Punta Arenas to the end of the world. By bus, but still the first cyclist to get here.

Wednesday 10^th December 2014. Stage 104. Punta Arenas to Ushuaia, the end of the world.

Cyclists head off for the next stage of the tour whilst I bus it to the end.

After finishing my riding at Punta Arenas I had a rest day yesterday which I spent with Barry and Buck. We did the usually stuff like eat and drink coffee, have a look at a couple of shops and that was about it. I met up with Carmen and Julia for lunch and we had a good time reminiscing about the holiday and the laughs we shared. I wanted to have dinner with the 2 people who made my holiday a fantastic experience, that's Barry firstly followed by Buck. I rode with them and hung with them the most on tour. There were others which I've mentioned throughout my journey which will be friends forever, but when it came to riding the bike, they were No.1 & 2.

 That's my good friend the famous 'Buck Benson'.

 The photo above is of Roberto our truck driver. Fantastic chap and had some good times together.

 That's Viv above. She's a New Zealander (loves sheep) or possibly a Brit. Can't really work that out.

 The photo above the other truck driver, Walter. Walter also prepared our lunch each day. He is a really nice man.

 The photo above is Rob the Boss. He helped me get to the bottom of the world and for that I will always be indebted to him for that.

The last photo above is of our Dr. 

Now for today.

I woke up nice and early and headed off to the hostel to catch up with a couple of cyclists before I went to the bus station. I said farewell to Barry, Hilde, Kristin, Jan and Reinhardt before going up to the other hostel. Once at the main hostel it was a quick bite and catch up with Buck. I took a couple of photos of some of people who meant something to me and helped me have a wonderful time. I'll post those photos below. I thanked Robert the Boss for a great holiday. I know there are those who had complaints about certain aspects of the tour, and there are some who will never be satisfied with the holiday. All in all, my goal was to go from the Equator to the end of the world and I made it because of 'Bike Dreams'. Would I recommend them in the future? YES.

I felt sad saying farewell to the famous 'Buck Benson', and I could tell through his eyes that he felt the same way. I met some pretty special people in my Cairo to Capetown trip in 2011 and I keep in touch with some of them, I put Buck in that category of a special friend. Now Barry is a different story, it would have been pretty special to ride into Ushuaia with him after starting in Quito together over 4 months ago, but I'm sure we'll have a good laugh when we get together again upon his return back to the greatest place on earth, THE GONG.

I left the hostel and balanced my enormous bag on the handlebars of my bike and carried the other bag on my back and made the 2 km ride back up into town to the bus station. Finding it was pretty easy and getting my bike in the cargo section of the bus was straight forward. The bus is ready to leave in 5 minutes, I have my seat and I'm ready to be warm,comfortable, watch a movie, whilst the riders freeze their asses off in this windy and cold part of the world. Do I care? No way, I intend to be the first cyclist on this tour to reach Ushuaia.

The ride took me out of town exactly the same way I came in 2 days ago. It always give you a different impression when you are in a bus instead of doing it on a bike, I do prefer the bike.

Once out of town we turned off onto a dirt road, yep more dirt road, and ended up at a small harbour where the bus went onto a small ship that took us to the other side of the mainland. The trip only took 20 minutes across the straits of Magellan and it was a smooth trip considering the wind was once again blowing like crazy.

I took the photo as we neared the shore and commenced our 300 km drive on dirt roads.

Once back on dry land it was a trip of nearly 300 kms along dirt roads exactly the same as we've ridden over in the past couple of weeks. Heaps of rocks, heaps of sand and very strong winds to add some excitement to the ride.

That's my bus taking a lunch break on the dirt road. Bike Dreams lunch is much better than the crap this place dished up.

We arrived at the exit post for Chile and had to go through a quick process before being allowed to continue on the Argentinian border post arriving at 3.30 pm. I have no idea how far we have to go before Ushuaia but this is going to be a long afternoon. The scenery is mainly flat roads, very little vegetation, some sheep and even 1 lonely Guanaco. We finally hit the pavement after 400 kms of smooth cruising.  

It's so much different watching the countryside go by as one sits in the bus. As we got closer to Ushuaia the snow capped of huge mountains loomed in the distance. The rain started to fall and the fog crept in. We rolled down into Ushuaia at 7.30 pm, over 11 hours after leaving Punta Arenas. 

Eventually I caught up with Tony and he took me to the apartment I've booked for the next 3 nights. Tony was really helpful in pointing me in the right direction for shopping, which is a must tomorrow, the supermarket and which is the best road to go for a ride on.

I've just run the bath, got the WiFi running hot, and I'm going to lay in the bath and soak an hour away. Now that's better than that shitty tent for sure.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.