Just started a youtube channel for adventure gear. Here is the first video I uploaded on YouTube about the K2 aluminium panniers.
New challenges in photography - underwater photography
Dear blog reader, it has been a while – to say the least. I have been on my way to write about the new challenges I discovered in my work – underwater photography! You might have seen the one and one underwater image either on the website or on my Instagram account. For long time I was reluctant to take a camera below the surface since I thought there is such an abundance of under water images around. Looking at it a bit more closely though I figured that most images are from marine life and there are not so many from people engaging in scuba activities – and that is what I want to focus on. That being said – I will still take pictures of marine life. It would be silly not to take a picture of a whale shark or a manta ray as they swim by.
So far we did 2 extensive dive trips with the aim for shooting underwater. In March we went to Tubbataha in the Philippines and in September we did a trip to the Maldives. For both trips we choose to go on a live-a-board (Tubbataha won’t be possible if not on a live-a-board). Live-a-board simply means you live on the dive boat for the duration of the trip and if you have diving in mind this is the best option. The day starts at 7am with the first dive – followed by breakfast. In total you can expect up to 4 dives per day – that is at least 1 more dive as when you are land based. One of the reasons is that the boat will manoeuvre to the first dive-spot while you are asleep. The 2 trips we did though couldn’t be more different when it comes to the boat itself. While we used MS Scubaspa in the Maldives, which is pure luxury, we used the MS Palausport in the Philippines – which is more like a research vessel and capable to navigate over long stretches of open ocean. Unfortunately for my waistline the food is amazing and plenty on both boats and obviously the crew on the boats were fantastic.
Let me tell you a bit about the challenge with under water photography: you can be an amazing photographer above the surface – but that won’t make you an instant amazing photographer below the waterline. First of all the technic is very different under water and you have to learn to use lights in a very different way. There will always be plankton and other micro organism in the water which won’t get you a clear image as you will get above water. Using a flash and pointing it directly at your subject will only bring this plankton into the light and mess up your shot. This is called backscatter. The way to minimise this is to point the flashes away outwards so that just the outer beam reaches your subject. Above water you can change lenses as you go along with your shoot – that is obviously not possible under water. You have to make up your mind if you want to shoot wide angle or macro (don’t bother with tele lenses under water). There is a huge choice of underwater housings on the market. Starting at very cheap housings for the Go Pro and ending at fully professional housings from companies like Nauticam. Every camera has it’s own housing to operate all the specific functions under water. This makes it a bit of a niche product which again reflects in the price. For a Nauticam housing one should expect to pay around $2.000,- to begin with – which is in most cases more then the camera itself. There are 2 types of housings on the market: plastic housings that are good to depths of about 60 meters and the full metal ones like Nauticam that are good to go down to 100 meters. Now hardly anybody will go down to 60m let alone go down to 100m. Recreational diving has a limit of 40m depth. So why spend all that extra cash for a metal housing? The answer is in the temperature difference above and below the surface and the chance of getting condensation in the housing. All housings will protect you camera from the sea but it is still a bummer if your lens fogs up on the inside. For me I choose a plastic housing for now – but I am certain I will upgrade to Nauticam in the future. The second reason would be that the controls of the Nauticam housings are much easier to operate. Talking about the controls – for me I am using the camera on program for now. Something I never do above the surface. Usually I shoot manual at any given time but there are so many new factors I have to think about under water that it makes it easier to let the camera do some of the thinking. One is the positions and the output of the flashes – I still control those manually. Another reason is that the controls on my Sea Frog housing are not as easy to adjust and I might miss a shot. Above water I would tell my model to certain moves again and I have no limitations on time. Below I can’t talk to my model and need to rely on hand signals and I am limited to about 50 minutes of air in my tank.
So far to the technical side of underwater photography. But there is another big factor to take good pictures under water – how confident and how good of a diver are you? For myself – when I started diving I was all over the place. A bit like a drunk octopus looking for his car keys. I am sure I have been worse then other newbies and to be honest I am still not good. I am a bit confident now and I can see the images I want to take and know how to get there – that doesn’t mean I am getting there in an elegant way or a way that would conserve my air in the tank. The other big factor is obviously the buoyancy. Each time you breath in you start to float up and when you release the air from your lungs you go down again. If you see experienced divers they hardly move vertically – looking at me and it looks more like I am trying to climb the Empire State tower. I will get better in time but for now – look out for the drunk octopus in search oh his car keys....
Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment or ask questions.
If you like to know more about the challenges of underwater photography please check out this link: https://www.pixpa.com/blog/underwater-photography-guide
Zeus Custom Bike Shop
Recently I got a new motorbike (a beautiful Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled). Now for the people who are familiar with this bike they know that it just got released about a year ago and therefore there are still not many after-market accesoires available. Obviously I got the bike to go touring with it as well and to do that I needed a luggage rack and a frame for my panniers. After South America I got healed from the idea that a proper adventure bike needs to have aluminium boxes for the luggage and I decided to get soft bags from Toratech / Ortlieb for my travelgear (I will post another blog about the first experience with this next week). Those softbags – eventhough much more versatile and easier to position on the bike – still need a frame to hold them in place. The original luggage frame offered by Ducati is rather fragile and just works with the bags made by Ducati – which are too small for my taste. After a bit of research I found a small but very specialised custom bike shop in Bangkok called “Zeus Custom”. I dropped by with the bike and asked Mooyang – the owner – if they could build a frame and luggage rack for me. He had a look at the bike and after about half an hour we had a clear idea about the design of the rack and worked out the details. The turn indicators had to be moved to the back and for the bags to fit perfectly we decided to add hooks and another attachment point at the bottom of the bags. A week later my rack was ready and my Desert Sled is ready for touring now. But before I write about my first experience with the rack and the Desert Sled I would like to tell you a bit more about Zeus Custom. Obviously they are not living of making luggage racks. They are specialised in customising bikes totally. They take it that far that the original bike is actually not recognisable any more and you have to look closely at the engine block to see what make it is. Mooyang and his 2 brothers get their hands on everything with 2 wheels – starting at the very reasonable priced Stallion bikes (designed in Thailand and made in China), Royal Enfield, Ducati, Triumph, BMW and even Harley’s. The least customisation they do is supplying fancy leather seats to any kind of bike but they go as far as redoing the swing arm or even changing the geometry. Most bikes they are working on would be classified as cafe racers or retro style bikes. In their showroom though you will also find some rare and old bikes like BMWs from the 1950’s. Customer comes first and when they take on a job they discuss with the client what can be done and making sure that the bike suits the style of the owner. For every motorbike enthusiast – no matter what style of bike you ride – the showroom and shop is like a candy store. Oh and they have good coffee as well J. Check out their website: www.zeuscustom.shop
