The scenery is getting better every day. Waterfalls everywhere you look, amazing snow capped mountains, spring flowers of purple, pink, blue and yellow and crystal clear streams, rivers and lakes. Photos just don’t do it justice. 

Riding my own bike makes for a very different trip to being a pillion. There were several concerns I had and still have about riding on this trip, which mostly centre around off road riding….narrow roads with oncoming traffic that don’t move over….over taking on dusty roads…falling off a cliff etc.  So far the roads haven’t been so bad….mainly hard packed gravel with the odd bit of loose stones. The journey has only just started though so I’m not cheering yet!  

I don’t love riding off road and am not confident pulling over suddenly to take photos, and as I can’t take my eyes off the road, I am probably missing out on some of the sights….luckily I have my own personal photographer who can take photos for me.

‘that looks amazing’ I say as I quickly look to my left ‘would make a great photo’

‘no worries babe, I’ll stop and take one and will catch up with you’

Poor Dean has to spend all day riding in my dust so he can keep sight of me.

While I love being on my own bike, I do miss the connection of being on the bike with Dean, and sharing experiences. Little ‘wake up Dean’ squeeze of my legs at traffic lights, holding his sunglasses when it starts to rain, reminding him to drink water by bumping him on the helmet with the water tube…..the odd power nap here and there…

But, riding is so much more engaging. Even the off-road bits, despite not loving them, are a lot more enjoyable on my own bike compared to  hanging onto the back with Dean’s bum in my face and my eyes closed whilst being smashed around everywhere. Funny that.

Riding with other bikes has also been a concern of mine. Knowing how many riders do this trip, I was worried about feeling pressure of having other riders behind me, and feeling as if I am holding them up.

Yesterday we had to take a ferry and despite still being early in the season, there were about 50 other bikes on the ferry – I’d hate to see it when it’s high season!

Leaving the ferry, I knew we had a bit of off road to ride so I was worried about holding up other riders and had plans to wave them all ahead. We all rode out of the ferry up the steep ramp and approached the gravel road. Everyone took off and continued to ride slowly…I wasn’t sure why everyone was going so slowly so I followed them for a while….then I overtook a couple…then a couple more… Before long we were ahead of them all.  Phew! The complete opposite to what I expected! They all had such big heavy bikes with so much luggage. It was almost comical.

There are always those riders who don’t want to be overtaken, especially by a girl. Yesterday we caught up to a couple of guys who would not let me pass them. It was one thing for Dean to pass them but I, was too much. On the straights they sped up (well done guys, you have bikes over 700 cc and mine is 300) but when I caught them on the turns, they wouldn’t move over or let me through. It was pretty frustrating and dangerous. These guys obviously have very small penises.  

Today was a beautiful day and the roads were great. We rode from Puyuhuapi to Villa Cerro Castillo with Ben, who we’ve met from France and it was the best riding day yet with amazing weather! 

Tomorrow we are planning on walking up to Cerro Castillo and then heading on to Puerto Rio Tranquilo. We are making the most of the beautiful weather and trying to time our journey to sit out any rain so we don’t miss out on any of the stunning scenery.

Oh, and the food? Still very average.