For your entertainment...!

It is with great pleasure that Catriona and I launch our pop career.  This would not have been possible without our English backing singers Liz and Bet, our Scottish Santa Gary and our Dutch film crew.  It was also exported expertly to the UK by Liz.

Record Company offers will be considered - please send contracts for negotiation to cyclebells.org.cl.

Cycle bells, Cycle bells, Cycle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride our bikes day by day,
Cycle bells, Cycle bells, lakes and hills amaze,
Oh what fun to ride in sun, though gales do not phaze.

Pedalling south by road,
Clocking up the miles,
Carrying our heavy load,
Locals greet with smiles, ho, ho, ho...

To our loved ones dear,
We bring christmas cheer by tune,
Our journey´s end is near,
We´ll see you all quite soon.


Oh, Cycle bells, Cycle bells, Cycle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride our bikes day by day,
Cycle bells, Cycle bells, lakes and hills amaze,
Oh what fun to ride in sun, though gales do not phaze!

Merry Christmas from Punta Arenas!

Towards the end of the earth

A message from Puerto Natales:

The Carraterra Austral runs the length of Chile, linking small villages that would otherwise be totally disconnected from the capital and other cities further north.  Famed to be one of the best cycling routes on earth, our expectations were high - we have not been disappointed, in fact, we have been overwhelmed by how spectacular it has been.  Lakes, rivers, glaciers, mountains, there´s always something stunning to look at, and somewhere beautiful to wildcamp.

The chilian equivalent of the M1, for most of the way the road has been as remote, unused and narrow as a forrestry commision track.

We´ve met lots of other cyclists on route, from all over the world, who flock to the infamous Carraterra.

At the southern end, the only way to continue south is by a weekly boat - it went via a glacier, where the captain fished a small iceberg out the water, and chopped it up to pour whiskey over for all the passengers.

After the boat crossing, there is a section that requires "hik-ling": a path too narrow at times to push a laden bike, with makeshift bridges, tree-trunks and deep trenches to negotiate.  Lots of fun, and not half as challenging as expected our pair having swelled to a team of 5 for the obstacle course.  There were 3 boats a day at the end of the hikling section, and we were aiming to get the 6pm boat.  But having been much quicker than expected we got the 3pm one - other cyclists we met on the way more heavily laden than us arrived at the shore for the evening ferry - to find that it wouldn´t sail again for another 3 days!  They were rather hungry by the time they reached the next town!

Worried we´ve forgotten how to walk, we had a couple of days in the mountains, at the heart of Patagonian climbing country.  In a place where people sit in mountain huts for weeks on end waiting for a break in the weather, we have had only a handful of days of rain, and only one day of snowfall.

Just before we arrived in one of the national parks it had been closed due to high winds - 2 buses had been blown over by 150mph winds.  We have had days of crazy winds, at one point crouching in a trench in roadworks as it was the only shelter from the gales in the flat scrubland.

The dirt roads have taken their toll on our bikes, so the relief of reaching paved road is really strong.  We´ve been cycling with two beligum guys and an austrian pair for the past few days, both Hanes and Maria have splits in their tyres and inevitably multiple punctures in a few days - the last one only 20 metres from reaching the tarmac!

Less than 1000 miles to go, and less than a week till Christmas - we´re hoping to spend it with a small colony of king penguins!  It really has been magical so far, and rather sad to be reaching the end of the earth in just a few weeks...

While sitting in our tent trying to defrost at the side of the road, having pitched our tent at 11am due to a snowstorm, we wrote a little jingle - hopefully this will launch our music careers if we remain unemployed!  Here are the lyrics so you can sing-a-long (it´s a festive tune you may recognise!), a link to the video will appear soon!

Cycle bells, Cycle bells, Cycle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride our bikes day by day,
Cycle bells, Cycle bells, lakes and hills amaze,
Oh what fun to ride in sun, though gales do not phaze.

Pedalling south by road,
Clocking up the miles,
Carrying our heavy load,
Locals greet with smiles, ho, ho, ho...

To our loved ones dear,
We bring christmas cheer by tune,
Our journey´s end is near,
We´ll see you all quite soon.


Oh, Cycle bells, Cycle bells, Cycle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride our bikes day by day,
Cycle bells, Cycle bells, lakes and hills amaze,
Oh what fun to ride in sun, though gales do not phaze!

Our Route so far...

Thank you so much to Siemen for the photos!

Paradise in Patagonia

Since leaving the Andes, we´ve really started to move visibly down the map – took us the first month to do 800 miles, and in the last 3 weeks we´ve done over 1200.  It´s great to have a real feeling of journeying with the landscape changing so much as we travel south.

We had a fantastic time in wine country – around Rioja and into Mendoza.  Miles and miles of vineyards and sunshine and warmth that we thoroughly enjoyed after the freezing temperatures of the passes.  We stopped in Mendoza for a couple of nights to stay with Cristian – a friend Hannah went to Atlantic College with.  It was fantastic to be with a fluent local, and we got a great insight into the culture – being able to ask lots and lots of questions about things we´ve seen but not understood.  On our way out of the city rather than taking the main road, Cristian had give us directions of a quieter route to avoid the traffic, ducking and diving though little country roads.  We got taken under the wing of an 86 year old road biker (who at times we struggled to keep up with!) who was off for lunch with friends along our route.

We´ve met lots of characters on the road – a dozen guys on motorbikes going to Ushuaia too – they were doing our weekly mileage in a day!  They stopped to ask us directions as despite having a support car with trailer, they had forgotten to pack a map!

I was commenting to Catriona how surprising it was having cycled on roads lined with giant cacti, and our hidden camp spots among spiky bushes, that we´d had no punctures.  She said I´d jinxed us now – I retorted I don´t believe in jinx!  Over the next few days we had 3 punctures and a punctured mattress!

They´ve been lots of road works throughout our trip, often where they are starting to pave the dirt roads.  Sometimes we cycle on the new section of pristine tarmac, yet to be opened to the traffic.  Workmen have flags to control the traffic, and one mad group cheered and waved their flags wildly as if we were in the Tour de France.

My bottom (which I feel I need to give an update on as so many of you have enquired about!) is coping well with the many miles in the saddle.  Thankfully my offer to drain Catriona´s abscess was turned down – although against our professional code – she looked after herself, and now when we set off on the bikes after a break, there´s no longer yelps of pain!  She´s thankfully back to her usual cheerful self again!  

The start of Patagonia has been utterly spectacular, lakes and craggy snow-capped mountains at every turn, and an abundant water supply at last!  With stuning Campspots at every turn.

Heading towards Bariloche, we met a Spanish girl and her German husband on their first day of a 2 year cycle tour in South America – having already cycled from Germany to Madrid for their flight – with their 2 year old daughter in a front trailer!  What an amazing adventure for a young family to take together.  Catriona and I want similar adventures at some point in the future, but are both currently short of a like-minded man – send them our way if you meet any!

Into Chile again tomorrow, where allegedly the Patagonia paradise continues for many miles to come... I hope so!

Back from the hills

Uh oh, now I´m 28 - had a fantastic birthday, thank you very much for the emails and facebook messages.  It included 2 lots of ice cream, as well as a swim in an emerald salt lake - totally boyant, with snow capped volcanoes in the distance.

We had a fantastic day cycling across the salt flats - sparkling in the sunshine - our first day to cycle over 100kms - many more are needed if we are to make our plane in January!

We were recommended a map which we bought in the UK, however it has proved to add to the challenges.  We cycled over 30 miles on a dirt road into the desert, towards a string of little towns marked on the map.  The first one didn´t appear to exist, and the second was just a single house with no roof and more importantly no water supply.  There were similar towns marked further along the road, but with only a litre of water left between us, it was a difficult decision as to whether to carry on in the hope that the next town existed, or return the 30 miles that had taken us about 4 hours of cycling back to the main road!  Having not seen a vehicle all day, 3 lorries came along at once, and gave us water, oranges, chocolate and coke which we consumed instantly to their amusement!

Catriona´s front wheel has been of no problem since the amazing dutch repair, however with all her load on the back, the pannier rack sheared off the connection to the frame.  After some very entertaining charades in the town centre, she was wisked away in the back of a 4x4 with her bike, leaving me to hope she hadn´t been abducted!  Luckily, she was taken to Gabriel´s house, an extremely talented artist, metal sculpter as well as musician, and on the side a welder!  He did a perfectionist repair of Catriona´s bike, including spray painting it purple to protect from rust!  His girlfriend was equally talented, insisting on having us for dinner before we headed back on the road.

Since then we´ve headed east again, across Paso de Sanfrancisco - it's been totally amazing, with multicoloured mountains from the many minerals, and yet another border post offering a place to sleep that has sheltered us from the perpetual winds - they call them white winds because of the salt!

It really has been stunning, but one of the most challenging few days - again struggling with deep sand, breathlessness from exercising at altitude, and also bitterly cold - cycling in a down jacket, whooly hat and balaclava around my face, and waking up in the morning to find a thin layer of ice on my sleeping bag!  The challenge of water, this time rather than the lack of it, was the fact it was a 10kg block of ice, and the fuel was too cold to be able to light!  So a diet of cookies again to keep us going!  However, the scenary and feeling of wilderness has made it all worthwhile!

