T - What a great sleep! We have some $3 inflatable mats that we bought in Colombia and they are fantastic! They take a while to pump up and deflate but they are worth it!

The girls got an oil change today and I was really surprised to see how black Rosies oil was. It was the blackest I have seen it yet. Oh well. She has nice fresh liquid gold in her now!



We wound along the coast again today. Through thick forest and up many steep hills. That's when Chantelle told me that Rosies clutch was slipping again. I couldn't believe it. Brand new clutch plates and they only lasted a day? I was fuming with frustration. Why Rosie whyyyyyy?







C - Yesterdays high quickly dissipated this morning. I mean really. Has Rosie been cursed or something? I felt so bad for my little bike. Perhaps there is some major mechanical failure?

T - We decided to fix it in the nearby city of Concepcion and try to not let it bother us too much.

Unfortunately this part of the road contained many, many steep hills that required first gear. So poor Channy became quite annoyed after a while with the slipping clutch. Oh Rosie you are a pain in my bottom lately. We figured that the new oil we had put in was causing havoc with Rosie's clutch as she had been running fine up until we changed it.











C - Despite the frustrations of Rosie's clutch situation, I could prevent her by slipping by taking it nice and slow up the hills. She was only slipping under load, so this just made the hill climbs very slow. On the plus side, this section of the Chilean coast is sensational. I enjoyed the scenery much better than the northern coast we saw. The sand is black, but there are also these massive, raw black rocks which jut out of the surf and give the coastline such a rugged beauty. It was also a pleasure to be back on dirt, back on the minor roads. Although I was now more than a little worried about my girl. We had agreed that one more issue and we would not go south until she was assessed by a mechanic.







T - Our road wound down into a nice little valley with a river flowing through it. So we set up camp there, lit a very smoky fire and shared a glass/cup of Chiles finest cheap wine before calling it a night.









Tomorrow we get to Concepcion where we shall deal with Rosie.

T - We know we are getting south now. The nights have a chill to them and every morning our tent is drenched in dew. We think we are just a couple of days from the start of the Carratera Austral! So exciting!!!

C - Rosie started up well and I hoped that I had managed to control her slippage yesterday enough that today she would not be any worse.



But, the first hill proved me wrong. She was slipping worse than yesterday. Way worse. What the heck. We decided to head to Concepcion, a big city, and figure it out there.

T - We plodded up the road and instantly the hills were steeeeeeep. Rosies clutch was slipping like mad and soon Mabel had bounded ahead. This wasn't fun anymore. I decided to enact a roadside repair. I had a spare litre of new oil, an empty two litre water bottle to catch the old oil in and we had a spare set of clutch plates.





I found a spot off the road and soon we had Rosie draining her oil into the bottle. Again the oil was as black as tar. Something was amiss. We pulled her clutch basket out and disassembled it. Something was niggling into the back of my mind as we pulled the plates out. I couldn't put my finger on it.
The clutch basket was full of clutch fibres. They blocked every oil passageway. We stripped it down to its separate pieces and we both sat there and scrubbed it clean. We poked out every hole until it looked like new.

When I went to put the clutch plates in I had a moment where I couldn't remember how to do it. Something was really throwing me off.
Clutch back in the bike and Rosie started up nicely. But as soon as she went into gear she squealed and stalled. Err...

C - What the? This must be something we have done. She was not doing that this morning!

T - Again we stripped her down. I checked and rechecked. Nothing seemed odd. We put her back together. Squeal and stall. This time when I pulled her clutch out again I was convinced that I had done something wrong. We checked on google about how the clutch plates go, and guess what, I had put them in backwards. I had this sneaking suspicion that I had put them in wrong originally which would explain why they had deteriorated so fast, and why Rosies oil was so black.

With everything back together the right way she fired up and happily shifted through her gears. Lovely! A ride up the next hill showed that she was back to great riding condition again. Phew. I had taken a small video of me rebuilding the clutch in Santiago and I am willing to bet that I put her together wrong there too. I shall find out later.

We didn't have far to go until we hit Concepcion but it was already heading on for 3pm. So we decided to call it a day and find somewhere to stay in the city once we had some new clutch plates and new oil.

It took us a while to find what we wanted and by then it was pouring with rain. We seemed to get every single red light and had to sit there while the drivers around us looked at us pityingly.

