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Elle est là ma Patagonie !
Quelle sensation de liberté que de pouvoir s'évader dans ses plaines qui se propagent à perte de vue.
Tel un dirigeable, mon vélo glisse à la vitesse du vent, j'évolue sur une autre planète.

Solitude patagonienne.

Fuite patagonienne.

Tout cela pour nous, rien que pour nous, rien que pour nous deux, rien que pour... hein ?
C'est quoi cette tâche que je vois poindre au loin et ce rapprocher de plus en plus ?
Pas possible !
Depuis le départ ce matin, je me disais qu'il faudrait vraiment être fêlé que pour effectuer notre parcours en sens inverse en affrontant un vent patagonien qui vous donnerait l'impression de pédaler dans le fond d'une piscine.
Et il est là notre fêlé, notre héros du jour. Jose Luis, un Espagol qui en est déjà à sa quatrième expérience patagonienne et qui a décidé de donner « un peu » de piment à sa traversée.
Chapeau bas Don Jose Luis !!!

Fou patagonien (Jose Luis).

Nous mettrons une journée supplémentaire pour atteindre Governador Gregores, ville comme je les aime, ville hors du temps où, comme au Pérou, les passants nous accostent en se demandant ce que deux gringos à vélo peuvent faire dans un coin si perdu.

Combustible patagonien (pour le feu du soir).

Bleu patagonien (Mais si, ça existe).

Canards patagoniens (à moins que ce soient des oies...).

Cette nuit, nous prendrons un ultime bus (forcés) en direction de Rio Gallegos afin d'effectuer les huit cents derniers kilomètres que nous nous estimons encore capable d'effectuer avant d'arriver à Ushuaïa.
Il ne faudrait tout de même pas louper notre putain d'avion !

Petit soldat patagonien (Gaaarde à vous !!!).

**

The closest town from this border of Argentina is Gouv.Gregorio = about 220 kms away and not at all in the direction of Puerto-Natales (Chile : where we first wanted to go).

The first day is still a little searching for the (only) road (which is sometimes very muddy, sometimes disappearing in grass-fields, then again passing through private-domains,...).  We also have to cross one (this one large and quiet profound) river again. 

As there is no sun in the morning, it's freezing... : we hope it is the last one now !

After a while we arrive in a kind of large steppe.

The other face of Patagonia

On one side Patagonia (to me) are the snowy peaks with the gletschers , but Patagonia is also equal to large open spaces...

...with lots of (cold) wind and running wild horses...

In the afternoon we finally come on a regular ripio road (without cars, as this road leads to the border (where we come from) that is not really used).

We have a strong tail-wind = great for advancing, but not so great to find a camping-spot (=difficult to put up the tent in such strong wind : even our 'tunnel'-model could be blown away), so (not without risks) we put it up in a river-bed, hoping it will not rain this night (=which didn't), but even so protected from the wind, we could make camp-fire.

Not easy to make fire in the Patagonian steppe : not only for the wind, but also not easy to find wood

The next day we make a part of the Ruta-40 =the longest road in Argentina (=more than 6000kms from North to South), and for adventure-travelers almost as mythical as the route-66 in the States, but for cyclists a little difficult, with very little to see.   But we calculate that there are still more kms to make (to reach Gouv.Gregores) than we hoped, so not much chance to arrive there in 1 day : as we're almost out of food, we try hard (making 110kms today = our record of this journey)), but no use (=we have to camp another time, making fire again to eat our last supplies).

Funny little creature

The wind is really very strong in Patagonia : it drives you crazy (the sound, the violence,...). 

Luckily to go to Gouv.Gregores it was (+/-)favorable and we arrive quiet soon in the early afternoon, but there is no bus to El Calafate (before Monday)...

Although Enzo likes this little village (=lost in the Patagonian pampa, that you wonder why there is a village and why people live there), he does not want to wait (and lose days) there... The only bus that goes more South and that leaves today is one to Rio Gallegos, for which we buy tickets, but I'm a little disappointed, because (as we wanted to make all different roads in this trip) we wanted to go to Ushuïa via Chile (=via the Torres del Paine-NP, Puero-Natales and then Punta Arenas), but instead we will make the last 6 cycling days via the same road as 3 year ago... Seems like the trip is already somehow coming to an end to me...