Ducati E - Scrambler
About 2 weeks ago I had the pleasure to shoot a truely unique bike – An electric bike based on a Ducati Scrambler Cafe Racer. Yes a 100% electric bike – like a Tesla but on 2 wheels. A while ago I also had the privilege to actually test this machine. It is fast and I mean FAST! On top of that it speeds up without any engine sound or by combusting high octane fuel. All you can hear is the wind in your helmet. Top speed is around 140 km/h (for now) and it gets to that speed linear. The look of the bike is true to the cafe racer type bikes – some like it, some don’t but I love it. The range is about 100 km and charging can be done through any normal household plug. Obviously it will charge a lot faster when plugging it into a Tesla “refuelling” station but those are not always at hand when you need one. The bike is – as I said – truly unique. So far there is just one bike of its kind on the planet. The man behind this bike is Mr. Apichat Leenutaphong, the owner and Managing Director of Ducati Thailand. He is a true visionary and beside being very busy with managing Ducati Thailand he is also CEO and driving force behind Share Novation. Share Novation is a new company in Thailand, that sets its goal to replace engines of petrol powered vehicles with electric drives. Recently they signed a contract to become Tesla’s service agent in Thailand. Besides cars and motorbikes they are working on Tractors, electric go-karts and speedboats. Please let me tell you a bit about the shoot though: All in all we did 3 days of shooting – starting with a more urban approach and shooting the bike on Bangkok streets. If you know the streets of Bangkok you will know that this is a challenge in itself. Traffic in the Thai metropole is one of the worst I have encountered around the globe. It is so bad that people actually order their dinner into their cars while being stuck in traffic (obviously delivered by a bike courier). So the challenge is where to find an empty road in Bangkok? The answer – shoot on Saturday morning 3am. That is the time when most of the clubbers are already home and no work traffic on the weekend. We got a few hours of fairly empty roads to get the first set of images done. Since I wanted to capture the speed of the bike I shot it from a back of a pick up truck while doing 50-60km/h. We ended the first day with some shots in front of the royal palace in Bangkok – to emphasis that the bike was developed in Thailand. The second day we started at the garage where I had the chance to meet the technician behind the bike. The entire bike can be diagnosed through either a laptop, tablet or even a smartphone. After some shots at the garage it was off to the race track. I concentrated to capture the speed again but this time on a track that is actually made to drive fast. The last day we set off to Khao Yai National Park. Khao Yai is usually known for its elephants and lush green vegetation, but on that day wherever we stopped with the bike, it got all the attention – like a true celebrity. To shoot those images I needed a bit of a crew though. My thanks go out to Khun Lek – who drove the bike wherever I wanted to photograph it and never got tired of doing an extra round. The lovely people at Ducati for providing transportation and location support and last but not least to my friend Paul who assisted me on the shoot and lending me his tele converter to get the extra millimetre of focal length I needed.
Japan and Iceland
In my last update I promised you a new entry about Japan and Iceland to follow soon. That soon is long time gone and so many things have happened in the time. I am shooting new contents almost everyday and try hard to keep up with getting images out in time.
I still don’t want to keep those images from Japan from you. I also want to share some of the images I took in Iceland last December with you. The Japan trip was already in November and we traveled to Japan to catch the autumn colours in Kyoto and in Tokyo. As many of you may know – I am making my living through stock photography. Last year I submitted some images from Japan to my agent and they got distributed through a wide network of agents around the world. Since then the guidelines have changed though and loads of images from Japan are getting rejected now for commercial use because of cultural reasons. To be precise it is images from Temple’s that are not suitable for commercial use anymore. Obviously I do respect this but I still want to share those images with you – just for the reason so that you can see the beauty Japan has to offer.
Now this blog update will combine 2 trips in one update and both destinations are far away fro each other. Next country is Iceland. I lived in Iceland for many years and it is still second home to me in a way. Every year I get back to Iceland during the summer to work as a guide and shoot more contents for my image library. The real challenge though is to shoot the winter in Iceland and it’s short day’s. The sub zero temperatures and bad weather creates another challenge. Still Iceland is becoming a very popular destination for winter tourism as well and finding hotels in Reykjavik during the busy Christmas and new years season bears it’s own challenge. The scenery and the views are rewarding though and worth all the trouble – just a bit more challenging.
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#theglobewanderer #travel #mylife #thorstenhenn #hennphotography #nikonGlobal #Nikon #D5 #adventures #throughmylens #Japan #Iceland #kyoto #tokyo #northernlights #kirkjufellsfoss #winteriscoming #autumn
Asgard Beyond - mountaineering shot in Iceland
It has been a long while since I wrote something for this blog but I had good reasons. After our epic South America trip I went to Iceland for a couple of months to work as a tour and mountain guide. On my return back home to Thailand (after almost 11 month on the road) I was quite happy not to repack the duffle and go travel right away again. Also Siri and I needed to prepare for our big day – our wedding! We tight the knot on November 18th and celebrated with friends and family here in Bangkok. We went to Japan right away after that and then to Iceland again for some serious winter adventures – more about those trips in the next blog update.
First I want to share with you a little inside from last autumn though. Before I left Iceland I had the pleasure to shoot for my friends at Asgard Beyond, Asgard Beyond is a fairly new travel agency in Iceland. They might be new on the travel market as Asgard Beyond but behind the name hides a group of highly trained and qualified mountain guides, who have been in the guiding and mountaineering business for ages. The shoot I did for them had the aim to produce new images for their brochure and website. We concentrated on 2 parts of their trips: Rock & Ice. The first day we drove out to Solheimajokull to get some Ice-climbing shots and general ice hiking images. For the second day we concentrated on rock climbing close to Reykjavik. We climbed a 3 pitch route with fantastic views of the city. Both times we were blessed with beautiful weather. Working with Asgard Beyond was like going out with old friends and it made the shoot very relaxed and even more enjoyable. Beside the fun we had the shoot reflects the high grade of professionalism of these highly skilled mountaineers. Nothing what these guys (and girl) couldn’t do on the ice or rock. Check out more of the work I did for them on their website: www.asgardbeyond.is
This is it for this blog update. Stay tuned because 2018 will have some exciting new images coming up. There will be a new bike and more images from South East Asia by bike and we just purchased a brand new underwater housing for one of our cameras. So we will take our photography below sea level this year. Sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of this page.