We found a nice hotel for the night where I watched the video of me assembling the clutch. Yep I had assembled it backwards there too. Sorry for calling you names Rosie. It was actually my fault!

C - Thank goodness! I am glad it was something we did, not something Rosie did! So, dare I say it, we head further south tomorrow.
Tomorrow we head on south!

T - It seemed like we had finally gotten Rosie up to scratch! She was running well, albeit a little smoky on her first startup in the mornings. Rings or valve seals or something. I can deal with that.

It had rained last night and both of us had left ALL of our gloves outside on the bikes. Not a very smart move!

C - This is the second time I have done this.. And it is so depressing when you get up to a cold, rainy day and you have cold, wet gloves! At least know I have the handlebar muffs!!

T - We were keen to get some trouble free riding done for a while and it was nice not to be worrying about Rosie. We scooted our way out of the city and made southwards. The scenery was changing again and we spent the day riding through farmland and tree plantations. Quite the change from the north!





C - The vivid green of the vegetation was just so beautiful and the difference in rainfall was obvious. So beautiful! The blue gum plantation were so much like the southwest of Western Australia. It definitely reminded us of home!

T - We ticked along quite happily and found a nice little camping spot by a river. It was a gorgeous little spot and one of my favourite so far in Chile. Mabel has been neglected over the past week or two with Rosies dramas and it was time for her to receive some love. So in went a new cam chain, new clutch plates and nice new oil. She should be good for the next 25000 kms. She is our little trooper that's for sure.







It was interesting to note the difference visually between the two Lifans. Mabels looked brand new inside where as Rosies looked like she had been run through the wringer. Rosie is up for a new motor I think when we get back to the US.

Tomorrow we keep on keeping on!

T - We managed to get away at the super early hour of 11am today! We were just enjoying relaxing in camp this morning and felt no need to rush out.

C - It was lovely just hanging out in the camp, drinking tea. We were both a little shocked when we found out the time!



T - We were heading to the start of the lakes district which would lead us down and into the beginning of Patagonia!

The riding was quite pretty and we zipped along through more green pastures. It was quite populated through this part of Chile and the traffic built up the closer we got to the lakes.

It is fall here at the moment and we were both loving the fall colours of all the trees. Its starting to look alot like Canada now.





Eventually we made it to the first of the lakes and we were quite disappointed that we couldn't get down to it. Houses were built all the way along it and the fences were high enough to block out our view of the lake.
C - I was really keen to catch a glimpse of the volcano, but the clouds were determined that I wouldn't. The moody clouds clung to the mountains around the lakes, but the clouds and the greyness gave the lake a beautiful look too. We were a little concerned about getting a campsite, given how much populated the area is. Time to pull out iOverlander!

T - We found a campsite on the internet and headed for it. We had to take a rough dirt road down and under a bridge and then suddenly we were on the beach! Apart from the big pile of used nappies that some idiot had dumped there, it was quite pretty and we pitched our tent just meters from the waters edge.









Annnnnd, because there was no maintenance or repairs to do on the bikes it meant we could both sit down, relax and drink some red wine!









C - I loved this campsite. Aside from the pile of dirty nappies of course. The sand was volcanic black and the lake was simply beautiful. We witnessed a beautiful sunset and sunrise and spent a very quiet night!



T - Tomorrow we are going to push on for Puerto Montt and the start of the Careterra Austral.

T - What a great place to sleep! I slept like a log and woke up to a nice cool morning. We planned our days ride and worked out that to get to Puerto Montt via the back roads we would need to do about 420 kms. Yikes. That's usually a good day and a half worth of riding. So we will see how we go.

The road wound through more pasture and the further we went south the greener and more lush it got. We started to pass down some gorgeous tree covered lanes where the trees towered over us. Some sections were just like riding through some parts of our old home town area in Western Australia.







C - I really enjoyed the riding today. We skirted around the seven lakes district, witnessing the lakes and cloud soaked mountains. So beautiful!

T - Both bikes were purring along and they seemed quite happy. Rosie has lost some of her power over the last month but she keeps on ticking along. Mabel is as good as she always has been.



We wound around a few lakes and tried spotting the snow capped volcanoes that are around, but the cloud was thick and low and we didn't see anything even remotely resembling a volcano!







