Patagonian Mountain Biking

MTB Route: Puerto Madryn-Punta Loma-Puerto Madryn
Distance/Area: 40k+, Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina
Having arrived in Puerto Madryn on the Patagonian coast this morning after a 20 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires (preceded by a 14 hour flight from Manchester via Amsterdam) I hired a bike from El Gualicho, keen to avoid ‘downtime’. I picked up a reasonable looking Raleigh mountain bike, and cycled down to the coast, and along it to pick up the dirt track to my planned destination – the sea lion colony at Punta Loma. This was 20k away, but I hadn’t realized that would all be on gravel and energy-sapping sand tracks, into a headwind and quite hilly over what were presumably giant ancient dune systems. My bike started slipping gears immediately and it turned into an unexpectedly adventurous and tiring outing – I looked on it as highly unconventional training for the Tour of Flanders. A headwind was distressing, and the road surface very hard going. I saw a dwarf armadillo (pichi), my first, disappearing into shrub, then stopped for photos of a superb dune system above the sea. Birdlife was scarce, but I did get Chilean swallow, black-chested buzzard and Patagonian mockingbird. After a sharp and tiring hill, a flat section led to Playa Parana and a shipwreck (Le Folies). Two more long uphill drags over Cerro Avanzado led to a spectacular section of coast and the entrance to Punta Loma. My nationality ‘Gales’ not questioned; just entered into the book with a respectful nod. Another 800m drag led to the viewpoint over the colony: a fantastic sight and a sensory overload. Deep blue skies, emerald green sea, crashing waves, hundreds of South American sea lions, adults and infants groaning, roaring, sleeping and swimming. Fantastic to see them in their natural state, not performing in a zoo. This was just days before the adult males go ‘foraging’  for food thousands of miles out into the South Atlantic, and the perfect time of year following the breeding season. Of equal interest to me was the colony of breeding rock cormorant, a specialist and geographically restricted species: giving superb close up views. Numerous kelp gulls completed the exhilarating scene. Puerto Madryn looked very distant indeed, my bike was malfunctioning and slipping gear, and a storm was gathering inland. It seemed best not to linger. I pulled my buff further over my head in an effort to protect myself from the fierce sun (it didn’t feel hot this close to the sea, but the air temperature was actually 30C+). The ride back was better initially, with more of a tailwind. But after cresting the final hill and reaching the numerous new builds on the far southern end of town, my rear gear mechanism sheared off completely – leaving the bike useless. I was at least 5k from home at this point, so walked with the bike to the Punta Cuevas (where the Mimosa migrants landed and sheltered in 1865: the visit to these bleak caves had the air of a pilgrimage for me) before heading back to the Welsh museum with a new one.