Moving South Again

After a couple of days of enforced bed rest it was time to leave El Calafate and move to Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine National Park. Bike packed and ready to go and no you're not. Battery on a go slow again. Four nights of sitting in the freezing cold had sapped an already weakened battery. Out with the home made jump cables and we were soon on the road. Note to self: Start the bike every day in the cold climates and replace the battery when she is in for her service. Sitting idle for those few months on the ship has not done the battery much good.
The road south was on Ruta 40 again and with that comes the winds, this time as strong as ever and cold. We arrived at La Esperanza for fuel to find a fellow biker,Yoni, from Israel on his way to Ushuaia and the finish of his trip. He informed us that the border crossing into Puerto Natales was closed due to snow and the border guards in Chile were also on strike, so no crossing. That forced a change of plan, so it was onto the east coast and the port town of Rio Gallegos for the night.
The next day we would make for  Tierra Del Fuego and the town of Rio Grande. To do that we had two border crossings to do and a short ferry crossing.
 We were stopped by police twice on the road that day and asked for passports, which is quite common in Argentina, but they are nice enough about it and are always interested in where you are from.
At our first border crossing at Monte Aymond, we met Anton from Australia, also making his way south, so our little group now numbered four bikes. Three BMWs and one lonely Kiwi KTM.
Onto the car ferry on the Magallan Straights for a quick 20 minute, rough crossing. No strapping things down here. You just held onto bikes on their stands and tried to stop them sliding across  the deck.

The island of Tierra Del Fuego is split down the middle. Half each owned by Chile and Argentina. So to get to Ushuaia you have to make the two border crossings in a day, you can imagine the paper work and border checks that this involves, and with impatient travellers, truck drivers and their rigs, buses lined up with their passengers having to have their luggage scanned and all trying to keep warm inside the customs building and we walk in all dripping and wet with clompy muddy boots. Senor, this way please, over here for motos . I love muddy bikers.

We rode the gravel valley roads to San Sebastian to stay away from the trucks. This proved useful as it afforded us some protection from the wind and it wasn't long before we motored into the town for border crossing number two.. From San Sebastian it was a quick 80km blast down the coast to Rio Grande for a warm room and a cold beer. Tomorrow the biker's holy grail of Ushuaia beckons.