Ushuaia, 17th November 2017

Phil

I arrived in Ushuaia yesterday, at about 1.30 pm. Elated, and emotional.

I had no idea what it would feel like. In fact I had not even considered what it would feel like, until yesterday morning. I had stayed in Rio Grande, a couple of hundred kilometres up the coast, and I kept finding reasons to delay my departure. Crossing the remaining strip of Tierra del Fuego with Argentine flags fluttering in the gentle gale (everything is relative!) I enjoyed the solitude – for now I am riding solo. The reality of being almost there, a goal I had not contemplated for maybe a year or so, made me need to shake my head and take a few big breaths. This is crazy. Then a range of mountains, bleak and streaked with snow: this is what the end of the world should look like. Forbidding. A barrier, beyond which lies… what? And then, coming down the far side: fuck, this is it. And round a bend, before I was ready, there it was. Ushuaia, its limit clearly announced by the twin pillars of the city gate.

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This blog has been about what we have done and where we have been, rather than a record of feelings and emotions. So it will suffice to say here that it was a couple of minutes before I could get off the bike, and I realised my cheeks were damp.

If I go back a bit – say five years – we get to the germ of an idea. A thought that there were more things I wanted to do in life than the day job would allow. A long ride – the longest route connecting two points on a single land mass that it is possible to do. A fantasy really, but one that began to take shape and became an aspiration, then a plan. The plan only started to be real a couple of years ago, and solidified into something approaching reality when firstly Ian, and then Tom surprised me with the alacrity with which they were prepared to drop everything to come along too. We had a team, and with it any doubts I had about my own commitment evaporated. We planned extensively; maybe focusing on less relevant things at times, and probably ignoring some of the bigger aspects that in hindsight should have been obvious. And now, having arrived at the stated end point (although not quite at the end of our respective rides), this for me feels like the culmination of a process stretching back years. I’m not sure I ever discussed this, even with the other Nuts.

I mentioned that I finished the journey riding alone. I can only therefore write this from my own perspective; I sincerely hope that Tom, Ian and Mark have a similar sense of satisfaction when they arrive in a day or two. I apologise to any readers who are family and friends of the other Nuts – I know they will be sharing their stories and thoughts.

One of the inevitable consequences of being at the end of the world is that I am also at the end of the reach of the internet. Loading photos has been (almost) impossible, so this will be a short post only. The observations I had planned on the southern ice fields, the Perito Moreno glacier and the Torres del Paine, and the ironically named Tierra del Fuego (anything but fiery – it is bitterly cold and inhospitable. The name refers to the fires of the native Indians that Magellan could see from his ships) can wait.

From here, we have all decided to take a ferry up the Chilean west coast to Puerto Montt. This happens to be just a few days ride back up to Santiago and Tom, Mark and Ian have decided to return home as soon as possible from there. I intend to stick to the original plan and fly my bike home from Buenos Aires in mid-December. The primary goal may have been attained, but the ride is not over!

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This song has stayed with me for a few weeks, since Tom Petty died. It seems appropriate now.

It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down
I had the radio on, I was drivin’
Trees flew by, me and Del were singin’ little Runaway
I was flyin’

Yeah runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream

I felt so good like anything was possible
I hit cruise control and rubbed my eyes
The last three days the rain was unstoppable
It was always cold, no sunshine

Yeah runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream

I rolled on as the sky grew dark
I put the pedal down to make some time
There’s something good waitin’ down this road
I’m pickin’ up whatever’s mine

Yeah runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream

Compositores: Jeff Lynne / Michael Campbell / Tom Petty

Letra de Runnin’ Down a Dream © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc