Its been over 2 weeks since my last update but so much has happened (all good!) it seems like about a year.

Firstly happy new year to everyone and thanks for reading my blog and all the messages of support.

I spoke last time about the trepidations of starting off a one year trip. All that is history now thanks to all the great people I've met along the way and especially following a fantastic week camping in the National Park at "el fin de mundo" 20k's out of Ushaia. More of that later...

From Viedma we continued the trek south staying in lovely Puerto Madryn for a couple of nights then onto Peninsula Valdez to camp and, specificaly, to go on a whale watching trip. My knowledge of whales and marine life in general is quite limited but it was quite an experience to see these behemoths of the ocean playing around and showing off for our benefit, at one point even bumping our boat from underneath safe in the knowledge that there is nothing we can do to harm them...

The side winds on Route 3 heading south were bloody awful and passing trucks was particularly tough, you really have to be ready for the wind blast as you get to the front of the truck otherwise it feels like your front wheel is going to wash out. Often I just wanted to shelter beside the truck for a while to get some protection from the wind but on these single carriage way roads it wasn't advisable! The relief of turning off the main road and heading to Puerto Tombo with a tail wind to check out a penguin colony was palpable, and the penguins were cute too...

Rather than go straight back onto Route 3 we decided to stick to the gravel roads running along the coast for a couple of days. I was a bit nervous on the gravel at first, especially with the side winds, but after a while and with the lower speed of riding on gravel my confidence rose and we both really enjoyed the riding. The scenery was great and the lack of traffic made you feel like you were in the middle of nowhere, fantastic, puncture wasn't so much fun though...

It seemed like everywhere we stopped we were bumping into bikers heading for Ushaia which ensured more than a few drunken nights and late starts. We passed quickly through Comodoro Rivadavia and Rio Gallegos battling side winds the most of the time.

To get to Tiera del Fuego you have to go through Chilie and take a short ferry ride, then go back into Argentina going through the obligatory customs and imigration check each time. Would be nice if they could sort out a quicker way to do this but there doesn't appear to be any love lost between the 2 countires and I guess territory is territory...

The weather had started getting a load colder over the previous few days and the night spent sleeping beside my bike on the side of the road a few nights back seemed like a distant memory, luckily though we had the wind at our backs.

In Rio Grande we found a great hostel, Los Argentinos, and again it was a mini bike meet with Emma, Hamish, Asha and Mark who we'd met previously and some new faces, Gunter, Fausto and Peewee (I never got the bottom of that nick name!) enjoying Graciella's home made alcohol until the wee hours.

The next day we made it to Ushaia, woo hoo!!! A year previous I'd been telling all my mates I'd be in Ushaia this time next year but wasn't 100% sure it would happen, all the doubts you have when planning a trip like this, financial, mechanical, whatever, can conspire to make you doubt yourself so the joy at finally making it was fantastic.

After all the flat roads of our trip so far we it was great to finally see some mountians. Awesome they are too, snow capped and rugged with lakes dotted here and there, bloody cold though!

We hostelled for a couple of nights before heading 20k's out of Ushaia to the National Park to camp up. At first I wasn't so keen as it was cold wet and windy but Jason convinced me and a great decision it was too. Other bikers started arriving soon after us and a few days later we celebrated Christmas with 20 or so others. We tried to make a spit to roast chickens on over the bbq but in the end our collective engineering skils failed and they went straight on to the grill. Brilliant meal it though and a massive thanks to Emma and Juile for getting it sorted.

The view from the campsite was spectacular and we ended up staying 7 nights there...

Our days consisted of gathering wood for the fire, cooking, drinking, and just relaxing, just what the doctor ordered. The last few nights were spent with the fantasic company of Emma, Hamish, Val and Adam. Cheers guys, sure were some fun nights...