This is what I do on my holidays.

Monday 17^th November 2014. Stage 85. Futaleufu to Villa Vanguardia. 107 kms, paved 0%, climbing 1208 metres, summit 495 metres. Another day of playing in the dirt.

Last night we had salmon, mashed potatoes and salad for dinner at the hotel we are staying at. Since we were suppose to bushcamp last night and instead were provided with a nice hotel, we were then required to look after ourselves for dinner. Rob the boss had organised a special meal provided by the hotel at a reasonable price and I think all the cyclists took up the option. It was a super meal, with desert and coffee thrown in.

After dinner I went down to the plaza with Carmen to see if I could get on the net. In so many towns in South America the local plaza has free WiFi. I managed to get on to finish my blog, but there was no way I could upload photos. They will have to wait till we get a strong signal or the rest day in 3 days time. I got back to the hotel around 9.30pm and crashed out. I was pretty tired after a long day yesterday.

We had the usual for breakfast provided by the hotel. Fresh bread rolls, cheese and processed ham. Now I never eat processed ham or meats at home, but here, you have to eat what you can, and burn it off out on the road.

We all rolled out of Futaleufu at 9am. Yep, sleep in today, 8am breakfast.

The pavement in the town lasted for about 500 metres and then we were back on the dirt again. Today our ride was similar to many others, but still the scenery is never boring. When I'm riding I always love to glance up at the mountains and admire the snow caps, and wander whether those birds flying high above the peaks might be my first sighting of a 'Condor'.

Both Barry and I decided not to take arm, leg warmers or jacket. We started in beautiful sunny conditions and I thought it would continue all the way to Villa Vanguardia. Slightly wrong on that one.

Our road would take us up and down small climbs all morning, some steep to climb and some steep to fly down like a mad man. I managed to get a spare bottle off Kristin after losing 2 yesterday. I'll pick up another one at the next rest day. As we rolled along in a small group, dodging rocks and deep sand, we were now coming across more traffic. Some times as the cars, trucks and buses passed, I couldn't see up the road because of all the dust. I was caked in dust in every cavity of my body (that was exposed) and I could taste it in my mouth. I think that shower yesterday was a complete waste of time, I'm dirty and my clean cycling outfit is filthy.

We hug the side of the mountain for many kms this morning on a road that overlooked Lake Yelcho. This lake was like yesterday with snow capped peaks running down into the water, casting a silhouette of it's features right across the lake. It's moments like these I wish I brought my super duper camera to capture these images in style and not on an Iphone.

On one occasion I was going way too fast down a mountain and when I was near the bottom I realised it took a sharp left hand turn. On the gravel and large rocks on the bend I had to take my left foot out of the pedal and brake hard and slide my bike around the corner. I was waiting for the back of the bike to slide completely out and for me to go for a roll on the dirt. It was pretty stupid the speed I was going, but without road signs I will have to slow down a bit or my holiday will end sooner rather than later.

I made it around the corner and down over the bridge to see a raging river below. There were 2 rafting groups just putting their gear away after playing around in the rapids. Man, that water must have been freezing cold for those rafters.

The river below us was the Futaleufu River which is fed by the lakes in the Los Alerces National Park in  Chubut Province, crossing the Andes Mountains into Chile and opening into the Yelcho Lake. The river is known for its deep blue waters created by glacier till deposited in the river, and for its white water currents., which attreact rafters and kayakers from all around the world. The Chilean government has recently proposed creating a hydroelectric dam, which may jeopardise the free flow of the river in the near future. Today we got to see so many rivers of glacier ice running down the mountain into the fast flowing Futaleufu River.

I should mention that one of the new riders, Tim, had his bike on the roof of the truck which struck power lines on the way into town last night. Result, one shattered seat stem, broken forks and a bike that needs urgent and costly repairs. Tim is riding the spare bike today left by Herman who crashed on the first day of the tour and had to go home because of his injuries.

