The End Of The World, As We Know It

Days 179-181

After a few days on Ruta 40 the gravel finally gave way to tarmac, and we celebrated with a walk around the spectacular Fitz Roy range. Mount Fitz Roy itself is covered in clouds so much of the time that it was thought to be a volcano giving off smoke (the nearest town is named “Smoking Mountain” in the local language) so we were really lucky to have a bright sunny day affording us fantastic views of the mountains and glaciers.

From Fitz Roy we headed to nearby El Calafate, the base for the mighty Perito Moreno Glacier. This glacier is enormous (the fourth largest body of fresh water in the world, apparently) and great fun to watch - the face of the glacier is changing all the time as bits crack off and land with a reverberating crash into the lake beneath. As far as glaciers go it's really fast-moving at 2m per day, and you can get really close from the viewing platforms on land and by boat on the lake.

Since we hit Ruta 40 we've been meeting a lot more bikers and El Calafate was no exception – four other long-distance biking parties were at our campsite (including two Triumphs both with sidecars, travelling separately) and we had a good time sharing stories and tips for the road. The increased volume of motorcycle adventurers does make our trip feel a bit normal at times, though!

Days 182-183

Break over, we hit the road again and crossed back into Chile, with soaring condors offering a new distraction from the familiar side winds. Controversially we decided against going to the acclaimed Torres Del Paine national park due to time shortage, the price tag, and Ric's newly dodgy knee (acquired on the Fitz Roy trek – he's getting old, you know). One for next time, perhaps; it looked beautiful from a distance.

Instead we travelled straight to the ferry terminus of Punto Arenas in order to cross the Straights of Magallen and get onto Tierra del Fuego the following day. On the ferry we met yet more bikers, a group of Italians who we'd heard about from our German friends, but we left them for dust when we left the ferry – literally: a very dusty road led us back to Argentina and to the tarmac of Ruta 3 which we road all the way to Ushuaia. Yes, that's Ushuaia – the southernmost city in the world!

Day 184

The actual end of the road is a bit beyond Ushuaia in Tierra Del Fuego national park, so on day 184, six months to the day since we landed in Alaska, we hopped on the bikes and did the short journey to the end of the world, “Fin Del Mundo” as it's called here.

We waited for a group of tourists to leave before getting our bikes in front of the official sign, at which point of course another big group of tourists arrived. They were very obliging and took our photo for us, and then, obviously realising how cool we looked, a few people asked if they could pose with our bikes. Naturally we agreed and a few people had a go, but while we were being distracted by other people asking us about the trip a rather vertically challenged lady with, presumably, very little knowledge of gravity clambered onto Ric's bike and sat straight up on it. With no hope of touching the ground on either side to hold the bike steady it was only a moment before the bike fell off the side stand and onto the ground. The fun was over for the tourists – we had the bikes out of there quick smart! (The lady and the bike were fine, just a bit of dirt on the former, and a slightly more misshapen pannier on the latter.)

So now we've made it all the way from Alaska to Ushuaia it should be an easy hop, skip and a jump to get back up to Rio de Janeiro for carnival in around five weeks time. Emily's reinforced pannier rack is still going strong with only a tiny bit more dirt road to go, but we do need a new tyre reasonably urgently now, the Garmin GPS has suddenly become very temperamental, and we can't pick up Emily's new sprockets until Buenos Aires. Watch this space!