#theglobewanderer #travel #mylife #thorstenhenn #hennphotography #nikonGlobal #Nikon #D5 #adventures #throughmylens #asgardbeyond #iceclimbing #rockclimbing #iceland #mountaineering #solheimajokull #icecave #sportclimbing
Colombia - the final stretch of our journey
We are enjoying the last few days in Bogota and tomorrow we are flying to London after this fantastic 7 month adventure in South America. But before we leave I would like to share with you what we experienced in Colombia. A lot of people warned us about Colombia and were even worried about us – let me tell you something: Colombia is the safest country we traveled so far. The people here are super friendly and helpful. Given the recent history of this country one would have half way expected a country in shock but that is certainly not the case. Let me go a little bit into the recent history of Colombia. We all heard about Pablo Escobar and his murderous reign in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He was the most violent drug lord who had so much influence that he even got elected as a member of the government. This lasted just a day for him though and he quickly gotexposed by the former Minister of Justice for his past and present criminal life. It is safe to say that Escobar had a temper mixed with no respect for human life and a very violent nature. He is responsible for the killing of thousands of people in Colombia, most of them had nothing to do with the intermediate drug traffic. He brought down an Avianca plane in an attempt to kill the presidential candidate who opposed him. The candidate wasn’t on that plane though since he got tipped of just minutes before the flight that there might be an assassination attempt on his life. All 107 passengers and crew on that plane died. Escobar declared war against Colombia and his own hometown – Medellin was one of the 5 most dangerous cities in the world. Despite all the violence and deaths he caused he was also popular among the poor. He gave millions of his illegal drug money to the poor and built homes, schools and even churches for the poor. This was the reason why it took such a long time to capture him. Eventually he turned himself in but under the condition that he can serve his sentence in his own “prison”. The “cathedral” was hardly a prison but more a base of operations where Escobar was protected from the other drug cartels by the Colombian police. In the end he managed to “escape” his own prison and kept on with his murderous war against the people of Colombia. Obviously if you murder and rain terror on everybody around you, you finally end up with everybody against you. Pablo Escobar went into hiding but was finally found by the Colombian police on December 2nd 1993 and killed. If you want to know more about Escobar and this dark side of the Colombian history I recommend the Netflix series Narcos. It is very well made and sticks to the facts. Now Escobar was just one of the problems Colombia was facing. The other problem was the numerous communist guerrilla groups and paramilitary facist groups that were raging another war on the Colombia people. To finance themselves, they kidnapped people for ransom and in the wake of those groups fighting beneath each other the ordinary people of Colombia became the victims. But this all is in the past and Colombia performed a miracle in the past 20 years to become a peaceful nation. Just as we arrived in Cartagena – the last stop on our motorbike adventure – the last of the communist guerrilla groups handed in their weapons. You still see a lot of military presence around Colombia but most of the military personal are in their 20’s and don’t come from the time where the drug lords and the guerrillas controlled the country. All I ever experienced from those armed to the teeth guys was friendliness and curiosity about our trip. No macho behaviour or hostility at all. Enough now about the political and historical part of this blog. We entered Colombia close to the small town of Pasto. The custom clearance for the bike was possibly the most time intensive we had all over South America and very thorough. It took about 2 hours but then we were cleared to enter Colombia. The roads in Colombia are superb and drivers are really friendly! Colombia is a massive motorbike country and at times it seems there are more bikes on the road then cars. The roads are a paradise for anybody on a bike. Endless mountain roads on good asphalt with countless turns. We stopped in Popayan and stayed in an old monastery that got converted to a hotel. The journey went on through endless coffee fields (Oh yes – Colombia coffee is sooooooo good!!!!!) and we spent a few days in Medellin – the city of never-ending spring. Long gone is the danger that Escobar inflicted on the city and Medellin presented itself as a safe and thriving metropole with high living standard. Food in Colombia is fantastic and I think it is safe to say that we had some of the best restaurant food in South America in Colombia. From Medellin it was just a small stretch until we reached Cartagena. The last day riding I rode the Penguin for over 600Km and reached the beautiful town of Cartagena. I decided to ride along the Caribbean coast instead of taking the highway that goes straight to Cartagena. So this is the end of our epic motorbike adventure through South America. Now the bike is on it’s way from Cartagena to Bremerhaven in Germany. Getting it out of the country and onto the ship was way more work than driving it into Colombia. We had help from a British based shipping company called IVSS (easy to find on Facebook). Martin – our contact at IVSS – was super helpful with organising the shipping. I can highly recommend this company if you need to ship your vehicle to or from South America. In case you are in Colombia and need to go through the custom’s nightmare I can send you some instructions how to do it – just send me an email. We completed 24,000 km. on our trusty Yamaha 660 Tenere. We made lovely friends on the road who will stay with us for the rest of our lives. My passport has 8 pages filled with stamps from South America and we collected fantastic memories nobody can ever take away from us. Most of all though I am grateful and thankful to my fiancee Siri who went on this epic adventure with me. I know a lot of adventurous people from all corners of the globe and some riders who did some really awesome rides but in my opinion Siri deserves the biggest respect of all. When we set out for this ride Siri never went on a motorbike trip before. Still she agreed to be my pillion rider through South America. She rode with me through rain, freezing cold, gravel roads, rivers, endured crazy car drivers, endless highways, camping, bugs and even a few crashes. She is the most tolerant person I know who makes me laugh every day and I can’t imagine a better partner for anything in life but her. I love this woman to bits!
In my next blog I will try to write about all the highlights of this trip so stay tuned. Beside this my adventure called life will go on of course. Next I am going to Iceland for a couple of months (not with a bike though) before I return to Bangkok in September. The next motorbike adventures will be in South East Asia so stay tuned for more....
As always please feel free to comment and share this blog
Ecuador - in a bit of a rush
Dear blog readers – we arrived in Cartagena / Colombia! Time is flying so fast on these last few milestones of our epic trip that I hardly have time to write up all that happens. But before I tell you all about Colombia (I am still processing the images), I want to write about our trip in Ecuador. To be honest we did a bit of a fly by so to say with Ecuador. I am sure we could spend easily 2 months in this beautiful country but unfortunately we are running out of time. We entered Ecuador on the Pacific coast and found ourselves in one of the biggest banana producing areas of the world. The banana plantations went on for miles and miles. As a matter of fact when we stopped for some refreshments and I asked how much it is for a few bananas, the lady at the shop just laughed and told me to help myself to as many as I want – they come for free. Now more then 99% of the bananas are grown for export and are packed in boxes when they are still green. Those are the ones you find in your local supermarket (by then ripened and yellow). The ones for the locals how ever are much smaller and way tastier. They actually ripe on the tree and the taste is much sweeter with a hint of zesty lemon. After leaving the bananas we climbed up to altitude again and through some rather sketchy roads (due to landslides) we reached the motorway to Quito – the capital of Ecuador. Driving in Ecuador was, after our experience in Peru, really relaxing. People are very civilized when behind the wheel and the roads are made of asphalt that puts some German Autobahns to shame. Everything seems to run very smooth and the fact that the Ecuadorians chose to use the US$ for their main currency in September 2000 makes it even easier for lots of travellers. The reason behind choosing the US$ was an overgrowing inflation that started to spin out of control. Quito today is a modern city with a lively restaurant and bar scene. We needed to stay in Quito a little bit longer than initially planned to obtain a Colombian visa for Siri. Just to “kill off” some time we decided to spend a weekend in Mindo Valley in the middle of the rainforest. Dropping from nearly 3,000m altitude down to 1,000m changed the climate drastically. While we were in Quito it could get cold during the night and on an excursion to a volcanic crater on 4,000m it got really cold – even during the day. In Mindo we found ourselves in a tropical rainforest – hot and humid and this is just 100Km away from Quito. The area around Mindo is a bird watchers paradise and even though I am not an ornithologist I saw some pretty colorful birds like Toucan and other tropical birds. I just wish I could name a few more of those but – sorry I can’t. So after a weekend in the rainforest, some hikes around and refreshing dips in rather cool jungle swimming pools we returned to Quito and got the Visa sorted. Now nothing was in our way anymore to get to Colombia – the last country on our journey. One thing for sure though – we will be back in Ecuador soon – last not least to see the Galapagos islands.
