Motorcycle Riding with the Notorious Winds of Patagonia

I arrived at San Sebastian 7:30pm and was able to get fuel.  But the one accommodation place was full.  The town is right at the Argentine border checkpoint and a lady told me that some borders have a refugio for travellers that get stuck.  The people on push bikes mainly use it.

It was a room out of the weather and everyone just sleeps on the floor.  There were four people there preparing to spend the night, including an Argentinian on a smaller motorbike.  I spoke to two of them a bit, Germans I think.  It was 8pm by now.  I should have stayed there but I didn’t.  I thought surely I’d find somewhere, or the wind would drop off and I’d find somewhere for the tent, or I’d make it to Rio Gallegos, where I knew there were a couple of hotels with 24 hour check-in.

So I crossed into Chile.

There was nothing.  The wind didn’t drop off.  It was 6 degrees Celsius.  I was still having to slow right down.  I kept one eye on the road and one eye on my GPS wondering which way the road would turn next and how the wind would have it’s impact on me.

Still light around 10:30pm.  Still some traffic around, mainly trucks.  The problem was I knew I still had a ferry ride and a border crossing back into Argentina, before I could reach the proper town.

It was dark when I reached the Ruta 257 Ferry. The line of trucks was about a kilometre long, those poor truck drivers.  I rode past them and went to the front. There’s no town or public buildings.  I asked an official if there was any emergency accommodation, but nothing.

I waited about 20 minutes and got on the ferry for the 15 minute ride. It’s only a short channel but too far for a bridge obviously.  The wind had still whipped up a decent swell and I had to stay on the deck to brace the bike.  At least I had a bit of shelter from the wind.  I heard later that they had stopped the ferry at some point because of the wind.

Once we docked, I waited for the other traffic to go. I was still having to ride very slowly at times, depending on the direction of the road to the wind.  Still nothing but treeless plains.  And it’s not like Australia where you can get off the road and find a camp spot.  There are no side roads or it’s all locked gates or fenced right up to the road.  So I kept a look out but kept riding.  There are some emergency huts along the roadside but I only saw what I thought were two and they were wrecked.  I hadn’t got that needy of shelter, yet.

I reached the Chile border exit after midnight, to find it closed. I’m guessing it closed at midnight. I chatted to an Irish guy who was in a van and he’d been told it opened at 8am.

I’d already decided I couldn’t go on and would stop no matter what but I’d assumed it was 24 hours because there still seemed to be some traffic coming through.

At this point there were about 10 cars and a few trucks too. I did some exploring and kind of found a spot behind a building, with some shelter where I thought I could put up my tent.  As it turned out there was someone in the building and I met the night caretaker, maintenance man.  He didn’t want me to put up the tent, so I asked him about refugio.

He said something about a container I thought, so I left my motorcycle and my main gear, grabbed the valuables case and camping bag and followed him.  I ended up sleeping on the floor of an abandoned women’s toilet block.  At least it was out of the wind and presumably safe, even though the door didn’t close properly.

I was tired.  I had been riding in pretty demanding conditions for 16 hours now.

I had some comforts, like a sleeping mat and camping quilt.  So I just lay down in my motorcycle pants and put the quilt and jacket on top.  It started raining about 3am and I ended up laying my tent over my sleeping bag to get warm enough. I slept and dozed until almost 8am.  No where else to go….  The roof leaked but not where I was, luckily.  Stupidly I forgot to take a photo of my “bedroom” in my rush to join the queue to exit Chile.  That took 30 minutes and I was underway.

The rain had mostly replaced the wind.  It was 5 degrees and occasional sleet. It was a short ride to the Argentina border.  Unfortunately the line was huge with lots of people heading south in Patagonia over Christmas.   So you all line up together, outside in the weather.  With small numbers inside to keep up the spacing requirements it seemed.  That took over 2 hours.

I then rode a cold wet hour ride to Rio Gallegos and arrived about noon. I found a Roadhouse and had a hot breakfast and booked some accommodation.  I stayed at the roadhouse for a while.  Eventually the rain eased and I rode out to the coast to look at a shipwreck.  At about 2:30pm my room was ready and I finally finished.

I stayed put for four nights in the end.  Most of the time was spent following through on my Christmas efforts to start this website.  New Years Eve was quiet.  I was to far from town and the neighbourhood was quiet apart from a few fireworks at midnight.

The wind had not let up.  There was a large supermarket across a main road from me.  Taking the pedestrian overpass was always an adventure, with the expectation the wind would have you over the side at any moment.