C - It was 4pm and we were still 140km out of Puerto Montt. But it seemed like such a shame to camp in the rain when we could ride another two hours and stay in a hotel. So, we decided to push on into the darkness to enjoy a hot shower and a warm bed.

T - We kept at it and soon the lights of Puerto Montt were gleaming in front of us. We had made it! As we pulled into the city the rain thundered down and the wind picked up. We pulled out the phones to pick a hotel for a few nights only to find that both phones were flat. Plugging them into our chargers proved fruitless as it seemed that the charging cable was also broken. So we pulled into a nearby shopping mall only to find that Â*they had no cables in stock. The hilarity of the moment got to us and we sat in the wind and the rain and laughed loudly as our headset batteries gave out too. Seriously, we couldn't have made it up.

We rode into the city not knowing where anything was and made for a hotel in the distance. It was expensive, very expensive, but we were exhausted and took it anyway.

Tomorrow we will find a cheaper option as we will be here for a few days while we book ferry tickets and plan our southern route.

Heres our next little rambling video. Episode #17!

HERE

We have managed to wangle ourselves a ferry ride way, way down south and we will be boarding tonight! Woohoo!!

T - Oh my. There's nothing quite as nice as a massive king sized bed with views out over the city. You really do get what you pay for and this hotel was no exception! We slept like babies and decided we had to make the best of the HUGE free buffet breakfast and the late checkout time of 1200.



C - It was so luxurious, staying in a fancy hotel! The towels and sheets were high quality and the bed was massive! The windows surrounded the huge room and gave us a 180 degree view of the city and the harbour. We were both excited about the ‘American’ buffet breakfast and feasted on sausages, eggs, hashbrowns and the all the expected accompaniments. We had already decided we were not checking out until 12pm on the dot!





T - We found a cheaper option nearby and once we had moved in we decided to have a walk around the foreshore. Puerto Montt is really quite a pretty city and we enjoyed the breaks in the rain as we walked the streets.







We really didn't have too much to do today so we had a poke around a few malls and just enjoyed some people watching.







The ferry office isn't open today but we do plan to be there first thing tomorrow to see if we can get on next week's ferry.

T - We were both heading for the ferry offices nice and early today. We wanted to grab a ticket for the next available ferry and didn't want to chance missing out! If there was no ferry or no tickets then we would pack up tomorrow and head down the Carretera Austral.

C - We had contemplated booking the tickets yesterday through an agent who was opened. But I had convinced Todd we should wait until we could speak with the ferry company direct as I felt there might a chance we could a discount as it is low season. Fingers crossed my theory would work!!

T - Well, our luck was in. Not only could we get a ticket on the ferry, but there was one leaving tomorrow and we were on it if we wanted, plus, we could have it at half price, plus, we would get a free upgrade to a nicer room.
Done and done! We handed over the money and soon we had us and the bikes booked for a cruise down to Puerto Natales. Woohoo! This was kind of exciting as it meant we would get to see some parts of Chile not accessible by road. Plus we could shave off the best part of 2000 kms of riding in cold rain!



We had to return to the ticket office at 5pm to pick up our tickets and we would board in the morning at 8am. Bloody ripper! So we went off in search of some shoes as our sandals are letting a tad to much cold air in these days.



When we returned to pick up the tickets we were informed that the plan had changed. We would now be boarding at 11pm TONIGHT! Yikes!!!

C - It was such an incredibly exciting day! To score the tickets at such a discounted rate and then discover we have to board tonight. We were both just so excited!

T - We raced back to our hotel and packed everything up and got ourselves ready to rumble.

At 11pm we were at the weighbridge having our bikes weighed. Apparently 200kg each. I doubt that very muchly! We were told we would be boarding very shortly and to hang out in the warm waiting room while the staff supplied us with coffee. Such lovely people these Chileans.





Well it was 3am when we finally got the call to board. And wouldn't you know it, Mabel wouldnt start. Her clutch bound up and her kickstart flopped up and down uselessly. Good timing Mabes. A nearby trucker we had been chatting to gave me a push start and soon we were flying up into the hold of the ferry in a blur of red death and slipping clutch plates. But we were on!

We found our way up to our cabin and we were surprised to find that we had been upgraded to a AAA cabin! That meant heating, hot water and a window to the views outside. Bonus! Sometimes it pays to travel in the low season, even if you get told "It cant be done, and it certainly can't be done on those bikes".