The next update will follow soon – stay tuned.
The South America gear list!
Dear blog reader!
This is a bit of a different update. I promised you at the beginning of our trip that I will publish a list of what we carry along. I have to admit – at the beginning we had way too much stuff – like most people. So over time we gave things away, send stuff home or just dumped stuff. For example our sleeping mats. We used them in Patagonia but when they became perforrated by the cactuse’s in the north of Argentina we decided to bin them. Other items were clothes that ended up as cleaning rugs for the bike before they got trashed. However – I took a picture of all our gear nicely laid out in front of our bike. The description of what is what can be found beneath the image:
1. Hiking backpacks around 50 liter each for 2-3 day hikes
2. Drybag with sleeping bags, warm clothes, spare gloves and rain gear
3. Camera gear: Nikon D5 digital fullframe SLR, 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8, SB911 flash with ProPhoto radio remote control and cable release for long exposure. I decided to skip a tripod for this trip because of weight reasons
4. Semi waterproof duffel bag (next trip I would take a proper waterproof duffle)
5. Tankbag to keep the camera during the day with a map pocket on top
6. First aid kit – it sits usually on the outside of our boxes forquick access
7. Transport boxes from Givi. NOT a good choice! After 6 months these boxes are falling apart and the aftersales service from Givi is tragic. I send them an email (through their official website) about where I can get spareparts since the boxes are falling apart and the reply was that they usually don’t deal with inqueries from the general public!!!! What a joke... For the next trip I will possibly be using soft luggage from Ortlieb or Kriega
8. 2 litres of spare fuel – came in handy in Bolivia where it can be difficult to get fuel. With the extra 2 litres we have a range of 450 km per filling
9. Our shoe collection: Siri is wearing her hiking boots on the bike, I have some waterproof touring boots, 2 pair of flip flops and each of us has a pair of trainers
10. Our lightweight MSR tent – not the best for bad weather but REALLY light
11. Clothes – here we haven taken it to the minimum. I carry next to our protective bike clothes 5 x T-shirts, 2 long pants 1 pair of shorts, 1 fleece, 1 shirt, swim stuff and obviously socks and underwear. Siri has additional a dress, a couple of extra warm layers and some leggings.
12. Our field kitchen: 2 titanium cups, titanium saucepan, non stick frying pan, titanium cutlery, 2 plates, a superlight weight titanium gas burner and some spices and teabags.
13. Hydration pack which also holds credit cards. lip balm and other small items
14. Well – you need to ask Siri about this. It is make up and a woman handbag – short a mystery to the male population of the world
15. Office stuff: all important documents for the bike as original and copies, 1 Mac book pro laptop with 500GB for image post production, 1 Mac book air and a small bag for receipts
16. Our tool and spare part shed – usually stored in the tube at the back of the bike. These are all the important tools to change the tyres, adjust the chain slag and what ever else I can repair on the go. For spareparts we carry wheel bearings, clutchcable, brake pads, spark plug, puncture kit and last not least duct tape, WD40 and chain lubrication
17. Small daypack for trips to the market – folds neadly into itself
18. 4 litre waterpack – weighs nothing and is very handy for camping
19. chargers for the camera and laptops plus extra USB cables
20. 2x USB back up drives with 2 GB each. I use rugged ones from ADATA
21. medicine pouch. We carry some antibiotics, ibuprofen (the only stuff we needed to use so far), eyedrops, Buscopan (for cramps) and Imodium.
To the bike we are using (in case you haven’t noticed): We opted for a 2011 Yamaha XT660Z Tenere which we lovingly call the Penguin. It has done a great job on this trip and handles really well. It is realtivly light (wet only 206 Kg) and has loads of suspension travel. In case you wonder about the white can attached above the foot rests: This is out chain lubrication. It always gets dirty and out there I dont have to worry that it greases up the inside of the rest of our luggage. For tyres we are using Heidenau K-60’s in the back and Metzler Sahara in the front. They are 60/40 off road / on road tyres and the Heidenau last’s forever. We get about 12.000 Km out of the back tyre, which is impressive giving the weight of 2 people on the bike plus all the luggage.
For Helmets we are using touring helmets with a motocross look. They have a fullt closing visir and drop-down sun shades - well my helmet lost those a while ago in the winds of Patagonia. They also have a beek (just like a motocross helmet) which is handy when the sun is low. The yellow duct tape on my helmet replaces a missing screw from the beek – not beautiful but practical.
That is all for this blog update – the next update will be about Ecuador so stay tuned. Please feel free to share this blog or contact us if you have questions – stay safe.
Peru – Inka ruins, beautiful landscapes, mad drivers and dangerous dogs
Hello dear blog reader and please accept my appology for the late update. Traveling can be so time consuming and doesn’t leave time for writing the blog. We are in Quito now and having a few days rest so that I can finally tell you about our trip through Peru. We entered Peru at Titicaca lake and this was the first time that we had problems at the border. The immigration was easy – as usual and all was done in a matter of minutes. But when it came to the custom clearance for the bike we got stranded. Apparently we didn’t had the right insurance for Peru and without an insurance issued by SOAT – a car insurance broker in Peru, the bike was not allowed in the country. So the only option – as it seemed – was to abondon the Penguin at the border, take our luggage off and stay in the first town after the border to sort out the insurance. Luckily there was a lady who could give us the insurance – even on a Sunday – so next day. We found a VERY cheap hostal just above the store that would issue us the insurance and decided to stay for the night. I had to go back to the border to pick up the rest of our luggage. When I got back the “big boss” of the custom bureau just arrived as well, looked at me - then looked at the bike and said – you look very trustworthy so just take the bike and buy an insurance as soon as you come to Puno. SURE THING! So one more trip back to the hostal to get all the documents and get the Penguin through the paperwork. While I was waiting for the custom officer to put everything into their computer system the guy who first told me that there is absolutley NO way to get the bike into Peru without insurance gave me a very valuable tip: He said if the cops stop us all I should say is “no comprendo” just repeat this for 2 minutes and they will let you go!!! South America’s burocracy is fantastic. We decided not to stay in our cheap hostal and drove instead to the prebooked hotel in Puno. The next days we cought up with Pascal again – our friend from Switzerland and headed towards Cusco – the old capital of Peru.
