The Wind (26/12 - 30/12)

Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego are famous regions for their winds. The sailors also know them very well and gave them names as friendly as the roaring 40th or howling 50th. While we thought we had suffered the worst horrors of the wind in Tierra del Fuego and at Punta Arenas, we disillusioned on the road that led us to El Calafate to El Chalten. With food for 4 days, we leave El Calafate on December 26th without suspecting what awaits us: hell.

From El Calafate, we take east direction, i.e. the wind in the back. Have you ever cycled to 45 km / h on flat roads without pedaling? Have you ever climbed uphill slopes at 15 km / h without pedaling? Well that day, we do it. The wind is so strong that we have to break all the time. In our back, the wind raises a huge cloud of sand that invades and obscures the sky. We ride the first 30 kilometers to the junction with National Road 40 in record time.



But at the junction with National Road 40, we must take north, ie with side wind. By reaching the junction, this is a shock. Not only it is a psychological shock as we really wonder how we can struggle against such a monster, but it is also a physical shock: the wind hits us in the face, the shoulder and the handlebars and pushes us to the ground! We decide to wait until it calms down, and we go on in the late afternoon to travel 5 km and find a sheltered place to spend the night.

Because that is the major challenge: find a sheltered place in the Argentine pampas, where nothing grows except dry grass. And that is the same problem the following day, and we must decide after an hour of searching for a sufficiently high embankment, right next to the road. The ground is so hard that all the sticks of the tent twist. Despite this shelter, the tent is continually shacked. The night ahead will be hard ...


The next day, same situation, but this time we have face wind. We must strongly push on the pedals to go downhill. Our cruising speed is 7 km / h on flat roads. We finally find refuge in a small estancia, 75 km from El Chalten, along the shore of Lago Viedma. But the worst experience awaits us the coming day. The alarm clock rings at 3 o'clock in the morning, the wind seems calm, but a few drops of rain fall on the tent in this dry desert. After a few minutes, the rain stops and an amazing phenomenon occurs. Far, we hear a rumble coming from the east. We only understand what happens when a front of wind of unprecedented violence hits all the trees of the estancia. The noise sounds like an aircraft engine. We do not hear anything else than this continuous roar. What we do not know yet is that the wind will not calm down for 2 days ...

Nevertheless, we try to leave the estancia. After 300 meters, we are pushed off the road 3 times and we decide to give up. We return back to the estancia, and wait that the wind drops. But another problem arises: we had food for 4 days only, and we are already the 4th day. So we need to reach El Chalten as soon as possible.

The next morning, the wind has slightly dropped and we decide to leave. 10 km / h, a miracle! But quickly, the monster agresses us again. The effect is immediate: 9 km / h, 8 km / h, then 6 to finish at 4 km / h on flat roads. The noise becomes unbearable. Every movement becomes a challenge: by trying to open the bag, it smashes in the hands, by opening our pockets, everything instantly flies, and by releasing the handlebar for a second, it becomes mad and uncontrollable. I shout to collect the little courage I have left, but I even do not hear the sound of my own voice. The last aggression occurs when the wind make me turn around ... In a second, without any control, I find myself in the opposite direction of our destination. Hope vanishes and I collapse. I just seat down on the side of the road, and we decide to finish by hitch hiking. It is 10 o'clock in the morning and we saw only one car this morning. The wait will be long ...