This is our first day in Patagonia. Yesterday we crossed the river Barancas, and entered the province of Nuequen, which is the most northern part of Patagonia. Last night there already was a lot of wind, in the middle of thge night the wind was gone, and in the morning it picked up again. Patagonia is known for its fierce winds from the west, and that is the direction we are heading today. Today we will cross the Vulcao Tromen. A nice and scenic ride, but 90 kilometers unpaved road, and climbing for 1400 meters can behard, especially when there is also a lot of head wind. We left the camping around 8 in the morning, Gerrit was the only one that decided to take the paved road, which was 30 kilometers longer. In the beginning we could already feel the westerly wind. Hoping that we were a bit protected by the hills and vulcano we continued cycling on the pretty bad road. There were a lot of stones, snd and loose gravel, which made it hard to cycle. Uphill for about 40 kilometers, wind changing from side to side, from head to tail made it also a nice challange. Some parts we had to walk, to much wind. Sometimes I got the feeling that the fromt and back wheel were blown away under me, so just to make sure I didn´t fall on the ground, I started to walk parts of the road. No speed, no traction in the sand and the strong wind made us all stop cycling and start to walk, even the most experienced and strong cyclist couldn´t cycle uphill in these hard conditions. After fighting for 4 and a half hours of the bike we reached lunch, and we cycled only 40 kilometers, another 55 to goto to the camping. After lunch thing got much better, the road was downdown, the wind was sometimes in the back and the condition of the road was good, not perfect, but compared to the road before lunch it was like asphalt. It felt good that we could reach speeds abouve 30 kilometer per hour, so we were able to reach the campsite within a few hours.

At the camping in Chos Malal our great duo Edson and Ellen prepared a nice BBQ, very welcome after a hard but when I look back a nice day of cycling. Tomorrow we have a restday, and nothing on the program. It is a pretty quiet town, so relaxing is the only thing that we can do ...

Adios !!

(Next update probably next week from Bariloche)