Images show Cusco, Machu Picchu and the sacred valley
Cusco is on 3,300m altitude and by now we are well used to the lack of oxygen. The Penguin doesn’t seem to have any problems with the lack of oxygen. On our trip we pretty much follow the Andes mountain range and like that we hardly get below 2,500m altitude but get almost daily over 4,000m. After wandering the streets of Cusco and being amazed about the precision the Incas built the walls around town (it might have been alians after all) we decided to head to the Sacred valley of the Incas and to Machu Picchu. It seems in Peru you can’t turn a stone around without it says underneath “Made by Incas” The Inca sites are everywhere and giving the fact that they ruled this area for only 100 years before the Spanish almost wiped them out – this is VERY impressive. We headed up to Aguas Calientes which literally means hot water due to a geothermal hot spring in the town. Aguas Calientes is the gateway to Machu Picchu and as you can imagine it is super touristic. The restaurants are mostly overpriced for what they offer but this is a place where you can get the entrance ticket to the ruins for 150 Peruvian Soles or about 40,- Euros. Machu Picchu itself is full of tourists – no doubt and I was very sceptical to begin with when I saw the amount of people cueing for the busses to get you to the entrance - but it is really worth a visit – I would say it is a must visit when in South America! We thought we will be there for a few hours and ended up until almost sundown. The next day it was time to head back to the sacred valley. Siri decided to take the train back to Ollantaytambo – which is a very scenic train ride. Pascal and me took the bikes back after we walked along the railroad tracks for 12 km to Santa Teresa where we left the bikes. After another night in Ollantaytambo we headed back to Cusco. For Pascal this was the northern turning point on his journey and he headed south again from here. He was a great riding companion and we are looking forward to see him again in the autumn in Thailand. We took the road further north and reached the small town of Tarma. Tarma used to be one of the strong hold of the 1970’s terrorist group “Shining Path”. The Shining Path was a Peruvian revolutionary organization that endorsed Maoism and employed guerrilla tactics and violent terrorism. Its stated goal was to replace the bourgeois democracy with a "New Democracy". With the capture of the founder and leader of the group Abimael Guzman in 1992, activities of the group sharply declined and today it mostly seized to exist. The terror that still exists in Peru today though is the street dogs – especially when traveling on a motorbike! Dogs bit me twice – once I got attacked by a whole group of wild dogs in a sharp turn where I had no chance to speed up, the other time I even stopped to avoid the dog jumping on the bike while driving. The dog decided then it might be a good idea to bite me since we stopped. Luckily my Bike pants are Kevlar reinforced and so the teeth didn’t manage to penetrate my skin. However – dogs in Peru are a real nuisance at best and can be seriously dangerous when on a bike. The other danger in Peru is the drivers! If in other countries around South America drivers might be suicidal but in Peru they are homicidal! The way they overtake is purely criminal and I suppose there are too many male hormones on the loose. The other explanation I have is that the Peruvians are watching too much Fast and Furious movies or think they are all Dakar rally pilots – just not with the same powered vehicles and certainly not the same driving skills. But despite those perils Peru is an amazing beautiful country, which offers some breathtaking and adventurous roads. We met some really friendly and lovely people in Peru and are looking forward to come back already.
The next blog update will be something I promised long time ago – our equipment list. Stay tuned and thank you for reading. Please feel free to share this blog.
Tarma, the all present Llamas, Siri and Pascal above the clouds and some muddy roads
Bolivia - simply amazing
Dear blog readers! We arrived at the Titicaca Lake after a short but impressive ride through Bolivia. We heard so many bad things about Bolivia before we got here and were a bit anxious of traveling through this beautiful and versatile country. First of all we heard about the most corrupt cops in South America – we haven’t had a single encounter with the local police. Every check point on the road we were just waved through – and most of the time with a smile. We also heard that the Bolivianos are unfriendly – they might not be as outgoing as the Argentinians or the Chilenians but once you get in touch with them they are super sweet, friendly and helpful. They might have a shyness against foreigners but that is kind of cute. About the food in Bolivia – we heard that the food is bad and tasteless but we can’t confirm that at all. All the food we had was delicious and had a lot of character. So Bolivia is a country we certainly want to spend more time next time we come to South America. As I mentioned in our last blog update we started our trip into Bolivia with 4 Irish bikers. We rode the 200km from the border to the salt flats of Uyuni together. We checked in to our hotel – more to that in a minute – and went straight to the saltflats. It’s the legacy of a prehistoric lake that went dry, leaving behind a desert like, nearly 11,000-sq.-km. landscape of bright-white salt. First we had the impression to drive on a massive ice or snowfield just without being slippery at all. The salt has an amazing grip and goes on for miles and miles. The surface is so smooth that you can actually drive with your eyes closed. We drove to the monument that was raised for the Dakar Rally, which has been hosted in Bolivia a few times now. The entire monument is made out of salt blocks – well and so was our hotel! The “Palacio del Sal” was the first hotel in the world built from salt. The rooms have a roof created out of salt blocks and all pillars are made of salt as well. The service was first-class and the food in the hotel was amazing - I had my first taste of llama and it won’t be my last one! Early the next morning I went with John and Ambrose - 2 of my Irish friends - out to the salt flats for another photo session. The light was just stunning but the temperature dropped to -5 C, which is needless to say not the preferred temperature for riding a motorbike. After a long and full breakfast I needed to get rid of the salt that got stuck all over the bike – it took me almost an hour to get it all off! With the Penguin (our Yamaha Tenere motorbike) all shiny, clean and greased up we drove to Potosi.
From the salt flats to the beautiful people of Bolivia
Potosi is a mining town on over 4,000m altitude. The roads in Bolivia are pretty good – despite all the horror stories we heard. After spending 2 nights in Potosi and working our bellies through the delicious street food we were off to Sucre. Yes the name of the town is sugar and it is known for its chocolate. But Sucre is also the former capitol of Bolivia and the city center is full of beautiful colonial buildings. We met up with Pascal and Christina who we met already in Santiago and in Jujuy. Christina had to leave the day after to catch her flight back to Switzerland but Pascal joined us for another fantastic day on Bolivian roads. Via Cochabamba and Oruro we arrived in Mallasa – a suburb of La Paz. Once again the scenery was overwhelming. Surrounded by 6,000m snow-covered peaks we drove through a valley that reminded me on Bryce Canyon – just in the middle of town. For this trip we decided not to stay in La Paz and went instead straight to Titicaca lake, which is with 3,800m the world’s highest navigable body of water. The lake is beautiful and it is known as the birthplace of the Inca civilization. To get to Copacabana we needed to ferry the Penguin over the lake. The ferries offering the service are simple vessels that are more or less made out of wood planks nailed together and fitted with a small outboard motor. But at least we can say the Penguin was shipped over the highest shippable lake in the world.
Tomorrow we are off to Peru and off to new adventure so please stay tuned for the next update.
Pascal enjoying the turns and Siri the warm sun at the Titicaca lake
Argentina – Bolivia via the Atacama desert
Dear blog readers, much has happened since the last update – as it always does on this trip. Our first stop after we escaped the civilisation of Cordoba and the meat feasts was the ruines of the Quilmes Indians (yes the most famous Argentinian beer is called Quilmes as well). The Quilmes were a fierce native tribe that defeted the Inka invasions for centuries. When the Spanish conquistadores arrived they managed to fight them off for 130 years but were defeated in the end. Rumour has it that they rather faced extinction than living under Spanish rules. The Quilmes killed all of their own women and children and the few remaining Quilmes were deported to an island close to Buenos Aires where they lived the rest of their days without producing any more offspring. That Island is called Quilmes today and the brewery is located on that island. If the beer is named after the fierce native tribe or after the island remains an unanswered question.
