7C BROWN! We are On the road again! Paul and Camille are adventuring south to Mexico to find some WIND, SAND, SALT and SUN! and music. please follow us here... or on the road.
7CBROWN
Monday, March 4, 2013
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
“It’s the end of the World as We know it and We feel fine” sort of!
Just a few last words and thoughts about our amazing trip down here to Ushuaia.
A lot happens at the end of the road. We arrived here totally different then how we had ever imagined it to be. One motorcycle left. Riding 2 up.(follow the white rabbit) 2 Volkswagen buses and 2 bicycles. (FYI What a small world it is. We had met the 2 cyclists on the Costa Rica/ Panama border last year and hooked up with them a few towns back this year..One of the bikes needed a little help getting to the end of the road) We all found a full house to share for a couple of days while we celebrated birthdays and our arrivals with new Mohawks and tattoos and started making plans for heading north, a direction none of us have gone in a long time.
We have encountered yet another time when you can’t believe what you hear. Everything that I have heard and read online says that its impossible to sell a motorcycle in Ushuaia Argentina. Yet again I have proven the masses wrong. I had money in my hand and no more wheels in less than 24 hours after arriving in town. The White Rabbit was sold in Ushuaia for 1,839 dollars. Not bad considering I paid $2,200 for it 5 years ago, and put 25,000 mile on it. I feel like I got my moneys worth. Without a doubt I’m sold on Honda bikes. Wow! what a strange feeling not having a bike anymore. It all happened so fast!!!.
Ushuaia is a beautiful little city. Since we have arrived here towards the end of the tourism season there seems to be less people around compared to how built up it is for tourism. It sure looks like 100% of their economy is tourism. We took the local ski lift up to do one last hike to a glacier. The color change is beautiful right now for it is autumn down at the end of the world red,orange, mahogany, Green,Brown,and White. You can see why Tierra Del Fuego is called the “land of fire” the colors were so bright it looked like the land was on fire. It brings all the elements together on our trip. A lot of RAIN, strong WINDS, beautiful EARTH/LAND seen and traveled and to arrive at the end, the “land of FIRE” ties it all together and balanced it all out. For sure It was all worth every mile, every rain drop, every motorcycle drop, every tear drop. Worth every breeze, wind gust, every smile, all the laughter. It was worth every mountain pass, every climb, every twist and turn, all the mud and gravel. Getting lost and then found again. Finding new friends, finding new paths, new ways and learning to love and BE in EVERY MOMENT.
Friday, March 30, 2012
FIN DEL MUNDO
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA
We have arrived at the end of the world. The southern most road in the world and the end of the road for us. What an awesome road it has been.We have been through a lot. Rain, Hail,Snow Wind, Cold, Hot, Dirt, Gravel, Long, Short, Winding, straight. We have a bit of mixed emotions arriving here. We have been on the road towards here for a total of 8 months and 17,000 miles. In ways we feel that we have accomplished a goal. We have reached that destination and we have literally reached the end of the road. We are a bit sad to see that road end. Always heading in the same direction, South to Ushuaia. Someone once told us, “Don’t go north if you are headed south”. We have lived by that the whole way south So now the question? “What next”?. We always roll with what the road brings us. We’ll keep on keepin’ on with what life rolls out next.
We made it to Ushuaia 2 up on the White Rabbit. Down sized our load dramatically. It is amazing how little we can live with. It was still a little tight at times but luckily we like each other and we only had to be that way for about 300 miles. I had a hard time riding on the back after being in control of my own motorcycle. It was a different experience. We had a beautiful ride getting here the last few days. We arrived in Tierra Del Fuego, meaning the land of fire. We stopped and saw a small penguin colony of emperor penguins, the only ones in South America. We are not quite sure why they are here but for some reason they have left Antarctica and are now staying in Tierra Del Fuego. What beautiful birds. We were able to get really close to them, they do not seem to be scared of human presence. What a beautiful, once in a life time experience. We have had a lot of these experiences and we are grateful and always in awe with everyone of them.
What a long, strange trip it’s been…THE END
Thursday, March 22, 2012
3-18-2012 The Shooting Star’s last RIDE.
All Shooting Stars fade out after an amazing show.
