We Survived Ruta 25

Ruta 25 was the route we decided to take to get to Bariloche. We had heard nothing of this road so did not know what to expect. It would take a couple of days to get to Bariloche so we were in no hurry.


What an amazing road it was. We rode along the Chubut River for most of the first day, cruising through canyons and gorges, all different colours and shapes

. We even met a group of a dozen Jaguar car owners from the UK and Europe who had shipped their cars to Bariloche and were doing the loop back around to Bariloche, taking about three weeks to do.

The morning ride through the low lands was not how the afternoon ride turned out to be once we headed up onto the high pass.

The wind steadily picked up in intensity to the point that we thought we may have to stop for the day at mid-day. What was going to take two days looked like it was going to end up taking three.

Dust Devils don’t do sitting around drinking coffee when the winds blow. Kitted up, it was get some speed up in the shelter of the gas station before the wind hit us in the open. The ride for the next four hours had to be some of the toughest we had done so far. A head wind all the way made for slow and erratic riding. It was so strong that it cost us to 60ks less in the tank before the reserve fuel light came on.

The small town of Tecka came into view at the right time for a refuel and a bed for the night.

Next day we were on our old friend Ruta 40 again, this time heading back into the foothills of the Andes, north to Bariloche. More changing scenery, more classic cars and a welcome drop in the Patagonian winds.We even lunched with a group of bikers from Chile doing the 40.

Bariloche is a city very much like our Queenstown, with its lakes and ski fields, only bigger, brasher and dirtier. Lots of old European buildings all set to a backdrop of snow covered hills and forests.

We would spend one night here before moving on. A city is a city.