Punta Arenas

Today we have to start early, we have to reach Provenir by 1 pm because we have a ferry booked to take us to Punta Arenas at 2 pm.

So we were up at 6 am,packed the bikes in very cold weather and very strong wind and then marched fully dressed into breakfast to have the usual not very exciting offerings.

We set off out of town encountering strong winds and made our way to the Argentina / Chile border. We did our usual paperwork exchanges and we’re back into Chile.

We wanted to stop for a coffee because it was so cold but found that the only coffee available was some sort of Nescafe cappuccino concoction which was basically sugar. So we carried on.

The road gave away to Ripeo and this was soon turned into a diverted road.

It looks like the Chinese road and Belt initiative. This was an investment policy started by China in 2013 where it invests in foreign countries for their infrastructure in exchange for minerals and oil rights. Therefore, they are constructing a modern road between Provenia and the border. At this stage we could see no reasonable reason for them to be building this road in such a desolate and uninhabited area. Until you realise that Tierra del Fuego has huge gas reserves under the soil and obviously a road like this would help in their exploitation. Apparently this initiative has been so successful worldwide that 75% of the worlds population is now covered by it.

For me personally as a bit of a conservationist Explorer and adventurer I find it slightly tragic that our world is being torn apart in pursuit of never-ending riches. For someone who has travelled since he was 15 years old and has been to many wild and desolate places it seems that the modern world has reached even the farthest most desolate parts of our planet..

We passed several roads with names such as China Way and Beijing Street which only went to confirm what we thought was happening.

The road wound its way along the beautiful coast and along blue Bay. I think we passed three cars in total in 130 km on this road Which goes to show the importance of that road in exploitation.. We rolled into Provenia at 1:30 and Road straight to the ferry only to find ourselves the only people there. At 2:15 and we still no sign of a ferry we asked a local person what was going on and they said that we need to check the ferry website because they change it at the moment notice and the latest time for the ferry will be published on the website . Upon checking we found that they had changed the time that morning from 2 pm to 5:30 pm so we now had 3 1/2 hours to find something to eat and kill time. We managed to do both having a nice lunch and then lying on the grass outside the restaurant chilling from the wind until such time as it was Sensible to go back to the ferry port. Eventually, we got on board and made the two hour crossing over to Punta Uranus and rolled off the ferry at about 8 pm to find our comfortable hotel and just had time for a couple of beers before bed