We were both absolutely buggered and just crashed out in bed. The ferry was due to leave around 10ish in the morning and would take 4 days to make its way to Puerto Natales.

T - We woke a little too early today. Both of us bleary eyed and very much not bushy tailed. We scoffed our breakfast and powered into some caffeine. We had a wander around the boat and it seemed that there was now about 20 other passengers on board with us. We figured there would be quite a few more yet.





But when we cast off and set sail there was still the same amount of people. Just a small group made up mostly of truck drivers. This suited us just fine!

The wind picked up and the cold roared in forcing us to retreat to the confines of the ships lounge where we stretched out on sofas, wrapped our hands around hot cups of tea and our minds around a book or two. It was great!







C - We knew that on that day 2 we ventured out in open ocean for a while before entering the fjords. I had read that this stretch can get quite rough. So we were happy to pass the first two days inside the lounge, watching out of the windows and talking to the few other tourists on board.







T - We cruised along a nice steady rate and soon the swell started to come up. The ship rolled from side to side causing some tables and chairs to slide about. I sat there and hoped to anyone who might listen that our bikes had been firmly tied down. The cargo crew had told us that they would take care of the bikes and we had to put our trust in them. I had a sneak peak into the hold and saw that they had started to properly strap them down.

Eventually we entered some of the fjords and the water smoothed out and the sailing was lovely.


Until the next day.

C - Day two was here and so was the swell.



T - We had to cross a bit of open ocean and holy hell did it get rough. The swell was coming in huge curls from the front of the boat made us plunge up and down and in some weird way also in circular motion. It was horrid.

I ended up in my bunk sick as a scurvy old sea dog. I didn't vomit, but I couldn't stand up as every time I did so my stomach would roll and my head would go all fuzzy and spin like mad. I had taken some sea sickness tablets but after standing up the front of the boat to get some pictures of the swell I was done. Yuk. At one point I was sat in the shower washing in my own misery. Sea sickness sucks.

C - I normally experience motion sickness - in cars, buses, trains, planes and definitely in boats - so always travel with motion sickness tablets at hand. I had been pleasantly surprised on our yacht trip from Panama to Colombia when I did not get sick and was hoping that this one would be the same. Imagine my surprise when poor Totti fell ill and I did not. My head felt a bit funny, but I had no nausea. We both took some tablets when Todd first started to feel ill, and thankfully, I did not experience any sickness at all. When dinner was called, Todd stayed in the room, feeling sorry for himself whilst I enjoyed a trip to dining room and a scrumptious dinner. Poor Totti.



T - The next day though we were back into the fjords and everyone was much happier. The sun came up and lit the islands and hills in a glorious gold colour as we cruised through narrow passages. Dolphins played of the side of the boat and we even spotted a few condors circling high up over a snow capped mountain. We saw a massive glacier glowing the most amazing blue off in the distance, easily the biggest glacier I have ever seen in my life! What scenery!









The cold kept us running back into the ship to warm up with another cup of tea and we would venture outside whenever we saw another amazing view.



C - I was constantly amazed at the views on this trip through the Patagonian fjords. It is simply stunning country and despite the cold and lowering snow line, being outside on the ferry was a delight. The lounge area is well set up with large windows, so this did allow us to warm up a bit whilst still enjoying the views.













T - All too soon for me and we were heading into the port of Puerto Natales. I had really enjoyed the ferry ride and it was nice to not have to pack up all our gear everyday. Sure the Carretera Austral would have been an amazing ride, but I had no regrets in taking this ferry instead. The food was great, the staff friendly and the beds warm and comfortable.







We had to wait until a heap of trucks and cars were moved off of the ferry before we could get our girls out and bloody Mabel wouldnt start. She doesn't like her new clutch plates at all! They are quite a bit meatier than the standard ones so we shall find a place along the way and take them out and put her old ones back in. Until then Chantelle and Rosie will have to push and/or pull start her.





We are intending on spending a day in Puerto Natales as it is a very pretty little town and then we will head north a little to visit a national park before we begin the last of our journey south. Ushuaia is now less than 1000kms away.

