TRAVEL FEATURE - ARGENTINA
LEIGH WILKINS
RACE TO THE END OF THE WORLD
“
Holy shit !”, I ' d heard stories of the winds experienced on Argentina ’ s Ruta 3 yet had never really considered them to be too close to the truth , just an exaggeration to embellish a story . As it turned out , every mention had been an understatement , these winds were brutal .
I struggled to get my head around how these winds were forming , coming directly from the land , blasting into the righthand side of the bike , while the often angry south Atlantic Ocean was just a few kilometres away to the left . Why weren ’ t the winds blasting from that direction ?
Ruta Nacional 3 , National Route 3 , or simply Ruta 3 , is a 3,000-kilometre strip of bitumen that stretches from the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires all the way to Ushuaia in the south , the only break is a 4.7-kilometre stretch of water , the Magellan Strait , located in the tiniest corner of
Chile . Technically the Chile portion of the road is not known as Ruta 3 . Semantics , really .
I ’ d had plenty of time to contemplate such things as we raced southward , a long distance sprint to reach the end of the world , Fin del Mundo . A sprint that had meaning yet in many ways was eluding me , I was struggling with the notion of racing through such a unique landscape .
In the preceding days we ’ d passed quickly through Paraguay , Brazil , Uruguay and now well into Argentina , our fifth country would be Chile and just for a few short hours . No chance to absorb culture , history or the environment , my riding partner was on a mission to complete a ride that had the deepest personal meaning , I was in no position to question , and although I did within me , I understood the reasons for needing to be on such a ride .
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