-
there were times where I was asking myself if it was worth the hype.
That always happens with places associated with great expectations, plus you have been through and seen some amazing landscapes, so everything is relative and up against some tough comparisons. Glad to hear you can still find beauty in different places though!
Hope the wind wasn't too bad!
Are you going to El Chalten through Lago del Desierto?
-
We’re rolling out of Puerto Natales tomorrow mornings, as usual I’m a little behind on posting updates.
We took the ferries to El Chaltén, the weather was pretty good so we were only in Villa O’Higgins for 2.5 days and we managed both ferries in one day. Would have loved to camp on the shore of Lago El Desierto but the ferry was right there and you never know if things will be running smoothly tomorrow.
The ride/hike a bike through the forest was great, really enjoyed it and getting views of Fitz Roy through the trees was pretty special.
We’ve done well with the weather so far but both the wind and the rain are predicted to be extremely spicy over the coming days. The 240km to Punta Arenas could take 2 days or could take 4 if we end up having to hide in refugios and abandoned buildings.
1 Attachment
-
-
El Chalten, Perito Moreno and Torres Del Paine have bookended a few weeks of riding across the Patagonian pampa. At times it’s been tedious but I was really expecting worse, I think the 1500km of desert riding in northern Argentina was good prep. The wind and rain has been manageable and when we’ve had good weather we’ve pushed on and made the most of it. To avoid the bad weather overnight we’ve slept in a variety of abandoned buildings, bus shelters and roadside refugios, temperatures are starting to drop again so having shelter is very appreciated.
Tomorrow we get the ferry over to Porvenir and start the final 550km of our journey. It’s starting to sink in that a week or so from now we’ll have reached the end of the road and completed the ride we started almost 2 years ago and first dreamt up over 4 years ago. Going to have a lot to think about as we pedal these last few days.
-
Going to have a lot to think about as we pedal these last few days.
Shell shock I'd imagine. Going to be pretty emotional and then there's the coming back to "reality". I'm honestly curious to see how you guys cope with normal life again. Are you going to have to go straight back to work? Do you have a place to live when you return? Are you likely to do the same stuff as before or something totally different? Will we see a book? :)
-
An incredible journey, I've really enjoyed this read. safe travels for the remainder
-
Is it wrong to pose those questions? Presumably they're both thinking about these kind of things on and off during the closing stages of the ride and I'm quite curious about the 'reintegration' process after such a big trip. Also, as a cyborg, I have no more than a basic understanding of human emotions.
-
Everyone's different but for me even the 'will we see a book' question just felt like pressure at some point (no doubt not the intention here).
@moog wonderful, just wonderful.
How I remember ending a big trip was just crying. Lots of crying and overwhelm. Beautiful times to go through, in retrospect. The thing is that transitioning back to 'normal' life was pretty similar to transitioning to bike life. One day you set off feeling inept and nervous, everything seems so far away and abstract, then you just do a bit every day and deal with what's in front of you, and without realising you're like cool, I got this.
-
I guess. It was a bit tongue in cheek but I was actually thinking that writing about the trip might be a way to process it all and decompress from the journey, mentally. Like, I used to write post-race blogs to help make sense of what happened and to some extent to be able to look back at it because after a while I'd forget details. I wasn't literally implying a demand for "more content!".
I've not done anything this long but I've gone through enough post-trip slumps to be a little concerned and curious about coping mechanisms. Maybe it didn't read that way but I'm legit concerned for and curious about their 'end of trip' processing. One day I might chuck in the "normal life" towel and do something similar so it's a bit self-serving but also its coming from a legitimate place of concern, knowing what 'afterwards' can feel like.
-
Before starting I thought we might go totally feral and not be able to spend time inside - this never happened and every time we get a bed or any kind of big town living I love it and don’t want to leave. I think the lack of outside time, seeing animals everywhere and a different landscape daily is going to be a struggle though. Maybe more of a slow burn than an instant reaction but I think it could be hard.
Book - absolutely not, it’s been a running joke with my partner and I and we’ve been asked the question countless times at this point. This route is well documented and there are hundreds of people on the road riding it each year. I don’t think we have a particularly unique perspective or experience and travel writing which just lists the things you did/saw get pretty dull after a page or two.
Work - thanks to Liz Truss our mortgage will need attending to pretty soon after we get back so work is more pressing than we’d hoped. As we’ve travelled and met people doing a similar thing so many of them have no idea what they want to return to once it’s all over. They want to change where they live, how they live, work etc, we’ve realised that (at least in theory) we love our old lives and just need to make some tweaks - mainly related to working less and going on holiday more.
Flights home from Buenos Aires are in mid April so we’ll have about 3 weeks there to find an Airbnb and decompress before the shock of coming home. It’s going to be a headfuck but right now I’m looking forward to it.
Pathlesspedalled Russ describes long term touring as “not the good life but a different life”. Right now we’re ready for home again - at least for a while.
-
Maybe more of a slow burn than an instant reaction but I think it could be hard.
Comeback has been very gradual for us and more like ups and downs than shocks, but overall took us about a year to stop thinking about the trip constantly. 6y later, I think the simplicity of living off few things, limited to what you have in your bags while travelling is still very much ingrained in our lifestyle almost as if we were ready to leave again at any point and didn't want to have to get rid of too much.
mainly related to working less and going on holiday more.
The thing that changed the most for us was our expectation of future trips, but then we had our daughter and all went out of the window anyway.
giofox
jonny
lahdelah
elswick
JB
mashton
hippy
EcuriePeril
skinny
ough-
Post a reply
About
Alaska to Argentina – de arriba abajo
Posted by
@moog
900km on the Carretera Austral, suddenly we’re passing multiple other tourers a day and there are campgrounds in every town full of bikes. It reminded me a bit like riding on Highway 1 on the west coast of the US, easy and beautiful riding but there were times where I was asking myself if it was worth the hype.
The last 400km totally changed my mind, traffic dropped off and we could finally ride without being served a face full of dust every 10 minutes. The scenery got bigger, waterfalls around every corner, more great wild camps and I settled into a good headspace again, I wish the last week of riding would have gone on longer but before long we’d arrived at the end of the road in Villa O’Higgins ready for the notoriously unpredictable boat across the lake to Argentina.