January 27, 2016
Last Day South: km3001 to Ushuaia.
The day I have been looking forward to for a while started mormally enough with great ambiance of the lakeside where I'd camped, which could easily be Norway with its deep fjord like lough and near vertical wooded mountain slopes on either side.
I am awake shortly after six and take my time over breakfast of porridge and tea. The porridge much improved by adding butter, which can be carried here as daytime temperatures remain in single digits, so there's no fear of it melting.
I am on the road by half eight, having climbed up from the lake on the old unpaved road, which doubles back to the mirador (viewpoint) where it accesses the new tarmac road that continues climbing steadily for five kilometres to a gap in the mountain called "Paso Garibaldi".
Today is another calm mild day so I'm warm enough without the windproof jacket, until the descent from Paso Garibaldi, where I pull on the jacket. A fairly lengthy steep in places descend with rounded bends. On such descents I really appreciated having dropped handle-bars where I can get low down, distributing weight evenly over both front and rear wheels.
Anyway, the round bends continue until levelling out and the way ahead is a succession of short rises through narrow valley with marshy middle. I pass one great campsite, Rio Tra....something. I didn't make a note, but it's thirty kilometres out of Ushuaia.
Although climbing a lot, I feel fresh and rested, much improved on a few days ago, where leg muscles were sore and I felt funny. The kilometres dwindle quickly and coming up on midday I climb a final rise and cresting it, the Beagle Channel opens up ahead with Ushuaia, the scattered outskirts and container port around the near shore and snow streaked mountains along the far side of a bay.
It is still six kilometres ride to the city centre with more climbing as the central grid up from the waterfront is on a steep slope, but I've made it. Each day from now on I'll be riding north to a warmer climate. Apart from this my only other thought is I'm here and I'm having a break, though that'll be taken up doing things like servicing the bike, washing cloths and journaling.
The Danish cyclist I met yesterday afternoon told me of "Hostel Backpacker" but couldn't find a card in his bar-bag with the address, so I call at the tourist information office to ask. The girl behind the desk doesn't find it in her list at first, then spots it, listed under it's Spanish translation "Refugio de Mochillero" on Calle de Mayo. When I get there a bed in a dorm is three-hundred pesos including breakfast, but cyclists can camp in the garden for only one-hundred, including full use of facilities such as kitchen and wifi. There are two other cyclists. The Czech man who I cycled with just before Torres del Paine, who is finished here; and, Mathias, a Chilean who has cycled from Santiago and from here will cycle north on route 3 to Uruguay and Brazil.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 4,690 km (2,912 miles)
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