After 30,000 Miles, all kinds of roads and trails, ups and downs, wind and rain The Shooting Star ran out. She had a good strong run. She ran farther and saw more than any other 1995 KLR 250. She fell short by about 380 miles to her destination.She will be missed.
We took her to the local mechanic to make sure if we could replace the rocker arm that the rest of the engine would still alright. We found that one of the exhaust valves was bent and unmovable. It would take a lot of time,(which we are running out as it’s turning to winter) to find all the parts if we could even find them for this rare bike in this part of the world. After much deliberation we decided that the best thing was to try and sell her as is. We were able to sell her in a few hours to a local who thought that he might be able to bring her back after a lot of time and love. Maybe with a whole new engine. He had the time to do it and had a daughter to give it to. I’m happy that the shooting star is going to another girl. She is a girls bike that only a true women can handle. I hope that one day she will fly again.
Luckily We still have the strong White Rabbit that we can both ride for the 380 miles left to Ushuaia and 2 awesome VW buses that can hold my gear. We are still south bound and enjoying what the road brings with it.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Amazing Patagonia
March 13 2012
Perito Moreno Glacier- El Calafate Argentina
Today were rode into The Glacier National Park in Argentina with our friends Simon, MC, Jason, Angela, and Bode. It was a nice change of pace to actually sit back in the VW bus and have someone else drive for a change. The ride was about an hour of beautiful scenery. We decided to have all the girls in one bus and the boys in another. The Moreno Glacier flows to the valley floor where it meet the lake. We stayed here at the glacier all day long until the park closed. You never get tired of watching a 90 foot wall of ice come crashing down into the lake. For sure it was one of the most spectacular thing that we have ever seen. Just another one of those moments when you really feel small in this giant planet we call earth. Everyone should witness this sometime in their lives.
March 15 2012
El Calafate Argentina-Torres del Paine area Chile
167 miles mostly dirt.
Today the caravan was up and moving again. We have heard that the short cut way of hwy. 40 was suppose to be one of the worst sections of road in all of Argentina. So of course we must go that way and check it out for ourselves because its hard to take anyone's advice as everyone has a different view on things. As it turns out it is actually one of the best dirt roads that we have been on in quite a long time. If not the best one of the whole trip. Goes to show you that you have to go and see for yourself and not really listen to other. We are usually pretty good at doing this so it wasn't to far out of the norm for us. We stopped for lunch at a small river for a lunch break. Simon tried his luck at fishing while I made a hot dog cooker out of an empty beer can that I strapped to my muffler.(Thanks for the idea Kris).
Now it was time to cross the boarder back over into Chile. This was a very small boarder on a very windy dirt road. It was the smoothest boarder crossing ever for us. It went so fast for all of us it was kind of a surprise. After the boarder we headed towards Torres del Paine park. We stopped short of the park because we found a great camping spot on a lake with an awesome view of the peaks.
March 16 2012
Torres del Paine national park Chile
23 miles o dirt
Today we woke up to heavy clouds,light rain, and never without our friend the WIND. Our plan of hiking in the park was out today and it was time to find some kind of a shelter out of the rain and wind. We entered the park and went to a camp ground with a shelter to pitch our tent under out of the weather.
March 17 2012
Torres del Paine park
This morning we woke up to a beautiful blue bird day. These days seem to be few and far between anymore and we decided to take full advantage of the day and go for a hike. Simon,MC, and Camille and I drove to the other side of the park for our hike. We hiked just about what seemed like all day. 18 kms towards the famous spires of Patagonia. The walk was beautiful, but as some may know I'm not much a walker and it was a little farther than I usually like to go. This is the end of the busy season here and I still could not believe how many people we passed on the trail. At least 100. I would really hate to be here here during the busy season. No wonder the trail is so wide here. None the less it was a wonderful day and good to get out and get some exercise and fresh mountain air.
