The journey to Patagonia continues - (The not so) Bahia Blanca

The Bread Basket of Argentina

Leaving Laguna Alsina after the unscheduled stop, the sheer vastness of this agricultural area became even more obvious.  The whole way was simply field after field of crops.  It took over the whole horizon.  The flatness also meant the wind was quite strong.  But nothing my newly invincible bike cant handle and by mid afternoon I arrived in Bahia Blanca.  I can't really say much about this place as I spent the next 3 days pretty much lying down in my hostel as I was hit with a severe case of exhaustion, or in other words laziness.  I was knackered from the last few days exploits so other than rediscovering the joys of workable wifi and servicing the bike I didn’t really do too much.  I can say with authority though that Bahia Blanca's bahia is not white at all, and more resembles a muddy brown colour.

The Romanesque straight Ruta 251

By the 14th I was completely recharged so I continued on south, deciding on going inland which I hoped was a more direct route.   This meant taking Ruta’s 22, 154 and 251.  To say there is not too much out here is an understatement, it was dry, dusty and with the wind and processions of lorries a little difficult in places.  The roads were long, straight and not the most inspiring and if I hadn't had the amount of rest from the previous three days I'm sure I would have fallen asleep at the handlebars.  The sheer amount of crops being grown though is impressive, this easily has to be the bread basket of Argentina.  It;s everywhere as far as you can see, with each field the size of a whole farm back in England. 

Another tiny Fiat, so wanna get me one of these

Snack stop, hiding from the sand and wind

Riding like a man possessed I reached San Antonio close to the coast.  This is where I am joining Ruta Nacional 3, 400kms into its 3079km length.  It stretches from Buenos Aires to Bahía Lapataia in Tierra del Fuego, which is actually 25kms past Ushuaia.  I planned to camp near San Antonio, but after running into two of the most miserable Swiss bikers at the petrol station outside of town, I decided to keep going and away from their dark moods.  It was only 4pm, sunny and I felt pretty awake so I decided to carry on to see how far I could go.  This amazingly turned out to be all the way to Puerto Madryn, a full on record breaking 670kms.  To think when I started this trip I used to wince at the thought of 300km and cry if I didn’t know where I was going to set up camp beforehand.  These days I don’t care if I sleep in a ditch.  Luckily though Puerto Madryn has many hostels so instead I treated myself to a real bed.  

Outskirts of windswept Puerto Madryn

670kms later I was greeted with a rousing fanfare and hundreds of beachgoers