I arrived we decided it was best to take a bike that had already completed a few trips, but was still only a year old. They serviced the bike, put on new on/off road tyres, a new heavy duty chain and sprocket along with a long distance model Scott Oiler. They sorted me a full set of spares and tools. They put a connection for my GPS, plus a spare 12v socket. They also wired in another 12v socket that could be used for either the GPS or other devices should any of the first two fail. Extremely thorough, but then again they knew my worse enemy going solo to some of the most remote places on the earth was the potential of breakdown. They gave me a thorough training session on the bike and a list of things to check. They even showed me how to use my helmet as a bike stand to change the front and rear tyres when in places like Patagonia or the dessert when there is nothing to lift or support the bike, and laying the bike on it side could give difficulties with leaking fuel and lifting it back up again!

They did tend to warn me about the possible pitfalls though a bit. Mariano warned me about the fierce cross winds in Patagonia. He told me about the last time he was in Patagonia and he lifted his hand up in the air whilst riding along west to east at 120 kph and felt nothing. He was being pushed along by a 120 kph tail wind. He said it would not be possible to ride in a southern direction in these conditions. He advised me to try and avoid Patagonia as much as possible by crossing the Andes and traveling down the Chilean side. I am considering it……a bit.

That evening I met one of my brother’s friends, a great chap called Mani Frers, of boat designer German Frers, who took me to dinner in town. I explained my route. Again he started tut-tutting when I mentioned Patagonia although he did say it was very beautiful, very remote, and very deserted. It soon got around to the wind. I thought Mani would know a thing or two about wind being the designer of America’s Cup sailing boats. He told me an incredible story about when he broke down in Patagonia some 20 years ago whilst delivering a car. He said he opened the side doors and lifted the boot and the wind started to blow the car down the road, like a sail boat. He said he covered 50 kms to the next bit of civilization traveling at 10 kph. Amazing I was speechless…. The next bit of civilization was some Indians who Mani said had never seen a car!! He said that is how remote Patagonia is. I am definitely considering reducing the 2000 kms of Patagonia I need to cover, by doing 1000 kms or so on the Chilean side of the Andes where you get the rain but not the wind - as per Mariano’s suggestion.

I will not ask for anyone else’s opinion about Patagonia again. What ever hits me hits me. Hopefully I’ll be lucky. I usually am. And besides we have the Pampas and the Lake District to discover first. I did not get a good nights sleep – too excited about the start of the trip in the morning.