Puerto San Blas

6th October 2025

Today was always going to be a bit of a slog. After waiting at the hotel for the early morning mountain fog to clear, we set off with full tanks and headed South. It will be due south now for the next 3500km. quite a difficult fact to comprehend, something like North Norway to Barcelona and something we discussed in our helmet intercom.

Bahia Blanca, is a big city and the circuit around the town was full of traffic and bad roads, dirty trucks and dangerous driving.

Once out of town we got onto Ruta 3 , the road to the end of the world ! This will be a moin road now until we reach Ushuaia in the southern part of Tierra Del Fuego , where the road runs out and the next stop is Antarctica.

The road was endless and straight and we got the first gusts of wind that this part of the world is famous for. nothing too serious, but just enough to warn us that we had to be careful.

We stopped for a lunch stop at a service station, we had been looking for a Parrilla cafe, but these seem in shorter supply further south, and we have to constantly feed Tim or he starts to get very angry ! Matters are made worse by the selection of food available because if its not from the Fortnam and Mason Organic counter then he's not having it ! Empanadas and cheese sandwiches are very much frowned upon !

Later on after a long ride we turned onto the Ripeo, (Graded Dirt Roads) towards Puerto San Blas. These roads are a mixture of whatever the ground material is like with a top surface of gravel. In a car they are slightly bumpy and create dust, but on a bike the front wheel goes where it wants and you have to follow it along and let it do its thing. Its a skill that takes time to pick up again. On the gravel and dirt it’s ok, but when the soil becomes sand then the wheels tend to dig in and you have to throttle on to lift the front wheel and power out again. This is a reverse of what your brain is telling you to do which is slow down.

We were making good pace at about 80kmh when i hit a deep bit of sand which diverted me to the side of the road where the gradeing trucks dig out drainage trughs for any water. It was incredibly dry, but these troughs are deep sand and once i got into it there was no coming back, the bike served violently left and right several times while i tried to power on and ride out. It just wasnt going to happen and i went down hard and face first into the back, the bike spun out back into the road ripping off its windscreen and right pannier. I went in face first and my helmet certainly saved a lot of damage. Tim was great and came right back and washed off the blood and sand from my face and helped me strap on the broken parts to the bike so we could continue into town ( at a slightly slower pace ).

Once there we unpacked what we could, and the Tim did a masterful cable tie job on my windscreen and I got busy with the gaffer tape on the front bumper. we soon had a workable bike again.

Slightly shaken up still, i found a large

bottle of Quilmes beer helped a lot.

Dinner and an early night in the San Blas Hotel with very small rooms.