C - The last of our journey south, it's incredible isn't it? I cannot believe that I am sitting in southern Patagonia. I still cannot quite believe that I am on this amazing journey and everyday, without fail, I appreciate what a wonderful gift each and every experience is. How will it feel when we reach the Fin del Mundo sign? I wonder if the journey will change when we focus our attentions north?

C - Boy did it get windy during the night! I certainly heard some of those famous Patagonian winds blowing through the street last night.

We enjoyed a scrummo breakfast at the hostel and then headed out into the chilly, but sunny, morning to look around town. We wandered all around checking out the shopping area, the waterfront and the main plaza.









After a time, we decided to get a coffee and chill out in the local park. As we approached the park, we noticed that a few lambs had been strung up next to a very large fire and there were a bunch of cooks preparing a lot of bready looking treats.







A gentleman who could speak english engaged with us and advised us that today is the anniversary of the founding of Puerto Natales. We enjoyed the festivities and were offered some samples of the deep fried, bready treats. I have no real idea what they were, but some were sweet and some were savoury. They were super yummy though!

Todd decided that we should make the most of the sunny weather and so we took the girls down to a gravel carpark on the waterfront, where we could address Mabel's clutch issue. We believe the new clutch plates we put in were just too chunky for the clutch to be able to do what it needs to do to kick start the engine. (Very technical explanation hey!!!)

We cleaned up the old clutch plates as we had been told to do by a lovely Honda C70 enthusiast and in no time at all Mabel was kicking over perfectly and changing gears perfectly. Perfecto!









It was time to race back to the hostel as we could see very dark clouds quickly making their way from the mountains towards the town.

The rain never eventuated though, instead hugging the mountains that surround the town. We walked back through town and happened upon a car show at the main plaza. After a stroll through the show, we picked up some groceries and headed back to the hostel for the evening.

Tomorrow, we plan to ride out to Torres del Paine national park and have a poke around. The weather forecast seems ok at this stage, so we plan to camp in or near the park before venturing towards Punta Arenas the next day.

T - We were so warm and cosy in the hostal. We didn't want to feel the cold so the next few extra layers of clothing went on today in anticipation of the cold we would be riding in. We have been watching the very rapid advancing of the snow down the hills nearby lately so we know the cold is coming!

C - I was really excited about the Torres del Paine national park. It is meant to be one of the most beautiful in all of South America. I put on all of my clothes and looked outside - the sky was grey, but not raining so fingers crossed for a pleasant ride!

T - We zipped out of Puerto Natales towards Torres Del Paine National Park to the north. We had planned out a 250 or so kilometer loop and thought we might even camp out for the night if the weather allowed.







Wow. The ride into the park was stunning! We cruised along some terrible dirt roads that shook the crap out of our bikes and we had a few stops so I could re-tighten some nuts and bits and pieces. Then the rain came down and the wind came up. We were cold. Then it snowed on us. Right then we decided that we didn't really want to camp in this weather at all and made a decision to head back into Puerto Natales after our ride.











C - I could not believe how beautiful the road out to the park was and then when we entered the park, it just got more beautiful. It was definitely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The snow added to the raw beauty of the place and the beauty did help us to somewhat ignore the fact that our fingers, toes and (strangely) our knees were now replaced with blocks of burning ice.





T - We had a walk out to a lake and watched as a nice big iceberg floated past. Yeah, no camping for us thanks!







C - The walk out to Grey Lake was about 3km return and just enough time to get that warm, fuzzy feeling back into all of our extremities. I jumped around like an idiot and jogged a little on the walk to help get my blood warm and pumping again.







T - The park was absolutely beautiful and the very fresh snow on everything just added to that beauty. Even though we were cold it was worth every second out there.









From the park it was a short 3 hour ride back to our hostal where we arrived in the dark in sub zero temperatures. We have decided that we won't hang about much over the next few days and will get down to Ushuaia as quickly as we can and then get back out of there. We just don't have the riding gear for the cold and we are warm weather people at heart! Plus riding in the dark when it's -9 with the wind chill is probably not very smart!

C - It was such a pleasure to get inside the hostal and finally warm up completely. So, I think it is going to be a cold ride for a bit! We are going to try to avoid riding in the later part of the day, which just becomes so cold. The days are quite short here so we will limit our riding to make sure we can be inside and warm during the coldest times.