Things got worse for Tim today as he fell off twice before lunch and Deb also fell in front of me around a steep rocky bend. It's pretty easy to lose the front wheel from underneath you on this rough surface. I made it to lunch in one piece with Barry, Jurg and Buck and took up my position at the table and loaded the plate full of good food. A couple of sandwiches, fruit and a drink, and I feeling pretty good, although cold. I should have brought some arm warmers at least with me, because the wind was picking up and I could feel the chill off the snow biting into me. I told Barry that I couldn't sit around any longer and had to get on the bike to try and warm up.

I headed off with Jurg at a steady pace running alongside the deep blue lake taking it easy until Barry caught up to us. We climbed some steep hills in the afternoon and estimated the final 55 kms to camp would take us about 4 hours on these roads. Some of the climbs were 18% gradient and required the 'Granny Gear' to get up. That's an old bike riding term for the easiest gear on the bike.

As the afternoon progressed the traffic picked up and so did the dust. I was covered from head to toe in deep brown dust, and since tonight is a bushcamp, it's going to be pretty hard to get it all off. Especially with a face cloth and some water in 'Tent Hilton'.

We kept pushing along, feeling a couple of rain drops every now and then, hoping the rain would hold off at least till we pitch our tents. With 30 kms to go the road turned west and we hit brand new pavement. I got the chance to put the foot down and really get some pace going. I was sitting on 52 kph with Barry and Jurg behind. I had a slight tailwind and the road was silky smooth to push us along. After 15 kms of speed we came across some road works which slowed us down as we had to climb another one of those 18% gradient climbs. The road workers all look at us like we're idiots. When you think about it, who would pay nearly 10,000 Euro to put themselves through this kind of stuff each day for 4 & ½ months. I would, this is fantastic fun.

That little house in the field is suppose to be the house where 'Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid' once lived.

That tent is the famous 'Tent Hilton'. Notice I put it right next to the caravan so I wouldn't be blown away in the middle of the night. That was the worst wind my tent has gone through.

The photo above was looking out from my tent the other day. Although it was really cold at night, the noise of the river slowly passing bye helped me go to sleep straight away.

Back to the pavement after a short stretch of dirt and back up to full speed. I ended up covering the last 30 kms in 47 minutes. This took us to the campsite in a town that has 5 timber homes and nothing else. The timber home that sells the beer is not open today, so we've got some disgruntled riders who won't get their daily fix of 'Cerveza' (beer).

I quickly put up the tent as the rain started to fall. I've got this tent erection technique down to a fine art. I can get it up in about 3 minutes now, whereas at the start of the holiday I fumbled around for 10 minutes and didn't achieve much at all.

With a quick wash and putting on warm clothes,it was time for soup, coffee and a chat with the other cyclists. Michelle had 5 punctures today and managed to ride the entire day. Buck had 2 punctures and got the truck to the finish.

I'm spending the afternoon in my tent typing and reading. I'm on kitchen duty tonight and I'm wearing warm clothes this time. There's a story in that, but I'll leave it till the end of the trip. All my toys are being recharged and I'm taking my Gopro out tomorrow to play in the dirt and hopefully get some great footage.

After I finish washing up tonight, I'm off to bed to crash. I've just finished Day 4 of 7, and need to sleep.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.

Tuesday 18^th November 2014. Stage 86. Villa Vanguardia to Camping Glaciar Collante. 109 kms, paved 0%, climbing 1259 metres, summit 210 metres. From dust to mud.

From the time we arrived at camp yesterday till the time we left this morning, it rained and rained. We managed to have dinner and breakfast in a small hut which was perfect and kept us all dry. Packing up a dripping wet tent was not in the travel brochure, and that means I've got a wet tent to put up when I get into camp later on in the day.

Many people got drenched in their tents last night, including Barry, Diderick, and a couple of others . Barry and Diderick decided to catch the express fire engine today so they could get into camp and get their stuff dried out.

That's Hilde and Barry riding on the muddy road. Everyone had their wet weather gear on today.

With breakfast done, and all my wet weather gear on, we hit the road at 8am for the long wet ride to Glaciar Collante. That's a National Park with the famous 'Hanging Glaciar' that people travel from all around the world to see. We only have to ride 109 kms to see it, along muddy roads, soaked to the bone.

