Fri 2nd Dec: Chalten to Rio Leona-Lago Argentino.

December 2, 2016

Cerro Fitzroy above hiking-village, Chalten.

There's a lot of talk about a pink house as a refuge from the wind for the night, nevertheless 10km before, Parador La Leona is an interesting midafternoon stop, photographed from the downhill approach to the bridge over namesake river.

Lago Argentino with flying-saucer cumulus blowing in.

Most major rivers in Patagonia, where the road bridges, are free camping friendly.

It's late when I get here, and so I'll try to keep today's journal instalment as brief as possible. Where to begin. Well, I was awake real early. Before five. When it's bright already but turn over and soon go back to sleep while waiting for the sun. Which doesn't appear to late because of the high cliffs to the east of Chalten; it's usually after seven, when like a machine I'm out of the tent as the sun breaks over the clifftop.

The weather after yesterday's wind and rain is sunny and quite calm; just a breezy tailwind. Though I meet cyclists coming in the other direction who didn't find it so calm. It was ideal for cycling and comfortable to be out in the glorious day it turned out to be leaving Chalten. About ten K out I stop and take one last look back, with a clear sky view of Fitzroy's steeple rocks with a curl of misty cloud rising from it's west side.

The landscape has much changed from the temperate rainforest of the Caratera Austral I was on over a week ago. Here it is open and treeless, except for the planted tall elm tree windbreaks at estancias. The general colour is light brown with barren barrancas off to the left. The road traversing undulating plain which stretches to the horizon ahead and to my right. But before long the turquoise sheet of water of Lago Viedema opens up to the right. Like precious green liquid spilt on a yellowish brown landscape.

With the smooth tarmac and tailwind, it's easy going and I resolve to ride as much of the 200km to Calafate today as possible, in case tomorrow is windy.

I reach Route 40 at the 90km mark, a tee-junction where I turn right and a few kilometres on, come to a lakeside viewpoint on the right, where I pull in and lunch. An ostrich scatters away as I wheel the bike in and as I eat, a fox comes along and lays on the ground a short way off dog-like watching me. Seemingly used to people or dependant. It thinks I will feed it in the same way a dog would come and wait to be fed.

When I finish eating I close my eyes. I might've slept and when I open my eyes again, looking up I see six cyclists: Theo and Michel, Frances and Alex and an Argentine couple they met at Casa de Ciclistas, where they stayed in Chalten. We ride on together as far as Parador Leona; where, Frances was delighted to see the old Butch Cassidy wanted poster on the wall of the cafe. She wanted to stop here for the day while Alex wanted to go further with the others to the once Luz Devine roadhouse, now derelick and dubbed the pinkhouse, which is only ten kilometres on from La Leona. I mean it was only half four when I decided to ride on alone. And it's nice having the shelter of an abandoned house, but today is calm and there are better places to camp, as well as trying to make the most of the calm to get as far as possible.

Well, I didn't have time for the group that would camp inside that pinkhouse, preferring to press on in the vivid evening light to reach the second bridge over Rio Leona. And it's nice to know it's a much shorter distance to Calafate tomorrow, which I should cover before midday.

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