March 18 2012
Torres del Paine- Puerto Natales, Chile
100 miles of windy dirt roads
We pulled into town today and saw that one of the buses had a flat tire again due to the rough rocky road. The spare was already used due to a blowout on a rough road a couple of days earlier. All the tire shops were closed because it is Sunday. The other bus we are with stayed behind to do some fishing. So now we don’t have a tire or a way to get one fixed. So Paul and I decide to drive a around and look for a room close by. As we were looking around we were being chased by a lot of dogs. I Gunned the shooting star to try and scare off the dogs and then heard an explosion. I got off my bike and saw oil all in places oil should not be. We pushed the bike towards the gas station to the bus with the flat tire. We had to push the bike up a hill to a hotel room and started pulling it apart. We found chunks of metal missing from the top engine cover. We pulled that off and saw that one of the screws was missing from the valves and the other two valves had completely broken off with some pieces missing down in the engine. We are now trying to figure out if this is a fixable problem. Being that there or few if any other KLR 250 down here it is hard to get parts. We will see in a couple of days.
March 19 2012
Today we went around town to find out the bad news about our shooting start. The valve rocker is so different than all the others that the part is not available here in Puerto Natales, or maybe not at all here in Chile. Klr’s are not a common bike down here and klr 250’s are even more rare. He also says there is no shop around here to get a new one machined. The mechanic says you should be on a Honda. We will try and get the “falling star down to the next city which is 100 miles away. Punta Arenas is a city of a few hundred thousand people and we may have better luck there. If nothing works out there for us we may continue 2 up on the White Rabbit for the last 250 miles to Ushuaia”the end of the World”
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Route 40 Patagonia,Argentina. Wind, Rain and Friends.
7 March 2012
125 miles of dirt Cuevas de los Manos
Today we visited the cave of hands. A “cave” that displays 9300 year old paintings of hands. Made by putting their hands on the walls and them blowing the paint out of their mouths leaving outlines of hands all over the cave.
Leaving the cave there were 2 VW Buses in the parking lot, one with California plates the other with plates from Chile. After talking a little we waved goodbye and said see you down the road.
The next town we came to ,Bajo Caracoles, to get gas was out of fuel and the two buses and us all needed fuel. The gas station owner said the next fuel truck was due to arrive in 15 to 30 days. Now I know we are not really in a hurry here,but that is just a little too long for us to wait around. The next town that hopefully has fuel was 140 Miles south. We all luckily had a little fuel that we have been carrying but knew that it was cutting it close to get to the next town. We all decided to ride together just in case any of us needed a little help getting down the road.We had to camp out a little while down the road for it was getting late and dark. The buses made for an excellent wind block for the bikes and our tent.
8 March 2012
92 Miles of gravel
We all made it to, Gobernador Gregores, the next fuel station! but they do not have any fuel until 4pm. We go into town make lunch with plans to fuel up at 4 and hit the road. At 330pm they say no gas until 8pm. Well we can not go anywhere. We set up camp and waited…at 8pm they have gas and a line and they are rationing gas to $100 pesos per vehicle. Motorcycles are full along with all the extra containers but the buses had to make a couple of trips through the line.
9 March 2012
186 Miles total. 102 of deep deep gravel.
El Chalten
Full of fuel we all hit the road again and decide to ride a little farther together for we all seem to be traveling at about the same pace. So we are now 2 Motorcycles, 2 Volkswagen's, 7 People and a whole lot of fun and a new kind of adventure. We never thought we would be the same speed as the VW vans but it all works out.
A lot of Gravel road today Thick gravel that just pulls the bike all over the road. One bus had a tire blow out and another had a rear shock break. So it was a rough road today and we were all happy to arrive at a town where the road turns to pavement but still no fuel at the station.
The next town El Chalten has fuel but at a much higher price. El Chalten is a beautiful mountain town with huge glaciers, crystal rivers and lakes, granite spires and trout. We decide it is time to catch some fish.
10 March 2012
We drove past the town today and camped by the river with high hopes to catch some fish and have a big fish fry. With Paul’s second cast he hooked a small trout. Big enough to keep and eat. Wow that was fast we now have really high hopes. That was the only fish that was caught that day.
11 March 2012
Woke up with rain. Our favorite. instead of ride in it today we all decide to hike in it! We hiked up to one of the glaciers nearby. a short wet hike. It did clear so we were able to get a good view of the glacier. Rode back to town to dry out all of our gear.
12 March 2012
130 miles
El Chalten-El Calafate, Argentina
Still headed south. Since we can not decide what is worse to ride in, strong wind or rain we got them both today at the same time. Gotta love Patagonia! Funny with all this wind we still have to find a place to dry out.
El Chalten. Lucky to see it on a clear blue day for the next days it was raining.
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