So off we went for a ride that would take us along a muddy, rocky road running alongside the Palena River. Ever now and then we would caught up at a road block because of a landslide. At times we had to wait for 30 minutes, which was really adding time to what was already going to be a very long day out in the rain. It kept pouring all day and never let up. It doesn't matter how good your wet weather gear is, you still get wet eventually.

Once again we had streams of water running down the rock walls and splashing onto the road as we passed. There was no use trying to avoid the water as it poured down from the sky or down the rock face. We hadn't reached at the lunch stop and we were all drenched. Lunch was in a park in the small town of La Junta. I didn't bother to take off my helmet, I quickly had a roll and got back on the bike.

After lunch it was more of the same, mud, rocks, roadworks, landslides, a couple of crazy dogs and pouring rain. Soon Michelle and Joost joined me and we rode along the gravel road at a good pace. Even though it was still pouring rain, I was nice and warm. We crossed into the Reserve Nacional Rosselot and it was here that the road turned diabolical. Now we had to ride in 6 inch deep mud. I just had my bike cleaned by Lupcho and now it's a mess.

 I don't get the chance to put my face on the blog, so here it is as I enter Chile.

The photo above was taken during a lunch break looking out over one of the amazing lunch stop locations on tour.

There are those that stop riding in these conditions and there are others that will ride in any condition, I'm one of those. I don't care how wet, or muddy, or rocky, I'm come to ride my bike and that's what I do.

As we approached the small village of Puyuhuapi, we decided to stop for a coffee and some food. It was nice restaurant right on the edge of the water. What was more interesting was a Tsunami warning sign on the side of the road as we entered town. Now I reckon we would have to be a good 25 kms from the real coastline of Chile, so why have Tsunami warning sign here? Certainly got all our attention.

A very interesting road sign so far away from the actual coast line of Chile.

We went inside and brought with us our muddy shoes and wet clothing and ordered coffee and apple crumble with cream. I had 2 cups of coffee and the cake for the princely sum of about $10 US dollars. I thought that was rather expensive for a small village in central Chile. I suppose they added a fee for the view.

With 25 kms to go I knew it was going to be a long hard slog into the headwind and driving rain. We were now running along the so called Pacific Ocean shoreline until we reached the Queulat National Park. We turned off the main road and took a dirt track for 2 kms until we entered the National Park and came upon our campsite for the evening. Since the start of this trip we had some amazing campsites. Some have been horrendous, whilst others have been pretty good.

Once at the campsite I did what had to be done. After the tent finally dried out, I went for a walk to the viewing platform to check out the 'Hanging Glaciar'. But first I'll give you the story on Queulat National Park.

The park is a national park of Chile located in the Aisen Region. The park is bordered by the Cisnes River on the south side and is neighbour to Lago Rosselot National Reserve. It contains 1,541 square kms of glacier-capped mountains and virgin evergreen forests.

I took the board walk up to the viewing platform and got a tremendous view of the 'Hanging Glaciar'. (That's how they spell glacier in this part of the world). It pretty huge and you can take a 1 & ½ hour walk to the base of the glacier, but I couldn't be bothered, I could see it clear enough and I had to make sure it didn't rain as I had all my clothes strewn over a tree trying to dry out.

The rest of the afternoon was spent inside talking to Barry and the rest of the crew whilst dinner was being prepared. After dinner I'm off to bed to find an incredible book which I'll talk about tomorrow. As far as the riding is concerned for tomorrow, it should be a perfect day, sun out, birds singing and a strong wind blowing in my back. Yeh, right.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.

Wednesday 19^th November 2014. Stage 87. Camping Glaciar Collante to Camping Lago Las Torres. 78 kms, paved 60%, climbing 1350 metres, summit 697 metres. Rain and mud sucks.

