I knew there would be crappy days on this trip to even out the great days. Thats just the balance of life in general… Now i´v been having such a great time that I was due some real crappy luck and bad times. The balance has now been restored. Ill stop talking crap now and fill you on on my last week of misery.
So…., I left Ushuaia and headed back to Rio Grande where I stayed at the fantastic Hospedaje Argentina with Graciela again. I love it there, so chilled and so many great travellers passing though. After a couple of nights i decided it was time to move on and make my way up the dreaded Routa 40 and the west coast of Chile. The first few days of travelling were good fun, stopping off in Punta Arenas, Puerto Natalas and mucho touristic El Calafate to see the huge glacier which is one of the only moving glaciers in the world…Brilliant !! From El Calafate it was north and to the Routa 40. To those unfamiliar with the routa 40, its a long, barron and dreadful “road” which runs up the west coast of Argentina. Its completly unsurfaced and covered with deep gravel, pebbles, stones and occasioal patches of sand. Along with the strong patagonial wings, its not a nice experience. You have to pick your way through the paths that the trucks leave and prey you arnt blown into a wall of gravel which would probably send you into a crash and tumble…
I battled this road for 220 miles and 6 hours to the next and only petrol station half way up to the next major town… It was empty !! AHHHH. The attendant told me I would have to wait 3 days for fuel. As this depressing news was sinking in, I reached down for my bumbag to look at my map, BUT… !!!!, IT WASNT THERE !! A sense of dread filled my body. My bum bag was gone and everything inside it. This included my Passport, my cash card, 300 pounds in cash, my camera, my V5, my tempory import for the bike, my drivng licence, my spare keys, my map and my notebook with all my contact details that I needed for South America. FUUUUUCK !!
I will tell no lie that I just wanted to cry and nearly did.. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with an empty tank in an petrol station with no fuel for the next 3 days and my bag with all my essentials lying somewhere on a 220 mile stretch of horrible dirt road…
In terrible Spanish, I tried explaining my prediciment to the owner and he eventually took pity on me and managed to hand pump enough fuel out of the ground to get me back the way I had came. A glimmer of hope at least ! I gave him 60 pesos out of the 100 I had left and turned around looking to the heavens for help.
I rode and and battled the same stretch of 40 over again for another 5 hours and still no sign of my bag. It was a slim chance of me ever finding it in the dirt anyway, especially as you need to keep all your concentration on not crashing..
It was starting to get dark, I was knackered, depressed and running low on fuel again. Just as I thought my life couldnt get worse, a gust of wind blew me into a patch of gravel and I crashed. I was thrown from the bike into the dirt and the bike was burried and the pannier ripped off AGAIN. To add salt to the wound, my petrol can that I had filled up with fuel to get me to the next petrol station had ripped open in the crash and left a nice damp patch in the sand… I have never been so pissed off and angry in my whole life. I would of sold my soul to be back home with a nice cuppa in front of the telly. I checked the bike and thank god, it was still running.. I strapped the pannier to the bike with a ratchet strap and collected by things from off the road.
I looked at my watch and it was 10.30 pm. By that time I was just so fed up and tired, I pulled up on the side of the track, pulled out my sleeping bag and slept in a bush. I barely got a wink of sleep worrying about what I was going to do. Would I have enough fuel to get me to the petrol station ?, would the petrol station even have fuel ?, would my credit card let me get cash out ?, would I be able to get back to Buenos Aires for a new passport ?? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The next morning I packed up my things and made my way down another dirt track to a small town where hopefully there was fuel and thankfully there was !! YAY !! I filled up and rode 180 miles down another crappy road at 40 mph to get me to something which resembled civilization. I pulled up in San Julian on the RTA 3. The same town I stayed at on the way south 6 weeks ago. My credit card gave me a wedge of pesos, i ate for the first time in 30 hours and I finally sighed a breath of relief. I wasnt out of the crap yet but at least I knew I had fuel and cash…
I reported my things lost to the police and made a plan to get back to Buenos Aires, where I can get a new passport, documents and repair my bike.. For the last 5 days I have ridden 6 hours a day to get north. Im now 300 miles away from Buenos aires, Dakar Motos and friendly faces !!!
Im knackerd, smelly , pissed off and skint but as long as there is sunshine and cold beer, ill be cracking on !!
P.S. Sorry there are no pictures. My camera is either burried in gravel or being used by a local farmer to take sexy pictures of his cows !! 🙂