#34 Riding North - Ushuaia to Puerto Madryn

After pouring over the map we worked out we could reach Peurto Madryn for Christms if we pushed it, but meant riding around 400-600kms per day. But in our minds it was worth it to spend Christmas in the warmth, by the sea, and hopefully in a friendly hostel. For the first time since Santiago we booked a place to stay in advance, choosing one which promised Patagonian lamb and seafood for Christmas dinner (on Christmas Eve, when Christmas is traditionally celebrated here in South America).

While I retrieved the camera, Reece was having a great old time.

Day 1 was simply retracing our steps back to Rio Gallegos. Not much to report there of interest, oh except for my extending our already long trip thanks to dropping my wallet before boarding the boat ferry. It was only when I went to pay that I noticed it was missing meaning a return trip to see if I could retrieve it from the wharf. With not much hope thanks to the pessimistic attitude of a number of truck drivers I spoke with, it was a pretty gloomy trip. However, as we approached the shore I could see the grey wallet only metres away from being swept into the sea and to the honking horns of truck I skipped back on to the boat for a much merrier return cruise across the Magallanes Straight, accompanied by the dolphins pictured above.

The following few days can be characterised by long, straight roads, broken up only by the pleasurable sight of a petrol station. I think on one day we stopped five times, given the distances we were covering and the fear of petrol availability should we not fill up. On the first couple of days its where we went to escape the freezing wind, by the end it was where we stopped for air conditioning, and always as a means to escpae the tedium of the Route 3.

This is not just a tree trunk, it's a fosilised tree trunk!

We did spend a night sleeping in the kitchen of a campsite located on an Estancia in order to visit a petrified forest the following day. There was no one else around and it seemed a hassle to erect the tent with the kitchen on offer. It was pretty cool to see massive logs of wood frozen in time for thousands of years, and even cooler was the man who ran the camping site, who lived out their by himself, only visiting the nearby city for supplies once a month and to visit the casino! He happily shared his life story, never married but with four women over hte course of his life, he had decided he wasn't suited for this kind of life. He also showed us a scar on his head acquired from 14 stitches as a result of tripping in the dark and breaking the skin on one of the estancia's own fossiled branches.

We also broke up the bordem with a stop at Cabo Dos Bahias, a colony of Magellenic penguins where we were able to get right next to the rather noisy critters, one of whom blocked the pathway back to the carpark.
And our final stop before Puerto Madryn was a visit to a Welsh tearoom in the Welsh town of Gaiman where Welsh flags can be seen and (apparently) Gaelic can be heard (we didn't hear any). We sampled, or should I say devoured, a plate of traditional, tasty treats (would have been nice to be told at the beginning doggy bags were available!).

Finally we arrived in Puerto Madryn which was to be our time to relax by the beach. But we were told that shops closed for Christmas at 12pm on Christmas Eve leaving only the morning to do our food shopping and present buying for one another. Our plan was to spoil ourselves to make up for being far from family on Christmas. After our impressive efforts to do all this by 12 (only to find out that shops were in fact open for the remainder of the afternoon) we had the afternoon to relax before the Christmas dinner began that evening. It was a superb evening, we met lots of interesting people, including a Nuclear Physicist from Finland(!), watched or the locals set off fireworks (many of which are now banned in New Zealand) at midnight, and danced on the street.

Enjoying Christmas Dinner