Can you feel the wind tonight?

Let me start off by saying that I was blown away by this last part of my trip through South America. Quite literally actually. But let me first go back where it all started.

Although short, my trip to El Calafate led me to the famous glacier Perito Moreno. This glacier is one of the largest and extends over dozens of kilometres! I could as always try to describe the magic blue hues coming from it, the thunderous sounds the cracking ice makes or simply its overwhelming size. But I still feel that despite my best efforts only the pictures will come close to do it justice!

And on the morrow, my eyes and head filled with this sight I set off for the last part of my trip in South America: The road to the end of the World, to Ushuaia through the Tierra del Fuego.

The first night went as well as could be. Nothing to say much, no wind, no rain. The second night however… see, until that point I hadn’t had to weather really strong winds. And so like any other night I pitched up my tent, albeit this time under some heavy drizzle. Although I was a tad wet I was not worried about the wind. Mistakes were made. Again, like any other night I cooked my pastas and quickly fell asleep under the calming drumming of the rain on my tent. When I woke up, the remaining light had faded away to leave in its place a pitch dark, windy night. Very windy. Confident my tent would do just fine on its own, I went back to sleep. Not an hour passed before I woke up again with the eery sensation that my tent wasn’t really all that pitched anymore. Minutes pass and as my brain sluggishly comes back online I realise I will have to go out there to re-stake the pikes.

Now, I would like you to picture the scene: me comfortably laying in my sleeping bag, having to get out there in the freezing dark night, half-naked, struggling to locate the pikes that flew away with only the dim light of my phone through a literal windstorm. I hope you begin to understand how crappy my night had become.

Somehow I found each and everyone of the spikes and put them back before worming my self back into my sleeping bag, still shivering from the event. And yes, you guessed it. Not 2 hours passed before I was waken up yet again with the same issue. I repeated the operation but the wind seemed to have gotten even stronger, if such a thing was possible. The stakes could simply not withstand the wind and by 4:00am I simply decided to sit up in my tent, grab the corners and wait for the wind to calm down. I set up an audiobook and entered a kind of meditative state for the next 3 hours and a half, until the sun finally rose. By some miracle the wind even came to a stop long enough for me to brew myself some much-needed coffee. Soon, I was on my merry way with a now sweet tailwind making me fly through the 95km until the city of Rio Galleros. There I met Natalia who kindly offered me a bed so I could rest after my exhausting night.

But if you think I was done with the wind, you were wrong! The first two days after Rio Galleros tried as much as they could to make me go back through terrible headwinds. I literally did a 40km day, with an averaging speed of 6 to 7 km/h. I had learned my lesson though. No camping without wind shelter. That’s how I found my first night sleeping at the border with some 3 really cool dudes working there, the second close to the ferry transfer and the third night in an amazing small refuge. The latter seemed to have harboured every single cyclist coming this way for the past few years by the hundreds of markings on the wall.

I have never been so glad to find such a simple shelter and mattress. The wind blew over 90km/h that night accompanied with a rainstorm! And here I was, in the middle of nowhere, warm and cozy under a solid roof!

The following day was the one where I quite literally was blown over by the wind. As I set out to get to the next city (Rio Grande, 130km), I happily found out that the wind came from behind as I was catapulted to prodigious speeds. Not three hours later, I had crossed over 115km. That’s when things got rough. The road direction slightly changed and I found myself by the sea with the wind coming from the side. Not so bad I hear you say? The wind blew over 110km/h that day.

Try as I might to stay on the right side of the road, I had to incline myself against the wind to still go straight. Well guess what? Me going straight was never meant to be. At some point a particularly strong gust of wind blew me all the way from the right side to the left side and then right out of the road. That’s when I decided I should stop cycling and tried to walk. But even walking came to become a struggle as even standing was difficult. During the long time I was under this relentless wind the first lyrics of the song “Can you feel the love tonight?” came to my mind. While at first an inkling, some more adapted lyrics finally came out of my despair.

There’s a calm surrender
To the rushing wind
When the blow of the last gust
Stops whipping you away
An enchanted moment
And it sees me through
It’s enough for this restless cyclist
Just to push onwards

Can you feel the wind tonight?
It’s howling outside
It’s enough for this wide-eyed wanderer
To be cast off-road
And can you feel the wind tonight?
I wonder when will it rest?
It’s enough to make me ponder
I believe this may never end

There’s a time for anyone
If they only wait
For the possible serene calm
In such a raging storm
It may never come
Then on the wild outdoors
The heart of this star-crossed voyager must count
For a wonderful tailwind

But luckily and as always when the elements side against me, awesome people appear. A nice guy saw me in my lost battle with the wind and quickly picked me up to get me through the last 15km. I don’t know how I would have done otherwise. Thank you Mister Nice guy!

The last two days of riding were the one which got me through the best sceneries! At last, the barren land slowly gave way to some amount of vegetation.

While at first the lichen covered trees made for a gloomy atmosphere, they were quickly replace by the autumn coloured forests of different hues of green peppered by the different shades of orange blooming from the falling leaves.

The last part, finally, went up a bit in altitude and gets you through snow covered surroundings. Yes, it was cold.

But, at last, at long last, I made it to Ushuaia. The world’s most southern city. It feels great to have gotten there, but I feel that the real achievement was the trip itself. Not the finish line. The trip is where I got all my emotions, not the end.

Now my winded self is slowly recovering in Ushuaia, waiting for my flight but still hiking around. I try to realise that the first part of my round-the-world trip is over. But right now, I enjoy the warm indoors by this freezing weather!

Until next time,

Chloé