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Chills and Mills

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Tag: Cycling the salt flasts

Silver, salt and stars

August 26, 20198 Comments

How we got to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, and how we crossed it. All by bike.

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Would you look at those beauties 😍

Made it. We went as far south as our bikes and the road could take us, and now it’s time to come home.

We’ve spent the past week following the Fin Del Mundo route on @bikepackingcom from Porvenir to Tolhuin, and it’s unexpectedly been one of the highlights of our trip.

Our first few days on Tierra Del Fuego have been BEAUTiful. Stunning views, dreamy gravel roads and a whole range of free sleeping spots, from ultimate cabin porn to leaky roadside sheds (from where we share this post). Not even the strong winds and rain forecast for the next few days can dampen our spirits.

Once more unto the breach.

It was a joy, if a little knackering, to get off the bikes and explore Patagonia by foot. Taking it at this pace forces you into a different style of travel. I noticed from the photos I took everything was more close up, wanting to remember the tiniest details along the way (AKA getting carried away with macro mode pt.2).

It’s difficult to convey just how vast and empty Patagonia is to someone living on a tiny and congested island called Great Britain. But imagine for a moment driving up the M1 from London to Nottingham: Luton, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Rugby, Leicester and Loughborough, and of course all the towns and villages dotted in-between; traffic jams; speed cameras; roadside AA vans; service stations with a WH Smiths, M&S, Pizza Express and Travel Lodge.

Nothing like a good collection of Patagonian cabin porn to make the imagination run wild 😉.

We’ve had our fair share of disappointing sunrises of late. Making the effort to be up at ungodly hours only to see dark peaks covered in clouds which block the sun. So when we tentatively poked our heads out our tent to this mesmerising light show, we felt well and truly compensated. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

“You’re going up *that* hill”?

Guanacos have a way of suddenly appearing over the brow of the hill, as if out of nowhere. They don’t bat an eyelid when cars and huge lorries screech past. However when they see a cyclist approach, they stop dead in their tracks, stare us down and sound a warning call to their friends. We want to tell them they should be more concerned about the speeding vehicles, but it must be something about the way we move - positively puma-esque if you ask me. Incidentally, their warning call sounds much like a dirty laugh from an old lady who smokes 50 a day. No lie. Youtube it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

I remember when I first saw a picture of the mystical mountains of Torres Del Paine, 10 years ago on my first trip to South America as a baby backpacker. It captured my imagination and ever since then I wanted to visit Patagonia. We’ve now seen a whole lot more than what’s in this picture, but to cycle through here felt like a fitting farewell to the Andes.

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