Esquel 24-2-12

Petrol shortages seem to be the order of the day in Patagonia. I have no idea what's happening but people keep telling me it's political. With my somewhat inadequate Spanish (I can just and so order a beer in a bar) it's difficult to find out exactly what's happening.

I left Puerto Madryn intending to spend a day on the Valdes peninsula; see some of the wild life, ditch my camping gear at the campsite in Puerto Piramides and spend an afternoon ragging a somewhat lightened bike round some of the dirt tracks but without fuel, it's a non-option.

A quick conversation with myself and I headed back to Puerto Madryn to fill up and headed west towards RN25. Filled up again at Gaiman and continued down a rather wonderful road that looks like the backdrop to a Roadrunner cartoon.

No petrol anywhere. I stopped at every gas station on the road to be told the same. “No gasolina”. Eventually someone told me that there was petrol at a place called Los Altares which doesn't even appear on my map. There was a strong headwind which doesn't help fuel consumption and I ran onto reserve at 220km on the odometer. Eventually hit Los Altares at around 290km only to be told the same. Two Brazillian lads who had been tear arsing around Argentina on a Fireblade and a CBR600RR and spoke a little English told me that petrol would be arriving in a couple of hours. I parked the bike next to a pump, plastered myself with sunscreen, sparked up a fag and sat down to wait it out.

After an hour or so, an Africa Twin turned up carrying Gaultier and Chloe who I'd met in Buenos Aires. With their excellent Spanish they were able to find out that petrol would indeed be arriving. Maybe in a couple of hours, maybe later on but definitely arriving. They were also able to get directions to an excellent wild camping spot down by the river Chubut.

We bought food and booze and set off down a dirt track down to the river before it got dark. Put tents up and Gaultier set back off to the gas station to see if the delivery had turned up. No joy this time but the lad at the garage said that they were expecting 20,000 litres and that should be enough for 4 days. Therefore we should just come back tomorrow.

After cooking and eating, I crashed early. First night in the million star hotel. Absolutely no light pollution in that part of Patagonia. I heard the Africa Twin in the night so I assume that was Gaultier going to check on the fuel situation but I didn't hear him get back. I must have been asleep before then.

Overcast and looking like rain in the morning. Took my tent down and packed my gear up as soon as I woke up. Gaultier had indeed scored some juice in the middle of the night, I set off to wait at the station in case I had to queue which seems to be the norm in Argentina.

I needn't have worried, there was no queue and I put just over 20 litres in the tank with 300km on the odometer. Just 3 litres left.

The Brazilians were fishing empty water bottles out of the bins to carry spare fuel. The lad with the Fireblade explained that they only got 170km to a tank.

An Argentinian lad joined us on a V twin cruiser of a make I don't know. While Chole and Gaultier stopped for breakfast, we all set off and spent the whole day leapfrogging each other down RN25.

It was raining lightly and it got cold. I've seldom seen the thermometer drop below 25 degrees and today it went down to 7. I stopped at the first petrol station (no gasolina) and put a jumper on and changed to my winter gloves so I was OK but the Brazilians weren't dressed for cold and the Argentinian lad spent most of the day riding with plastic bags on his feet just to keep out the water.

It's an amazing bit of road, looks like desert scrub but the weather and temperature were more akin to Saddleworth Moor in March.

Found petrol in Tecka (11 litres to 220km, that's what difference a headwind makes) and up RN40 to Esquel.

Rest day tomorrow, need to do my oil level, adjust the chain and check my tyre pressures. Need to find out what the fuel situation is like in Chile or further north in Argentina.