DAY 3 In the morning, we leave the lake behind us with a pang of regret as we take a road leading uphill to a panoramic viewing point. The landscape here with its dense shrubbery deserves to be contemplated with your full attention, engines shut off and helmets removed. The first thing that grabs our attention is Llao Llao, one of Patagonia’s most idyllic resorts, before our gaze moves on to the spectacular lights and colours of the Nahuel Huapi Lakes and the snow-capped mountains in the background. The memory of this view keeps us going for the over 200 km we must travel along Ruta 40 to get to the little town of Trevelin, best known as the home of the Nant y Fall Waterfalls. We reach the falls in the late afternoon, making our way along a dirt road lacking even the most rudimentary signposting. Despite the unimpressive sight of the falls themselves, the site as a whole lives up to our expectations. Back on our motorcycles, it is with a growing sense of fatigue that we ride on towards our destination. Luckily, the town of Esquel is only 30 or so kilometres away. We reach Hosteria Angelina in the evening, where we are welcomed by its proprietor, an Argentinian of Italian origins who wastes no time in sharing his story with us. We’ve booked a table for dinner at a restaurant known for its use of “parrilla”, a way of grilling meat with a special technique. An excellent meal shared between travel companions helps us to finally feel like a real team. DAY 4 Breakfast at Hosteria Angelina has a certain something Italian about it, while the neomelodic music in the background and the home-made pastries bring a sincere patriotism to our goodbyes with the proprietor. Today’s itinerary isn’t a particularly long one, but contains several stretches across dirt roads which will require extra care and concentration while riding. At the beginning, the road unfurls in a series of curves, perfectly tarmacked and offering interesting trajectories. We’re able to ride with a clean style, really letting the motorcycles run around curves that offer some pretty intense leans: hands holding steadily onto the gas throttle, eyes flickering back and forth, faster and faster, between the road and the landscape. A wave of the left hand, a gentle touch of the horn or a brief flash of the headlight become our ways of communicating with those on the other side of the road, intent on their own destinations. The entrance to the Los Alerces National Park appears before us almost without warning. We make our way across the park along dirt roads and, after a brief pause on the shores of Futalaufquen Lake, find ourselves at our prearranged lunch stop. A rustic wooden building with a veranda, it soon turns out to be everything you could wish for a short afternoon break. From comfortable cloth hammocks, we look back at our dust-covered motorcycles with a feeling of respect. Though we might be a little too relaxed by the time we get back in the saddle, the stones that form an integral part of the road here soon remind us to focus on our riding. The road is particularly uneven in parts, obliging us to keep our balance by standing up on the footpegs and pressing our legs against the sides of the tank to hold on. A technique from the world of off-road biking, of course, but which allows us to ride with much more confidence under these circumstances too. In fact, it’s possible to keep the skidding of the rear wheel under control using leg power only, without subjecting your whole body to every single twist and jerk of the motorcycle. The increasingly dusty and dilapidated road takes us all the way to the suspended bridge across the Rio Arrayanes. We make the crossing on foot, taking the opportunity to take pictures of a particularly lively moment of our journey. We reach the village of El Bolsón in the late afternoon, parking the motorcycles underneath a large canopy as a precaution: the reports we’ve seen forecast the arrival of bad weather in the near future. El Bolsón, located in the centre of a valley, has a longstanding hippie tradition; in fact, on the evening we arrive, a surprise party has been organised in the main square. DAY 5 The grey morning sky is not a comforting sight, and all it takes is a glance out the windows of the hotel to realise that rain, cold and wind will all play major parts in the rest of our day. Undaunted, we prepare to tackle anything the weather can throw at us by putting on our rain gear and all the other waterproof components we’ve got. A few kilometres out, we need to stop at a service station and await our turn in the pouring rain to pump up our tyres, having lowered the pressure yesterday DIY-style in order to increase the stability of the motorcycles across the dirt trails. We get back on the road beneath the ceaseless rainfall. Travelling down long, straight roads, we come to realise that the rain and the cold can be managed, but the wind blowing sideways against us and throwing the motorcycles offbalance might just be the most dangerous of the elements. We continue at reduced speed, attempting to counteract the strength of the wind by shifting the weight of our bodies on the motorcycles. As the kilometres roll past, even this unusual way of riding motorcycles at an incline comes to seem almost natural. Lunchtime creeps up on us before we know it, close to the well-known Villa La Angostura resort town in the vicinity of Nahuel Huapi Lake. We opt for typical local dishes: “bife del lomo” (tenderloin) and “trucha” (trout). With full stomachs and warm bodies, we have to admit that it takes considerable willpower to get back onto our motorcycles and put ourselves at the mercy of the elements once again. The road, which is marked as “under construction” on the roadmap, soon turns out to be unpaved and full of puddles. We are forced to adapt our riding style to these new conditions, proceeding at a high, steady speed in order to prevent the front wheel of the motorcycles from sinking into an unexpectedly deep mud pit. Though we take a break at the Pichi Traful waterfalls, it’s for a few minutes only: teeth chattering inside our helmets, we are all counting down the remaining kilometres to San Martin de Los Andes. DAY 6 The sun’s rays bounce off our helmets from on high, and even the latest never-ending queue for the service station becomes a chance to exchange pleasantries with other motorcyclists travelling across Patagonia. 11 Givi Magazine June 2023
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTE3NQ==