We camped at the bottom of the ruins in the middle of a cactus field and we got attacked by their thorns which ended with 2 totally punctured Therm-a-rest sleeping mats and a rather uncomfortable night on hard ground. We got rewarded though with a visit of 2 llamas in the morning (non spitting ones).
The road ahead took us through winding turns further north and into more and more interesting and ever changing landscapes. One minute we were riding through dry desert climate and before we knew it we got into a lush rain forrest that could have easily been the set for Avatar by James Cameron. Our inital plan was to ride straight up to Bolivia but we decided to make a small detour through Chile and the Atacama desert. First of all we had to visit the colourful mountains of Humahuaca though. The road started as a fairly leveled gravel road but soon winded itself up through countless serpentines. At some stage I thought we must have taken the wrong turn but - no the road took us up to a literally breathtaking 4,350m altitude viewpoint. Nature had one of its creative moments when it formed those mountains – the area is called the mountain of the 7 colours and that is not taking in consideration all the different shades of those 7 colours. Breathtaking in more than one way.
Now I thought 4,350m was high but the day after we had to cross the border into Chile and that was when it got really high – 4,800 meters! The Penguin (our trusted Yamaha motorbike) seemed to have no problem with the altitude but for us every stop took a lot of our strength. We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama and again the climate changed radically. Just 3 days earlier we drove through a rain forrest and now we were in the driest desert on the planet. The nights are freezing but the days had pleasant temperatures of around 25 degree. Unfortunetley Gaby’s Fox (her BMW GS650) played up. She found a lot of engine oil beneath the airfilter which would explain why the Fox struggled over the pass. All the info we got of the all knowing internet what could be wrong was not looking good. At least it was enough to worry that Gaby decided to get to the next BMW dealer to check what is wrong with the Fox. Now the next BMW dealer is either 1,500 km. south in Santiago or 1,500 km. north in Lima. Nothing anywhere in Bolivia and so we had to say once again good bye to Gaby and the Fox. We surely meet them again.
The next day we set off to the Bolivian border. Through small salt flats and active volcanoes we reached the (almost) ghost town of Ollague. Most of the houses are abondoned and the entire town is dominated by the big freight trains. The town feels like the scene of a western movie and one kind of expect Clint Eastwood walking around the corner with his poncho hanging of his shoulders and his guns still smoking anytime. Instead of Clint Eastwood we met 4 Irish bikers though and decided to take the ride into Bolivia together. But that is material for the next blog update – so stay tuned.
Buenos Aires & Cordoba - Meeting old friends and making new ones
By now we left Buenos Aires and Cordoba behind us to satisfy our needs for more adventerous roads. We did spend a week in Buenos Aires – the first “real” city to our standards on this trip. After riding straight across the continent from Mendoza to the capitol of Argentina, the city greeted us with 8-lane highways and its big avenues that go straight through the center. We settled in a beautiful apartment for a week with nearly 5m ceiling height in the commercial part of town. Great place to explore the city and more important – meeting up with old friend (for Siri) and making new one (for me) – Ludmila! Siri and Ludmila studied together in Vancouver 15 years ago. First of all she is of course an amazing friend(now to both of us) but also gave us great insides of the day to day life and the political situation in the country. Together we visited La Boca, Siri and I even tried a few steps of Tango but decided to leave it to the pros – for obvious reasons.
upper left: Ludmila, upper middle: the Pros, lower left: us with Matias, Don Pedro and Alma
After a rather lazy week in Buenos Aires we turned north west again and the next stop on our route was Cordoba. As we walked around Corboba – looking for a place to have lunch – we bumped into Franco. Franco is mostly a carpenter but also owns a small cafe in the center of Cordoba. He asked us how we travel around and when we replied by motorbike, he insisted to sit down with him so that he can draw up a map for us of sites we have to visit on the way up north. Needless to say that he rides a bike as well. We are traveling by his map now! The friendliness, helpfulness and openess of the people in South America is really unique. We met Franco a few more times while we stayed in Cordoba and will for sure visit him again the next time we are in South America.
Matias is another friend who Siri studied with in Vancouver 15 years ago and obviously we had to visit! Matias is by now married to Roxy and they have a beautiful boy who I like to call “Don Pedro”. Don might be a bit much since he is just 4 years old but it just sounds cool. Matias has a heart of gold and is a family man through and through. His BMW GS1200 is parked inside the house (next to the kitchen) and he insisted that the Penguin has to park next to it. What I didn’t realise is that next to the bikes is their huge and build into the wall “asado” set up. Asado is the Argentinian version of bbq – just bigger and all conducted on wood – no gas. Argentinian beef is second to none – I have no idea what they do with the beef but it is some of the most tender beef I ever had (ok – maybe Kobi beef from Japan is similar). I learned that any man in Argentina aged 21 to 55 has approx. 2 kilos of undigested meat in their bellies – according to that I must have turned Argentinian after what Matias fed us over our 4-day stay with them. He is a brilliant host and really made us feel home in his home. Needless to say – saying good bye was emotional and we can’t wait to come back. But the road called and we needed to follow. Just 2 days out of Cordoba we reunited with Gaby and her Fox - now it is off to new adventures so stay tuned :)
the first 10,000 km in South America
Dear blog readers – it has been a while. The reason for this is not that we didn’t travel but it was compare to the journey further south not as eventful. Last week we finished the first 10,000 km in south America and reached Buenos Aires. We needed to get a yellow fever vaccination before we travel further north and Siri had to get a visa for Bolivia. We passed some amazing places on the way here though. Our first stop after the last blog update was Bariloche and the Rio Negro province of Argentina. It felt a bit like getting thrown into Switzerland with its mountains and the wooden cottages. The only thing missing was the grassing purple Milka cow – we made up for that though by eating loads of chocolate, which is a speciality of the area. We camped for a few nights at Nahuel Huapi Lake and had another taste of the incredible friendliness of the Argentinian people. Next to our spot was a group of taxi drivers from Buenos Aires and before we could say no we were invited to a classic Argentinian “Asado” – the local version of barbeque. We took the bike for a spin around the lakes with its many turns. One of our stops led us to a small restaurant called Punto Panoramico. The owner, Claudio is a biker himself and next to the amazing view we got one of the best “Spaetzle” this side of the globe.
We met up with 2 fellow bikers – Andres and Vasilisa who we met further south on the Carretera Austral. Andres knows South America like no one else and we got some very valuable tips. Luckily he also discovered that the crank set we got in Punta Arenas wasn’t the best material and needed to be exchanged – along with the chain – AGAIN!
