We had an early start catching an amazing sunrise over the peak of Mount Fitz Roy. I then had breakfast but Andrew had indigestion from the expensive dinner the night before and almost vomited. He just ate a slice of bread (as we worked out later a mouldy slice of bread) which seemed to settle his upset digestive system, but he felt pretty lethargic and low on energy. We left early as we had a long day ahead of us with strong winds forecast, potential rain in the afternoon and the treacherous 70km of ripio (dirt road) on Ruta 40 north of Tres Lagos that gets closed if it rains. It was 4 degrees when we left El Chaltén and we fuelled up on the way out of town and I led the first 123 km towards a privately owned petrol station just outside of Tres Lagos. We stopped there to fuel up and had a small croissant while talking to other riders who had pulled into the petrol station including a Belgian guy who rode an Enfield which he had bought in Columbia. The wind gusts had become very strong and it was hard to even park the bike. I left one of our stickers on a wooden pole at the grass level (no picture) before we continued to Tres Lagos where we went into the local police station to check the condition of the dirt section of Ruta 40 ahead of us. The officer assured us it was in “perfect” condition and that there was no rain coming.

So we continued on Ruta 40 which was still bitumen for a little while and then the gravel started – it was very deep and loose gravel with deep wheel tracks and very large pieces of rocks at the beginning with corregations and potholes and strong side winds – all the “good” stuff. Initially the road was mostly flat and straight but later undulated over hills and in sections became hard compacted clay which would be impossible to ride through in the wet and is why the road gets closed – it is also what the mechanic in Puerto Natales had warned us about and had told us that another Australian couple had burned out their clutch on an Africa Twin motorbike on that stretch of road. Luckily it was dry for us but you could still see the dried up wheel tracks from the last rain event. The road went through the Patagonian Steppe and there was nothing out there apart from guanacos and the fence on both sides of the road that we had seen all throughout the most desolate and uninhabited areas of Argentina – who built this fence and what for? There is no live stock out here and it surely does not stop the guanacos from crossing the road as they easily jump over these fences.

I really enjoyed riding this section – it felt so remote and wild and although I don’t like lose deep gravel, I had my mojo on and a big smile on my face as the DR just glided over the gravel. In some sections the wheel ruts were so deep that the foot pegs scraped on the gravel piled up on either side of the wheel track and flung rocks all over the boots.

Andrew did not have a good day, low on energy from his indigestion and no breakfast, he struggled with the challenging road conditions and his irregular heart beat was back. We stopped after ~50km of the dirt at a section where the road was wide enough to park the bikes on the side of the road without blocking traffic (there was very little traffic) and we had a break and lunch on the side of the road – that was when we discovered that the bread was mouldy – I ate my hard boiled eggs and Andrew had some fruit and nut mix.

After that the conditions of the road worsened with rougher corregations and even deeper gravel – it was a super human effort for Andrew to get through this not feeling well and I felt very proud of myself to not only manage well but actually having enjoyed that road – maybe all the experience from my across Australia ride had finally paid off and I am getting to the stage where I can enjoy off road riding? – most of the time I really struggle and fight every km which is hard mentally and physically – so I know how Andrew felt all day – it is draining and at the end of the day you feel defeated rather than feeling a sense of accomplishment.

We rode into Gobernador Gregores by 3pm – look at the video of us riding into town – it gives a good idea of what the rural towns look like and have a guess how we navigate the streets and how we know which roads are one way streets? – hint: look at the street signs – there are no one way street signs like in Australia or Europe – instead on the wooden street signs there are arrows indicating which direction the traffic is allowed to go.

As we arrived at the address my map took us to for the place we had booked, a guy came out and asked if we were looking for accommodation – he got his daughter to come out of the house who spoke English – we showed them what we had booked and he walked around the corner to where the place was and we followed him on the bikes – nobody was home but he knew the owner and called her and she came shortly after – we originally had told her on WhatsApp that we would not get there until 6pm but after she had told us that it might rain from 3pm onwards we had left El Chaltén early and made good time on the gravel road to arrive by 3:00pm. She said she still needed to clean the place and we went to a cafe which she had recommended which was closed and she messaged that the place was ready so we returned and got to park our bikes in her garage from which we entered a one bedroom flat with kitchen and washing machine. We were allowed to run one load of washing and detergent was provided and we hung it out in the enclosed back yard where the strong wind dried the clothes within two hours even though it was late in the day and we got all the clothes inside before a thunderstorm started.

We did not feel like going out that evening and cooked pumpkin cream soup for dinner and were glad we had successfully completed this treacherous section of the road.