To Mendoza

A quick stay in Bariloche then it was time to say goodbye to John who was staying on an extra day before heading to BA to start the returning home to the UK process.


We intend to stay on Ruta 40 for as long as we can and make for North West Argentina before crossing back into Chile then Peru.

Our favourite city Mendoza called as the bike needed a well earned service.

The Ruta 40 to Mendoza did not disappoint. It gave us all the landscapes you could imagine. It gave us every road surface you could image and then threw in some more just to test us near the end of the day. On one stretch we had never seen such bad corrugations. No going faster here helps. The corrugations were like small waves on a lake. To make it more challenging, this road had once been tar. It had been forgotten about maintenance wise and let revert back to gravel. So you could never have a straight run before slowing down to mount another small tar patch.. 70ks distance at 30kph made for a long tiring day.

Every nut, bolt, spoke, and body joint had to be checked that night.

We are noticing a rise in temperature so everything that can be removed to cool us down is taken off, maybe never to be seen again until we reach Alaska. Fingers crossed.

Fluid consumption is going up and food consumption going down, so that can’t be a bad thing.

Within three days we reached Mendoza and managed to find the needle in a haystack KTM dealer who was going to perform the oil transfusion the bike badly needed. Up to then we had covered 10,000km on all sorts of roads. We also needed new tyres front and back, a new battery and fluid checks.

Returning two days later to a clean refreshed machine we didn’t recognise. A pity it was not going to be long before it was back into the dirt and dust again. Everything was fine and not much else really needed doing to the bike. So far so good. A big thank you to the guys at KTM Mendoza.

We have seen a few bikers heading south, some two up, but not too many at this stage. We hope to cross paths with Oliver and Julie somewhere in Northern Chile and spend a few days with them so we are looking forward to that.

Fuel in Argentina is really good. 95 or 98 rating. 98 costs about 3.5 pesos per litre. Argentina is self sufficient in oil.

Bike tyres were cheaper as was the Motil oil in the bike.

Sealed roads are really first class, wide thick seal with wide sweeping bends and very few potholes.

Cigarettes are cheap at 5 pesos a pack. Everyone smokes.

Beers are cheaper. 6 pesos a stubby. Everyone drinks.

The beer is really good. Everyone parties.





We have decided that because of the sandy nature of the roads in Bolívia that riding two-up with a heavy bike would be asking for trouble so we will give the country a miss. It would be a pity to damage the bike or gear when we still have a long way to go.