T - Tomorrow we head south to Punta Arenas where we will catch another short ferry and ride into Argentina. We have both agreed that if the weather takes a turn for the worse then we shall just head north again. Ushuaia is so close though and we know we can be there in 3-4 days.

C - Oh what a warm nights sleep. I kept waking up and smiling to myself at how warm my toes were!

But, alas, Ushuaia is calling and despite the weather we are both keen to get there. It was a freezing cold morning, with the temperature gauge showing it was definitely below 0 degrees and we were therefore a little slow to actually climb out of bed. We finally growled at ourselves to get out of bed and then enjoyed the hostals breakfast before getting the bikes ready to leave.

T - We had set ourselves a time of 930 to get on the road. Pfft. That came and went. We just wanted to sit in our warm beds and ignore the wind and chill battering at the windows.

C - The ride started really cold and it was not long before the snow was thickening on the verge and patches of snow and ice were appearing on the road. Then we passed a snow plow and realised how much of this had been scraped off of the highway - what are we doing???



T - I started to think that maybe, just maybe we picked the wrong time of year to do this...But then I realised we are so close now and why the hell not! Lets do it!

C - It was cold, but the sun was shining and the landscape was stunning with its dusting, and sometimes slathering, of snow.





We had done nearly 100km when the sky turned dark, the temperature dropped a significant amount and riding actually become uncomfortable. Then the snow started and at first we were all squeals and excitement at riding in a proper snow storm. But then we quickly got wet and very, very cold.

Todd suggested a stop to try and warm up a little bit as we both starting to feel a little miserable. We pulled into a bus stop, complete with windows and doors and decided to make a cup of tea. Imagine our surprise when we opened the door to the bus stop and found a big pile of human crap in a cardboard box. WTF??? Who does this?



T - What a weird treasure to discover. Imagine the look on some poor kids face when he opens the bus stop door and sees that waiting for hi,. Some people are just disgusting. Suffice to say we threw the box a good distance away from the bus stop.

C - After removing said box, it did not take long to warm up with a cup of hot tea and the stove on high next to our feet. I may have burnt my sock after assuring Todd I understand how close I can put my feet to fire without burning them. Turns out I don't..





T - I did tell Chantelle that her feet were way too close to the very hot flames but she told me off for telling her what to do.

C - We missed the worst of the snow storm whilst sheltering in our 'toilet' stop and we pulled back out onto the highway in the sunshine. It was still cold, but nowhere near like it was before the stop.

The weather turned again just outside of Punta Arenas and the last 30 minutes was again so cold it was uncomfortable. Of course, this is the time my bladder says it needs emptying, right now. I tried to hold on, but just couldn't.

We pulled over and I managed to go get my pants down ok, it was getting them back up that was difficult!! I could not feel anything through my gloves but was hesitant to take them off. All in all, I ended up riding the rest of way with both pairs of pants undone, but safely hidden underneath my waterproof layer!!!

T - The passing truckers and locals all managed to have a good stare at Chantelles bare bottom as she wrestled in the ditch with her pants. It was pretty funny really!

C - We arrived at our hostal to find the most wonderful couple hosting us. We were greeted with a lovely, warm house and an even warmer cup of delicious earl grey tea!

A quiet night in as we had everything we needed to make dinner. We are in desperate need of motorcycle oil before we venture any further, as Rosie is now using a few hundred millilitres a day. The ferry from here to Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego, leaves at 9am so we need to hang about another day here before catching Wednesday's ferry. On the positive side, our hostal is lovely and Punta Arenas looks like a beautiful town.

Despite the cold, there are definitely worse places to be!

C - With squishy warm toes and fingers I awoke late with a smile on my face! Our room was so hot last night I slept without blankets and it was oh so blissful!!

After enjoying a scrumptious breakfast at the hotel, we ventured out into the cold to explore town and of course find some oil for Rosie.





T - We originally were going to head on over to to Tierra Del Fuego today, but we wanted to buy some extra oil just in case Rosie needed another top up. She is a bit of an oil drinker these days! We knew that if we left without buying more that we would need it somewhere out in the middle of nowhere! Better to be safe than sorry right?

C - It was surprising warm outside.. Well, compared to riding the motorcycles of course! I was wearing everything I owned essentially, including two scarves, but the sun was shining and the wind was relatively calm.