So plans changed and instead going from Lago Alumine to Buenos Aires we took a detour to Santiago to get spare parts – which are much cheaper than in Argentina. While we were at it we also got an oil change done and a new front tire. Now The Penguin is ready for the next big adventure. When we set course to Buenos Aires we needed to cross the Andes. We looked at the distance and thought that 240km plus border crossing is no big deal. We forgot the Andes! Our border crossing took us up to 3,700m altitude (we started at sea level the same day!) and countless turns. At the end we got greeted in Argentina with a thunderstorm and hailstones big as golf balls! Needless to say the first hotel was ours. The day after we started our 1,000 km long journey to Buenos Aires through the Pampas. 1,000 km with not a single noticeable turn. Now we are looking forward to new adventures further north. Stay tuned for the next update
some impressions from the road
Carretera Austral - the wild route through Patagonia
After a while I finally manage to write another blog update from our adventures in South America. We are back in Puerto Montt now where pretty exactly 2 month’s ago our Patagonia adventure started. We just finished the famous Carretera Austral – or the No.7 as it is called as well. The Carretera Austral is a true gem of road in this part of the world. From mountain passes to tracks through rain forrest – the Carretera Austral has it all. But let me start at the beginning: We crossed from Argentina into Chile Chico and decided to push on towards to Puerto Rio Tranquillo. On the map it is just 160 km and we thought that shouldn’t be a big problem. “Only” 160 km turned out to be gravel and some of it rather challenging with a heavy loaded bike and 2 people. The landscape is changing dramatically as soon as we crossed into Chile. The flatness of Argentina made way to mountains and deep valleys – stunning and specatacular would be the words that come to mind. We managed to get about 70 km into the Carretera Austral when our journey came to a quick and unpleasant stop. While our trusty Yamaha battled up one of the small passes, through deep and loose gravel and against wind gusts of 140km/h, the chain decided to give up on us (never save money on a chain!!!!). Now a broken chain alone would have been bad enough but the chain got so badly jammed that it blocked the back wheel. Instead of getting the power I expected to get through that passage the back wheel blocked totally. And as this happened in a slight turn as well there was no way to keep the bike upright. Before we knew what happened we were lying in the dirt and the bike on top of us! The ankles (both Siri’s and my left ankle) started to hurt instantly as the tendons got violently over stretched. Luckily the boxes on the bike and the engine guard took most of the fall and we got away with “just” 2 sprained ankles. What happend afterwards though is a true sign of the amazing kind and helpful people here in South America. 2 cars stopped right away, helping us to get the luggages of the bike and getting it out of the track. There was obviously not a chance to keep on riding the bike. The 2 families that stopped to help us, quickly loaded the luggage into their cars and offered us a lift back to Chile Chico. While we were securing the bike on the side of the road (to get it the next day or so) another pick up truck stopped, before we knew it the bike was loaded on the back of a brand new Volkswagen Amarok truck and we drove back to Chile Chico – including the bike! We spent a week in Chile Chico in a fantastic little hostel called Patagonia Basecamp or Nandu Camp (http://www.nanducamp.com). The owners, Juan and Kathy were super helpful in organising stuff for us to fix the bike. Over several evening’s with Siri’s delicious Thai food, Juan’s bbq and red wine we became good friends and we can’t wait to visit them again soon. About a week after the accident we felt confident enough to ride the bike. In the meantime we did some improvements with our luggage arrangments and so we took off towards Puerto Rio Tranquillo. It took a couple of days to get the full confidence again – but I guess that is normal.
impressions from the road and the marble caves
In Puerto Rio Tranquillo we took a boat ride to the Marble caves – the colours of the limestone is like an artwork and certainly a must see when in this area. Over more gravel road we reached the capital of the region – Coyhaique. The gravel gave way to perfect asphalt and for about 100km we enjoyed the curves. The joy was short though, for the rest of the “7” it was mainly back to gravel road. The landscape however is worth it. Every corner suprised us with new “Wow” moments. Further north we got into the Patagonian rain forest. We camped for a couple of nights in perfectly calm weather and even got blessed with a solar eclipse – of which we had no idea it would occur. At the end of the Carretera Austral we needed to take 3 ferries between the fjords – a calm and peaceful way to end to our adventure in this part of Chile. Next we are off to Bariloche in Argentina – stay tuned for more adventures from our South America trip....
the ferries and our "surprise" solar eclipse
Ruta 40 - heading north through Patagonia
After we left Torres del Paine we headed straight back into Argentina. The border formalaties took longer then usual this time because the Chilenian border guy never saw a Thai passport in his life and did not know what to do with it – but of course in the end it was just the usual exit stamp. Once we crossed the border the scenery changed again dramatically and leveled out to be rather flat. We headed up north on Ruta 40 through Argentina. Just 50 km from the border was a 60 km shortcut – well that is what we thought!. It ended up being the worst gravel road I ever drove on a bike and the torrential rain didn’t really help. The road turned into a wild river after just 20 km and by the time we reached the asphalt again we were wet to the bone. Luckily we had a hotel booked for that night to warm up and get dry again. The day after we headed out to the Moreno Glacier. I have seen a fair amount of glaciers in my life but the Moreno glacier is truly breathtaking! The blue is so clear and the constant cracking and shifting of the glacier makes you feel small. We spend the whole afternoon at the glacier and every time I looked back at it I wanted to take more pictures – what a fantastic place. After a second night in El Calafate we headed further on to El Chalten – the mountaineering capital of Argentina. On the way towards El Chalten the Fitz Roy group and Cerro Torre were totally clear. Sadly that was the only time we saw the mountains without clouds. After this the next 6 days the mountain never peeked out of the clouds. We did go on some nice hikes around the national park though and camped in the mounatins for a night. After El Chalten the Ruta 40 called again. We managed to get easy through another 60km stretch of gravel. By now the strong winds of Patagonia are normal to us and even the 100km/h side winds don’t bother us too much anymore. We are heading back to Chile and towards the Carretera Austral now ....
Stay tuned for the next update....
some memories from the road
Torres del Paine – the blue towers of Patagonia
After loads of dusty roads and stong winds on “El Pinguino” we decided it is time for a different kind of travel – hiking! Our plan was to go hiking in the Torres del Paine (which means the blue towers in the ancient Indian language – has nothing to do with pain). The initial idea was to hike the “W” trail but if you don’t book this one 2 months ahead of time there is no chance to get any places at the refugios’s – not even for a camping spot. There are plenty of campsites inside the national park which you don’t have to book and that gives opportunities for plenty of dayhikes inside the park. The campsites are well maintained and have hot showers. The night sets you back though by 15,- Euros per person – not cheap! On top of that is the entrance to the park with about 30,- Euros per person that gives you access to the park for 3 days (or you stay inside the park for as long as you like). It is money well spend though. The park is beautiful and the hikes are spectacular. Since we couldn’t do the “W” we decided to spend one night in a refugio on the way to the most iconic landmark – the tres torres. Once again – not cheap! We paid about 80,- Euros per person which though includes 3 meals and we got a tent from the refugio. The hike itself winds gently through a forest until we reached the treeline. It became more rigged and rocky as we got higher up and we even got some snow flakes dancing around us. But when we arrived at the top the sky cleared up very briefly and we could get a glimpse on the 3 towers. The good weather didn’t last long though and after 30 minutes everything was back in the clouds. We made our way down to the valley again and back to one of the camps in the park. From our campsite we had a specatacular view on to the mountain range which got even better in the morning light.
