Turn-around

February 3, 2016

Model uniform prisoners in the window of a souvenir shop representing Ushuaia's beginning in 1884 as an Argentine penal colony.

Argentina calls their most southern province: Terra del Fuego, Antartida y las Islas Atlantico del Sur (The Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and their slice of maritime and mainland Antarctica).

Should I mention Patagonia? That belonged to nomadic indigenous people until Argentina occupied it in the 1880s.

The caption underneath reads: Sunday, May 2nd, after 4pm. Two blasts shatter the General Belgrano cruiser. The giant hurt by two torpedoes shot from a nuclear submarine, starts to list. It sinks in a few minutes. A camera grasps the moment. In those first minutes, over 300 men lose their lives. The rest escaped in inflatable boats. They are more than 700. A decisive act for the evolution of the conflict.

Wine in La Anonima supermarket, with a bottle of "La Poderosa" the one with the motorcycle, dedicated to the Motorcycle Diaries.

I have been in Ushuaia almost a week. It isn't quite the end of route 3, that's about another 24km further west in an area designated, Terra del Fuego National Park, with an entry fee. I was to cycle there this afternoon and enter for free after office hours, but it's raining and anyway I've lost interest. I'm rearing to start off north again toward a warmer climate. It is just too cold here and this place certainly has branded and marketed a fantasy: Fin del Mundo (The End of the World) and therefore, justify charging exorbitantly prices for everything. It'll be a few weeks though until I get far enough north to experience pleasant Summer weather. I've been looking at the map today, focusing on route 3 as the quickest way north.

Most of my time here, as usual when I stop, has been taken with certain jobs. The bike as always needs going over. The headset, the bearing which allows the fork, or steering to swivel smoothly from side to side had become rough, so I unscrewed it, rotated the bearing, in other words turn the rear part of the bearing which is under heaviest load, to the front; and, the front, under least load, to the rear and screw it all back together again, adjusting it so it swivels smoothly again. It now seems perfect, but only a few hundred kilometres of wear and tear will tell. I have also taken the bike along to the bike shop, Ushuaia Extreme, on the west side of the main street, San Martin. I needed the rear wheel cones adjusted as there was lateral play. The ball-bearing and cone wheel bearing system is fine, except, a work shop with work shop tools such as bench-vice, large ring spanner and quality cone-spanners are necessary every once in a while to adjust the wheel cones, so the wheel runs smoothly without lateral (loose side to side play). This means using a bike shop. Ideally, some kind of sealed bearing, easily replaced using an allen key would avoid the need for a bike shop work shop.

The hostel, Refugio Mochillero up an extremely steep hill from San Martin, on Calle 25 de Mayo is run by Paula, who previously worked as a nurse and teacher, and sees running a hostel as also caring for people and it shows in the all you can eat breakfast; cornflakes and homemade bread; and for cyclists, the garden is a campsite costing a hundred pesos a night (£5). I don't think I would've stayed as long if I had to sleep inside, as a dorm bed not only here, but in all the other hostels in town cost 300 pesos for a dorm bed.

Overhearing two backpackers talk and plan what they are going to do in Ushuaia, I'm glad I'm riding a bike, as they come here on a bus and then everything they'll do will cost them so much. When I come here I've already done my sightseeing from the bike seat on the way. And when here I hang around the hostel journaling, servicing the bike, talking to other cyclists and travellers. I'm not interested in museums or boat trips or hikes. I'm interested in the road ahead.

The Czech cyclist got a box and packed his bike in it for his flight home. And Mathias set off a day later heading north the same way as I will on route 3. And now an America cyclist has come, a man 74 years old. And there are two German motorcyclists telling us that they usually do 50 to 70 on ripio. While on paved roads, 90km per hour gives the best fuel efficiency.

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