The End Of The World As We Know It

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We crossed the Magellan Strait from Punta Arenas to the small town of Porvenir, all still in Chile. It was a bright sunny day and the strait was flat calm. Not quite what we’d expected. We hadn’t planned exactly how far we would travel, but having disembarked the ferry and driven through Porvenir, we realised we’d be better crossing Tierra del Fuego into Argentina and finding somewhere to stay there.

We drove around the edge of the spectacular Bahia Inutil (Useless Bay - so called by British explorers who couldn’t find anywhere to anchor or build a port). We stopped at the edge of the bay and watched dolphins swimming peacefully by and admired the spectacular snow-capped Darwin range in the far distance. The landscape was greener than we had imagined. Vast and rolling green hills. We drove in the dying sun to the Argentine border and caught our first glimpse of the sea - the Atlantic. After the border formalities, we pressed on and arrived in the dark in a town called Rio Grande, a big town on the Atlantic coast and found a hotel for the night. It turned out that we weren’t the only brits at Hotel Villa, Rio Grande that night. Mark Beaumont, who was just finishing cycling from Alaska to Ushuaia (including climbing the two highest peaks in North and South America) was staying in our hotel. We had a quick chat with him, congratulating him on his achievement and agreed to meet up for a beer in Ushuaia, when he arrived in two days time.

We left the next morning and drove our last 150 kms to Ushuaia, the southernmost point we will visit. The landscape changed again and became very wooded, with views of the distant snowy peaks on islands south of Tierra del Fuego. We climbed up over Paso Garibaldi and then it was downhill through wooded valleys, until we caught a spectacular view of the Beagle Channel. Again, not what we had expected for the end of the world. It was a bright, warm, sunny day; the sunniest and warmest for weeks - 19 degrees! And we arrived into a busy, bustling port town on the serene Beagle Channel. Surely the end of the world was supposed to be cold, windy and bleak, like the rest of Patagonia in both Chile and Argentina for the last few weeks!!

We found a campsite at the Piste Andino, a winter ski slope, and a campsite full of wild pink lupins in summer. In the afternoon, we drove down a rough track alongside the Beagle Channel in the glorious sunshine. In the evening, we watched the sun set over the Channel and for the first time in weeks, we had dinner and sat out by the tent until late. We awoke in the morning to more glorious sunshine and we were starting to think that maybe this was normal for Ushuaia. By lunchtime, however, the clouds had come in and in the afternoon, when we headed up the hill behind the town, taking the cable car and walking up to a mirador at the top, we were up in the clouds and the rain really started.

We got back to a sodden campsite, glad that tonight we weren’t going to cook our own dinner. We called a taxi and headed into to town to meet up with Mark and another British couple, Liz and Phil, who were about to start a similar journey to Mark, but in the opposite direction - Ushuaia to Alaska. We had a fun dinner, hearing Mark’s tales, exchanging travelling stories and we all agreed to meet again at the YPF petrol station the next morning to see Liz and Phil set off on their big trip.

It rained all night and the morning was grey and damp and very cold. We had a quick coffee in town before waving off Liz and Phil with fully laden bicycles. What a trip! We have enormous respect for them, and Mark. We’ll be following Liz and Phil on their blog as they cycle.

In the afternoon, we went out on a boat trip on the Beagle Channel and were again surprised at how calm it was. We took a trip around the (much photographed lighthouse) saw cormorants and sealions on the small islands and had a walk on Bridges Island. It wasn’t sailing, but it was great to be out on the water.

The following morning was another grey and freezing cold morning and we decided that 3 nights camping had proven the point, that we could camp at the end of the world, but we decided to find ourselves a hotel for our last night in Ushuaia.

We had managed to get a chip in the windscreen, on the last 100 metres of ripio before the Argentine border in Tierra del Fuego, so we spent Saturday morning driving around Ushuaia trying to find someone who could fix it for us before it got a lot worse. After trailing around numerous car repair shops, all roads pointed to one place, but the only guy in town able to fix windscreens was on holiday and out of town. We’ll have to head back north and find somewhere to get it fixed as soon as possible.

That evening we headed out to meet with friends again for drinks and dinner. Mark knew about an Australian guy, Dean, who was about to set off by motorcycle to travel length of South and North America, again, finishing in Alaska. Dean has travelled all over the world, cycling through Africa and had been shot and very ill in Africa. He had just bought a vintage style motorbike and side car for his next trip. So we had another sociable evening with Mark, Dean and a couple of Australian’s who had cycled from Bariloche. We got back into our comfortable Suzuki 4x4 the next day feeling inspired by all these adventuring people we had met in Ushuaia and feeling rather lazy!! Our few days in Ushuaia were made more enjoyable by meeting people and having a more sociable time. There was a great sense of adventuring spirit and camaraderie at the end of the world!

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