We explored the centro area and wandered through the Plaza de Armas - the central plaza. It was very pretty and we noticed how much snow had disappeared overnight. Did it rain last night?







T - There is a statue of a guy in the main plaza and the story goes that it is good luck to kiss his big toe, and judging by how shiny it was alot of people have done just that! So I left that job to Chantelle!









C - We strolled about 7km before heading back to the hostal for a little rest - everything shuts down between 12pm and 3pm, so it was rest for us too!





It was wonderful to spend some time chatting with the hostal owners, who are super lovely people and even shared some scrumptious chillis with us. Todd kept his calm on the outside, but really, I am sure I saw steam coming out of his ears!

After another short stroll in the afternoon sun, it was back to the hostal to escape the dark and the bitterly cold night air drifting in from the ocean.
Tomorrow, we are booked on the 9am ferry from Punta Arenas to Porvenir. Unfortunately, by the time we arrive in Porvenir there will not be sufficient time to ride across the border and reach San Sebastian, so we will stay in Porvenir overnight overnight and then head to Rio Grande the next day.

T - So we are still going to be a good 3 days ride for us from Ushuaia. Those on a bigger bike would blast it out in one day easily. But we are really taking it easy on our bikes for this last little bit. We want them to be able to carry us north a little ways and back into the warmth!

C - So one ferry day and two riding days until we reach Fin del Mundo. How about that huh?

C - We have changed time zones so many times lately that neither of us had a clue what the real time was when we went to bed last night. As we had to get up early today to be at the ferry terminal at 8am, and all our devices showed a different time, we googled the current time, set an alarm and went to bed.

T - I barely know what year it is let alone what month, day or time! My whole world has blurred into one big "I dont care because I dont need to: kind of deal!

C - Todd woke up super early this morning and woke me at 630. The hostel owners kindly offered to serve our breakfast at 7am, so we packed up and ventured out just before 7am.

It quickly became apparent that Mr Google was very, very wrong. It was, in fact, already 8am. The host said she wasn't sure whether she should come and get us, and had decided if we werent out by 8am she would come and tell us.

One thing I very much dislike is being rushed in the mornings. My pet dislike in fact!

T - My pet hate is tardiness. I hate being late!

C - So, rush we did - we gulped down breakfast, threw everything on the bikes as best we could in the pitch black and raced the wrong way down the one way street to skirt around a morning rush hour traffic jam.

We had a reservation which expired at 0830am. We arrived at the terminal at 8.28! I jumped off Rosie, Todd shouting he would deal with the bikes whilst I raced in and got the tickets. In my haste, I nearly straight into the naval base office instead of the ferry office! Opppsss.







Thankfully, we got our tickets and loaded up on the ferry quickly. The ferry trip generally takes around 140 minutes and can get quite rough heading across the Strait of Magellan. I always have motion sickness tablets on me and today, I could not find them anywhere. I had them in the room this morning, but I think in our haste to get out of there, I left them behind. I have not been ill on the last few boats so fingers crossed I guess!

T - We were just in time in fact. 10 Minutes after they told us to park our bikes in a corner and we were heading away from the port. Lucky or what!

C - The crossing was very smooth and not rough at all, and actually, went very quickly. We were unloaded and riding off the ferry onto Tierra del Fuego in about 90 minutes. And with no sea sickness!! Yippee!







We had decided to camp up the night in Porvenir, as the next town is 150km away along a ripio (gravel) road and across a border. I had thought we would be arriving in town until about 11.30, just too late to tackle that much gravel and a border crossing.

Despite the early arrival, we stuck with the plan and ventured to the hostel I had booked.





Porvenir is a pretty and colourful small town and we had a walk around the main plaza and the waterfront before retreating from the icy cold winds.

T - We also taped over the oil coolers on our bikes as they are running super cold at the moment and I feel like that is probably not a good thing! Poor girls have not even been getting up to a decent operating temperature down here.









C - Tomorrow, we leave Chile and cross into Argentinian Patagonia. We plan to make Rio Grande, putting us within 200km of Ushuaia (D Day -1).

Tomorrow's forecast does not look great though - 4 degrees with strong wind gusts, with an estimated "feels like" temperature of -5... Sounds like adventure right?

T - Well the weather forecast was pretty dismal for the next week or so. Snow, sleet and rain. Yuk!