Sleeping in the National Park with the glacier a stone throw away was a spectacular way to go to sleep. I had 'Tent Hilton' facing the glacier so I could peer out to until darkness had covered my part of the world. I slept well, but each time I woke I could hear the rain on my tent. I was hoping by the time I got out of bed the sun would be shining and the birds would be singing. Today we got to sleep in as breakfast is at 9am and departure is 10am.

Today we have a short stage, so Rob the boss allowed us some extra time in bed. Damn that was hard to take. NOT.

The time for me to rise was 8.15am, that gave me 11 hours sleep last night. Today is day 6 of 7 on our run into our rest day. After eating and packing away a wet tent I was on the road at 10am. We left the national park and got back onto the main road which was full or rocks, mud and water.

After riding about 10 kms we come to the first of many roadblocks for the day. They were building the new highway which was originally a mud track. We were stuck for 30 minutes as the explosions went off the mountain side come roaring down. It was so loud the explosions and we were a good km away. Once the mountain came down they then had to clear the roadway for us and our trucks to get through. I could see today being one of those days I should have got on the truck. It was raining from the time I got out of bed till the time I arrived in camp. How could that ever had up to a great day on the bike?

I didn't need to be held up in the pouring rain whilst they worked as fast as snails on this project.

Once allowed to enter the danger zone we had to negotiate boulders they were too lazy to clean up. With the huge rocks and mud everywhere the group was moving pretty slowly. The road was getting muddier as we got close to the bottom of the first real climb for the day. I had my leg warmers on, wet weather jacket, booties, gloves and pretty warm as I started the climb.

The climb was 10 kms long and a rise of 600 metres. We climbed through a jungle all the way to the top. With trees on every side of the road, and mist covering the snow capped mountains above us, I was started to heat up. I had to stop half way up the mountain to take my jacket off even though it was 12 degrees C. There was no wind on the mountain during the climb, but once I got to the top, the wind picked up and blew freezing cold snow air right in my face. I quickly put my jacket on to keep me warm and also the rain was now pelting down. Once at the summit it was a quick 2 km drop to the lunch truck. There was no way I was going to sit down and have a 3 course lunch, I quickly got a sandwich and drink and headed off again.

There were 4 riders in front of me and I quickly caught up to them on the run down the muddy mountain. At times I had the front wheel move from underneath me which made me think I was going go hit the deck, but managed to keep the bike upright. As I passed Brian, Deb and the 2 new Belgium guys, I kept going to try and warm up and to make use of the speed I could get on the pavement which I just got to.

We were told that we might have stop at the 62 km mark to stay at a better campsite for the evening or could end up at the 78 km campsite right on the lake. Personally I wanted to go to the 78 km mark so I didn't have to do the extra 16 kms tomorrow.

Before the 62 km mark I had 1 more mountain to climb. This climb was about 4 kms and went up 340 metres, but still I couldn't get a good view of the valley below because of the rain and mist. I forget how many days now we've ridden in the rain, but all my clothes stink and are wet.

I flew down the mountain and into the small town of Villa Amengual and didn't see any sight of the 'Bike Dreams' sign. I kept going and within no time I could see the fire engine parked on the side of lake Carmen. I was the first rider into camp but today was not a race. I just wanted to get into camp and try and dry all my gear out. There was no problem with the tent drying out quickly, and I put up a clothes line to dry out my clothing. One thing I hate is putting on wet gear to go riding.

I started a fire in a drum and put my socks and shoes near by to try and dry them. It dried the shoes well, but an ash landed on one of my socks and burnt a hole in it. How stupid was that?

Eventually my clothes dried, but are still filthy dirty. I can live with that.

There were 2 celebrations today, Tim the Aussie and Hilde the Norwegian had their birthdays. I'm ready for tomorrow which is going to be wet and windy, and long.

 That's Hilde above enjoying her birthday present. 47 balloons jammed into her tent.

 The photo above is of Aussie Tim enjoying his birthday in Chile, and eating dinner with me of course.

And that's Tim's birthday cake. 

Not a bad view whilst eating lunch today. This is what we get to see all the way to the end of the world. 

Tomorrow I decided to race the last day of the week. A full report will be posted tomorrow night.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.