Cycling part 2 (Argentina)

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We started our 4th day with the Chilean border formalities (once our guides had roused the immigration staff) even though we still had another 22 km up a gravel road before we reached the official border. This was our first serious challenge, in the final 7 km we had to climb 700 m. It would probably have been fine up a paved road, even with the occasional hairpin bend, but on the loose gravel surface it was definitely a bit tricky! I was using my own shoes and pedals so was riding 'clipped in', this was an advantage for the majority of the time, but not when you might fall over. I didn't actually fall but a couple of times I needed to pre-emptively unclip and stop just in case. I then had to walk the bike to a flatter section to be able to get going again.

Once at the top we crossed the border and then had 3 km downhill on the Argentinian side before we reached the Argentinian customs at Puerto Frias. We made such good progress on the hill climb that we had several hours to enjoy the scenery at Puerto Frias before catching one boat across Lago Frias and then another from Puerto Blest across Lago Nahuel Huapi to Puerto Pañuelo near Bariloche.

The following day was a rest day although I did go out in the morning to try out the easiest ride in the area to see if it would be suitable for S. It was a lovely ride to Lago Guttiérrez and then on to a small waterfall. Apart from starting along the busy main road, for the most part it was along quiet and relatively flat paths. Unfortunately a lot of these were very narrow and were sometimes bordered by a stream or steep drop - not something to boost S's confidence.

From Bariloche we were transferred by minibus to the point where the heavy lorries turned off to head for Chile. I really enjoyed the day's ride along 'la Ruta de los Diete Lagos' to San Martín de los Andes, my favourite of the trip. We covered 61 miles at an average speed of 13.5 (not bad on a mountain bike with knobbly tyres) and somewhere along the descent into San Martín I reached a top speed of 40.7 mph, which is much faster than I've managed in the UK.

Along the way we stopped at Arroyo Partido, a stream that splits into two, the right hand fork ends up in the Pacific whereas the left hand fork drains into the Atlantic!

We had 2 nights in San Martín so the next day was two 350 m climbs to lunch by the lake. The intention was for us to return by boat but some of us threw in an extra hill to return by cycle.

That was the last of our cycling in Argentina, over the 5 days we covered 123 miles with 16,330 feet of climbing.

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