We were up before dawn today to get an early start and get to the Argentina border to the east of us where we could then continue south for the last leg into Ushuaia.

We were greeted by snow and ice covering the bikes outside and a world covered in a blanket of cold white. Snow had come over night.

C - It was icy cold outside and we could hear sleet hitting the windows whilst we ate breakfast. After checking the forecasts, we figured there is no point hanging about waiting for a nice day. It just does not look like it is coming this way on Tierra del Fuego. The forecast all the way to Ushuaia is around 0 degrees with snow. Nothing for it but to get out there and get the miles done.





T - We gave the bikes a warm up and then slowly slipped and slid down the icy street and headed on out of town. Once we hit the dirt road that we would have to take for the next 100kms the slippery stuff eased of a bit and we were able to cruise along at 50km/hr.

There was a slight dusting of snow on the road and everything looked so so so pretty! While ahead of us dark clouds filled the sky from east to west with no break in the thundery looking mass at all. Looked a hell of a lot like we were going to get rained on very shortly.

C - The ride started out quite ok. A bit slow because of the surface, but we knew we could get through it in 2 hours and although it was really cold, it was not the coldest we have ridden in since Puerto Natales.



T - Except we didn't get rained on. Not in the sense that we know anyway. Instead it started to snow. Fat white flakes drifted down around us. Then it got heavier and heavier and the wind soon picked up. Our bikes were being flung sideways across the dirt and soon our visibility dropped to nothing and our speed slowed to under 20 km/hr. It was crazy!

The temperature had plummeted and we were working hard to keep our bikes running as the moisture in the air made our poor bikes carbys freeze up inside and caused our bikes to stall out constantly.







We stopped on the side of the road. Our helmets were balls of ice and snow, our bikes were slowly building up several inches of snow on the tops and sides. Within 10 minutes there was an inch of snow on the road and the storm showed no signs of slowing down. If anything the snow was falling thicker and thicker.

C - I started to feel a little nervous, and a little bit stupid, for being out in this weather on a motorcycle. Visibility was getting so low that we could barely see the road surface at all and because it was so cold, our visors were constantly fogged up on the inside and layered in ice on the outside.

T - Now we aren't from a place where we see snow. Ever. We could only assume this was a blizzard such as we have seen on TV. We could see maybe 10-15 mts before the world became a whiteout. Both of us started to feel a little nervous.





We sat and had a very short chat about what the hell we were doing and was it worth trying to push on to Ushuaia for this. For what really? So we could maybe make it there? So we could say we had done it? We have nothing to prove and that is not why we are doing this trip. Neither of us feel it is worth risking death in a climate we don't understand for that.

So we decided this is as far south as we go. We made it from Adelaide to Alaska and then all the way down through the Americas to Tierra Del Fuego. With just a tad over 60 000kms in 15 months and 17 countries to date, numerous crashes one of which involved a car, one bike that caught fire, bent rims, broken spokes, busted mirrors, twisted handlebars, a surgery, 15 tyres, 4 chain and sprocket sets, 115 oil changes, and uncountable amazing interactions with incredible people, we certainly aren't disappointed to end our southerly journey here and head back north. In fact there is some type of relief to be honest.

C - We both could've pushed on through the cold, no problems at all. But through thick snow, with the famous Patagonian winds constantly pushing us across the road? The risk of pushing on far outweigh the rewards of reaching Ushuaia. Our trip has never really been about a specific destination, and while this brings us closer to the end of our South American journey, it definitely is not the end of the Over Yonda adventure!



T - We turned back to the town of Porvenir and our hostal from last night where we were greeted by the owner. We decided to stay another night here and then head back over to mainland Chile and then head north into Argentina.

Our kind host informed us that had we made it the 100 kms along the dirt road to the border we would have had problems as that border crossing has just today been closed for the next two days due to bad weather. We could have potentially been stranded out there in a snow storm. We knew we had definitely made the right call when she told us that! On top of that the locals here are telling us its a bad idea to try to go further south on bikes. We listen to the locals. They know it better than us!



C - Thank goodness we turned back!





T - So the rest of the day will be spent making a new plan and trying to sort out our shipping from Buenos Aires back into North America. Do we fly into Canada and ride south, thus avoiding the chances of a Canadian winter hampering us, or do we ship into Miami?