Day 74 Friday 7th December: Fin Del Mundo!!

Craig writes:

Yesterday evening was spent in the southern Atlantic town of Rio Grande at the Grande hotel. Six tired and grumpy men decided on a quiet night in the hotel as Rio Grande had little to offer apart from a hurricane force wind as Mike found out when he bravely ventured down to the waterfront. He took 10 mins to get there and 40 mins to get back into the wind!

As we made the long walk from bar to restaurant we realised that we had been beaten into the eatery by about twenty hungry bikers, some of whom were hairy?? It turns out they were an eclectic bunch from multiple counties who included five physicists, two of whom are employed at Cern, with the particle accelerator.

So we set off on Day 74 for the End of the World and Ushuaia, our final leg of an incredible journey . Our departure was at the human time of 9.15am pleasing Frankie and yours truly .

With barely 250km to go we left the barren landscape of Rio Grande with little expectation of anything improving for much of the way to Ushuaia, but we were quickly surprised with pleasing vistas.

We found a great spot to stop and take pics  near the water by Lago Argento and as Frankie lined up his daily selfie he had unique experience as he noticed a halo over his head, redemption at last for St.Frankie of Glasgae by way of Guatemala City.

Up next was a cracking view back down the Lago, then with barely 50 km to go our resident Toyboy Frenchman was about to go on strike and demanded an espresso. Luckily as we came around a corner we found this great little Swiss chalet, a winter sports venue. We enjoyed the coffee and the views and even had time to see if we could fit in the sledge. The open fire inside was fitting for Tierra del Fuego.

As a wee interesting sidenote, the indigenous people that lived here in the late nineteenth century were to Yamana people. They numbered 3000 until colonists arrived and by 1910, barely 20 years later there were a meagre 100 Yamana left due to disease brought in by the visitors …..very sobering for all of us to recognise the impact we have all had on this planet.

We arrived into Ushuaia but kept going to Fin Del Mundo to accommodate M’sieu Lois, who is leaving one day early to rush into the arms of Mrs Lois.

We all had our postcards at the ready to post from the southerly most post office in the world once we arrived into the national park at the Fin Del Mundo.

On the way back to town we passed a golf course and the world’s most southern rugby pitch!

Once we finally found our luxury residence for the next couple of nights in Ushuaia we were all happy to find that the “core” team had surprised us with our own rooms , bloody luxury!!

We were soon met by Karen & Maureen , officially known as the “core team spouses who must be obeyed” who kindly had a suitable T shirt and signs for us all. We were able to celebrate the end of our journey with some champagne sent to our hotel in Rio Grande by Doug, thanks mate!!

As I sign off my final blog a final observation;

It’s been a pleasure to share our journey with this crew of grumpy old guys, some more than others…but one thing is clear to me ….they are all kids at heart!! Thanks guys it’s been blast. Now to the 2020 tour of Burgundy by bike….