Patagonia!

Wow, here we are. This place is vast and beautiful. We are nearly at the end of the world, about to cross into Chile and onto Tierra del Fuego. Too much to tell! It's been a long haul down here, and we have had a blast. A few cut-and-pastes from emails written in the last half hour will give an idea, but we will tell more later too...

... Now far down in Patagonia and battling strong, strong winds on the bike. Crosswinds of course. Like, wind all day long blowing as hard as i have ever seen i reckon but at least it is consistent and does not gust much. Taking time out of wind in internet cafe in Rio Gallegos at the moment, about to cross into Chile for the first time...

... pretty mad, we've just ridden 3000 ks to get here ... at times in wind like you wouldn't believe. Andy is a legend at the wheel, so we are here safe. we have seen some mad wildlife - sealions, huge birds of prey, things that look like llamas everywhere, and also (strangely) birds i swear are emus. The land is endless flat plains, rather like australia.

... happy new year. we awoke to 2008 on peninsula valdéz ...

... our NY was quiet, right by ourselves, camping on the edge of the world. We rode down sanddunes (Andy really is magic with that bike) to our lone campsite - windswept coastline and azure sea - at about 11pm, just in time for sunset. Dinner for 12, amongst fireworks from the nearest campgrounds, then flopped into bed. We woke to no wind (mercifully) and explored the rockpools and coastlines of the southern atlantic.

... we hung with sealions and in the next days went volunteering to help care for penguins and other birds affected by an oil spill near windswept place called Comodoro Rivadavia.

... just when i was thinking ''there can't be too many cities with eight-syllable names,'' we came to Comandante Luis Piedra Buena...

... Pretty sad, there were about 500 birds, mostly penguins. I saw one having it's stomach pumped of oil. They had oil all over their bodies, and were too sick to eat or drink. One of our jobs was to give water to Macaes, a bit smaller than cormorants, with long necks and beaks. I held them while Andy fed a tube down their throats to feed them a syringe of water. The spill has affected about 10 km of coast, totally wiping out the beautiful littoral life - shells, crabs, rocks, seaweed, pippis, mussels etc all dead and choked with oil.

... Patagonia beautiful, in some ways reminds of central aust as no trees and quite flat. No roos but plenty of guanacos, also red and look a bit similar from a distance. More road sense, to judge from lack of road kill ...

... We have mainly been camping again, and it's great to be back in the tent after so long in Buenos Aires. just the feeling of freedom this gives is brilliant. also stayed with some people while we did the volunteer thing - another eye-opener as regards ways of life ...

... we are now on our way to Ushuaia, at the bottom of the continent. So close to Antarctica I'm going to sneeze and see if it lands there!

E&A