08/12/2013 Stage74 Punto Arenas - Wild camp Tiera del Fuego

2013-12-08 click for more

Untitled by malcandmarjetpatterson at Garmin Connect - Details
08/12/2013 Stage74 Punto Arenas - Wild camp Tiera del Fuego

Our oasis of trees looming in the distance.

Up at seven to cycle to the harbour and buy tickets for the ferry. The crossing to Porvenir was 2 ½ hrs and surprisingly smooth as the wind appeared to have finally abated. We spent a lot of the time during the crossing chatting to the man seated opposite to us who was a radio reporter and was travelling to report on the football match in Porvenir. Goooooaaalll he demoed.

From Porvenir it was going to be 160 kms of ripio to San Sebastian which is just in Argentina again. In between there was going to be lots of wilderness and we would have to wild camp in the middle somewhere. San Sebastian on Google earth was tiny and probably wouldn't have a hosteria so we took food for three days and expected to camp for two nights.

The weather continued to improve and we enjoyed nil wind conditions with lots of sunshine whilst cycling along the shores of Bahia Inutil. It was once again very beautiful with great views to the mountains across the lakes to the South. It was good to have a really enjoyable day again as some of the last few days had been tough going on occasions. The first half of the day the road was rarely level and seemed to just go up and then down without any level parts but none of the climbs were greater than 100m although the climbes were quit steep.. The second half of the day became easier as the land levelled out to the point that finding a pace to overnight might be difficult. However we had read some of the bogs from other people who had done the same section and it was reported that there would be 14 trees after 85 km and behind these we would be able to shelter .Sure enough the 14 trees were found exactly as predicted and we set up camp feeling more secure with a barrier against the wind. We went to bed listening to some very odd animal noises.

Not a bad oasis. Sea in the background