The highlights outweigh any disappointments.

This was it, we had finally reached Patagonia. Time to face my biggest fear of our entire Canada to Argentina journey: the notorious winds. Back on Route 66, now over a year ago, 60 km/h side winds had scared the living bejesus out of me, throwing my little Honda NX250 around like a leaf, almost blowing me into oncoming traffic on several occasions. Even my partner, Aidan, on his sturdier BMW F650 GS, had battled to stay on the road. Unlike anything I always pictured, the wind hadn’t pushed me over top down, but instead had torn the wheels out from underneath me. How was I supposed to be leaning into that?

Since that day, a nagging fear had been simmering in the back of my mind and the videos of people being blown off the road did not fill me with confidence that I would ever be able to reach Ushuaia. I got so afraid that I began seriously considering giving it a miss. The only thing that persuaded me to try was the possibility of hopping onto a ship from Ushuaia to Antarctica.

SAGE ADVICE TO QUELL THE FEARS

According to three Argentinian travellers we met at the moto hostel El Clan in Las Grutas, the Patagonian winds would start in earnest from Puerto Madryn. Before they left, they had some excellent advice for me: Lean the bike, but don’t lean with it. Keep yourself seated firmly above the centre to ground the tires. Armed with that advice, I was ready as I would ever be to tackle the challenge. And the next day, the NX was ready, too: I’d done a full service and changed out the clutch plates.

The moto hostel in Puerto Madryn already half-expected us, because the three Argentinian riders were already there. We had all planned to visit the Valdes Peninsula, famous for its elephant seals and sea lions, and for the orcas’ acrobatic feeding frenzy, temporarily beaching themselves to snatch their prey. But its dirt roads were closed due to flooding. 

Unsure of how many miles the winds would allow us to make in a day — and keen to reach Ushuaia before it got snowed in again — we spontaneously decided not to wait for the roads to reopen on Valdes. After all, we would see lots of wildlife on the cruise. That also meant saying goodbye to our three friends, who were going to avoid the winds and cross west from here, toward the more picturesque Andes. A pretty ride free from threatening winds was tempting, but Antarctica was calling.

CUE THE WINDS

I had expected the wind to pick up with gusto, but it was a gradual transition that crept up on me unnoticed, until I suddenly realized that the brand-new clutch plates were slipping! The bike was fighting hard against the oncoming wind, and I had to switch down two gears to make any progress at all. Of all the reasons I might have considered the…