impressions from Torres del Paine
The wildlife in the park hasn’t figured out what humans can do and are therefor not shy at all. One of the most comon animals are the Guanaco’s which we found everywhere in the park. The most fun ones though are the Caracara Bird – a bird of prey that is slightly taller then a falcon. One of those birds woke us up by making loads of noise. He throned on the windshield of our bike and tried to pick out the eyes from our Penguin mascot (a cuddly toy that sits behind the windscreen). I got out of the tent and tried to get the bird away from our mascot. Standing in my underpants in front of him and waving my arms didn’t impress him at all. He just kept attacking the poor penguin. I used the chance and took out the Nikon to take some pictures of the Caracara. The picture below is not taken with a long tele lens, it was actually taken on a 70 mm portrait lens! Finally the Caracara though gave up on attacking our penguin and took off. The penguin slept forth on safely with us in the tent. After Torres del Paine we took off towards the Argentinan side of Patagonia again. Stay tuned for the next update about the Moreno Glacier and hiking around Cerro Torre. If you wish to get an email about this blog please sign the newsletter form at the bottom of this page ... so long
Tierra del Fuego - the end of the world
After being out of Internet reach for a few days while we were hiking at Torrs del Paine I am now back in touch with the world and can finally post the blog about our trip around Tierra del Fuego. You all have seen already what happened to the Penguin on the way back but now I would like to tell you a bit more about the beauty and the wildness of this island.
some impressions from the road
We (that is Siri, Gaby and her Fox and me) took the ferry from Punta Arenas to Povernir. It took about 3 hours and as soon as we arrived the asphalt ended and the gravel road started. There was no trees and no shelter from the wind and with windspeeds up to 110km/h it can be a challenge to drive in a straight line. After 2 day’s we managed to get to Ushuaia and the last 70km before we got into Ushuaia was pure fun. We drove through forrests (which sheltered us from the ever beating winds) and had amazing views on lakes and lush valleys. In Ushuaia I had my “at-the-end-of-the-world-haircut” (that was on my bucket list) and resupplied before we took on the 95km road along the Beagle chanal. The road – ofically just marked as road “J” is the most most southern road on the island and therefor also the most southern road in the world. Of course we had to go on it and drive to the end of the world. It is a 95 km gravel road and the scenery is just spectacular. We were blessed with amazing evening light and wildlife that hasn’t figuered out yet that humans can be a threat to them. We camped 2 more nights in the area with romantic campfires and then started to make our way back to the mainland. In my last blog update you already knew what happened on the way. Gaby didn’t want to wait with us in Rio Grande (which is VERY understandable) and decided to go further north. We traveled with Gaby for 2 weeks and it was an absolute pleasure to share the road with her. I am sure we will meet her again at some stage of our journey through South America and if not on this continent then it will be somewhere else in the world. For now we are back in Puerto Natales and took on the Torres del Paine nationalpark. More about that in the next blog update – so much for now – Patagonia is amazing with its scenery and the wildlife. Stay tuned for the next update... Ps: if you would like to get notifications about this blog just fill in your email address at the bottom of the page. Check your junk mail folder though since it sometimes ends up in the junk mail – depending on your settings.
scenery and wildlife in Patagonia
Quick update – the “Penguin” spit out his old and worn chain
Yesterday (Saturday) we made good headwind to get off Tierra del Fuego (update about the end of the world with loads of images in a few days). But just 20km after passing Rio Grande the chain decided that it had it and “El Pinguino” (the nick name for our steardy Yamaha Tenere) spit it out like a rotten fish. Now the problem is that the crank set took a beating in the process and needs replacement as well. For people who don't speak motorbike – one should exchange the chain and crankset every 10.000 miles or so and I think we took the few extra miles out of it to the very last yards. So that the chain went is not the end of the world – though it happened at the end of the world. Luckily Gaby was still with us and managed to find the most friendly and superb bike mechanic on this island! We waited for maybe an hour at the side of the road until Facundo pulled up with his pick up truck. The Penguin was quickly loaded on the back and in no time we reached his workshop. Next to coffee we were invited to share “Mate” with them. Now mate is not a marhriuana pipe (even though it looks a bit like that) but a green tea that everybody in this part of the world is drinking all day long – and it is tasty!!!! It took some effort to get the crank set of but in the end all came undone that needed to get undone and now we just need to get the spare parts on Monday and we are good to go again. Once again – if you are traveling with a motorbike in this part of the world and you get into any mecahnical problems – talk to Facundo at Albatros Service – he is great!
Now stay tuned for the next update about Tierra del Fuego – the end of the world. I will reveal if the earth is actually flat or if it is round...
inside Facundo's workshop
Puerto Natales - going south towards the end of the world
We boarded the Navimag Ferry Evangelistas in Puerto Montt for a 4 day cruise through the Patagonian fjords. The landscape down there is fantastic and puts the navigation skills of the capatain to the test. At some places the ferry had to navigate through 80m wide gaps. Giving the fact that the ferry itself is 21m wide and 115m long this is pretty tight. We saw orca’s, sealions, seaotters. A ton of birds (of which I can’t remember all the names) and even a blue whale in the distance! Most impressive bird being a Condor with a wing span of about 4 meters! While most of the journey was very calm we still needed to pass a bit of the open pacific with waves up to 4 meters. The dinning room stayed pretty empty on that evening. Luckily this didn’t last more then 12 hours before we were back in the calm waters of the fjords. We passed a ship wreck that was delibertly stranded in the late 60’s. The captain was hoping for a large sum from the insurance company but found the one spot in the fjord that was shallow. Ever since that time the boat sits on that rock and neither bad weather nor target practice from the Chilenian navy can change that.
All the time our trustet Tenere, which gained by now the name “El Pinguino” waited paticently and tight down on the car deck. On the ferry we met another motorbike traveller - Gaby and her “Fox” (a BMW G650gs). Gaby travels on her own all through out South America – inspiring, brave and fun are just a few words to describe her.
some impressions from our ferry ride with Navimag
Once we arrived Puerto Natales it was time to give “El Pinguino” some love and care. Due to high speed driving on knobbly tyres and fully loaded the back wheel bearing had a tiny play and since we had the spareparts I decided to get it changed. Sebastian – a friend and motocross champion from our hostel owner helped me on this and in less than an hour we were ready for the road again. The winds down in Patagonia are everything but a gentle breeze! We tried to get to Torres del Paine for a daytour but with side winds of almost 100 km/h we decided that a day in the hostel is the better option. We are going back through Puerto Natales anyway and will do our hiking trip in Torres del Paine on the way north. The day after we set out to drive further south towards Punta Arenas and finally to Tierra del Fuego – the end of the world...
Stay tuned for our adventures at the end of the world in the next update