Now back in civilisation again - we´ve had a fantastic relaxing day after 30 miles of almost constant freewheeling to get to the first town after the pass.  We went to natural thermal pools for some intensive relaxing and heat after the cold of the hills, and some entertaining Herbal Essenses advert impressions!

The Honeymoon is Over

2 weeks in and just over 400 miles under our belts - the honeymoon period of the first few days of gentle sunshine and tarmac is over, now the challenge has started.

Our first day on dirt roads was incredibly hot,
nificant sections where the road was just soft deep sand.  The occasional breeze and draft from the occasional car was fantastic relief from the heat - if only it came a little more often!

Day 2 on the dirt - a lesson in being careful what you wish for!  At 11am we stopped to make lunch, half way through the wind got up - ruining our lunch! - that´s sand not pepper!

A sandstorm ensued for the rest of the day - at times turning the sky dark and red with dust.  It was incredibly difficult to keep our eyes open, let alone cycle!

The challenge continued for the next few days as we climbed to what is likely the high point of the trip at 4895m.  Again the road got thick with soft sand, making our heavily laden bikes impossible to ride, at times taking both of us to wheel each bike in turn.  The irony of having over 20kg of water between us, while struggling to drag our bikes through crystal clear, knee deep rivers was at times testing to morale!

The road was steep and progress was very slow, so we ended up camping high for 2 nights in a row - so had to live off cookies as the stove would not burn in the thin air.  We were saved by 3 wonderful dutch people, who gave us hot drinks, and spent hours fixing Catriona´s front wheel that was falling apart - we wouldnt have made it under our own steam without them.

The elation of reaching the pass was amazing, although savoured briefly, as we descended to try to cure Catriona´s headache and severe nausea.

After a much needed rest day in San Antonio de los Cobres - we´ve renamed it hell on earth; it was impossible to get food, internet access or cash from the 1 cash point in the town.  We were stranded for 2 days awaiting the arrival of the bank truck to refill the cashpoint, which never came.  Eventually we resorted to begging a tourist to exchange our emergency dollars.  It would have been better to be stranded on the mountain.

We´ve now headed north and west across the atacama desert.  a desolae but beautiful place, with massive salt lakes, and snow capped mountains in the distance.  Unfortunately cycing into a headwind for the past 3 days has been extremely testing - taking all day to cover just 25 miles.  When we arrived at the border post, we werent asked how long we wanted to stay in Chile, but did we want a room for the night!  We´d heard they would be very friendly here, and we have our own room, hot shower, stove all to ourselves for free - a welcome rest from the challenge of the desert!
Here´s the view from the border post:

So, 2 days down 118 to go, and if it carries on like this it really will be a trip of a lifetime.

Having slept the first night in Buenos Aires Airport, we woke at half past five to cross the city to the domestic airport for our final flight to Salta.  Within 5 minutes of being awake a security guard came over with 2 hot frothy cups of coffee - that really sums up the trip so far.  We had an easy transfer across the city, wedged into a little van with our bikes and bags of panniers - we were thankful not to be cycling from there as the city is massive with lots of busy traffic.  The flight to Salta was stunning, and excited us with views of the mountainous landscape we were about the cycle in.

We put our bikes (Carlos and Pedro) back together just outside the airport, with the help of a whole group of taxi drivers, who gave us route advice, fizzy pink grapefruit juice and help adjusting brakes.

The Argentinians have been extremely friendly, tooting their horns and waving as they pass in cars or on motobikes, sometimes chatting as they drive along side as we pedal along to welcome us to their country.  They are very patient of our phrase book searching as we try to communicate, and seem really excited about our trip, although a few have said we are crazy when we tell them we are going to Ushuaia.

So we´ve done about 100 miles of cycling so far - the road between Salta and Cafayate was swept away by the river last year, so now brand new tarmac through the spectacular of Quebrada de la Conchas - huge red sandstone rock formations along a stunning valley.

Lots of opportunities at every turn for wild camping away from the road:

With a quick wash for some relief from the heat just outside the tent as the sun went down.

Our Route so far  Next stop back north to cross the Atacama desert to San Pedro de Atacama...

Keep Pedalling

Bike is in its box, the chain cracker is tucked away in a pannier's corner, and the maps are folded... all that's left to do is keep pedalling.  I hope (despite some of my sceptical friends!) that I will write a few lines on here now and again...

I know some of you have been worried that I might not be seen - hopefully this bright yellow bike, and its blinding reflectors will help!  He still doesn't have a name... suggestions welcome!

Thanks to all of you who have helped me on my way to this adventure, I hope you enjoy browsing a few pictures and reading a few lines now and again over the next few months.