Hay Carrumba dude, that is first of all quite a unique place to do your first self supported tour, also a fricken long way away!
Wind wind and wind. Thats the name of the game down there isn't it (not that I've ridden there, but know people who have in Patagonia et al)
I hope you peeled off your Margaret Thatcher stickers from your panniers......

gracias for sharing, very unique place to see someone bike traveling.

Hope I did this correctly!

Love those Arkel bags... great looking setup too. Good luck!

you did, and I've only just looked at the video. Neat idea for a trip, and boy, carrying 20lbs of food for all those days, lots of stuff to schlepp. Quite an adventure, hope it turned out well. Share more info about it if you feel like it, I'd be interested.
cheers

Hey DJB, I shot a ton of GoPro footage and with the help of an editor, will make a video. YouTube at the least, a documentary if she thinks the story and footage are good enough. Either way, I'll follow up and post one here.

Appx 340 miles out and back, rarely had a calm wind, had several rain days, and there were several 'gale 5 to gale 7' winds days... Those are 15-25 mph, always from the SW to NE, with many gusts up to 60 MPH. Those were incredibly difficult but you just put your head down, sit it out in a ditch / behind whatever protection is there, and wait them out. Good news is the winds, the rain, sun, clouds, are constancy changing every 10-30 minutes.

I only had 2 days where it was 100% clouds all day and cold and windy (think 40 F and 15-20 mph head and / or side winds). All that said, I found the entire trip just super interesting. I was never bored or tired of the conditions because it was just so different than anything I had, or ever will, experience. It's all very British, they drive on the wrong side of the road (a few 'oh ****' moments when I forgot!), and it's just very empty. Nothing but positive experiences with the people who lived there.

There are a few 'firsts' left there to do if one is willing to suffer the wind and hills. I have the logistics down (permission to camp being the biggest... but solvable). Time to get there and back are another issue... I had ot spend an extra 5 days there due to high winds that made flying impossible, even for LATAM and A320's. So if you / anyone goes, suggested to buy trip insurance. I did for the first time every despite having traveled for 40+ years and I'm happy I did as those extra days cost appx $800.00 (stayed at a very nice place called the Malvina Hotel in Stanley).

Side note- I didn't focus on penguins or the war as those have been covered a ton. I did walk over to a colony of 100-200 penguins about 50 feet from the New Haven ferry terminal because they were so close by. Glad I did... cute and interesting little fellows! No fences, just vast grasslands and a bunch of free roaming penguins.

Happy to answer detailed / planning type questions off line.

Picked a vintage touring bike recently. Decided the best way to test it was a short overnight tour.

Neat bike and bags!

Was trying to figure out if the bags were Jika or Tika and I think Tika and thought hey why not share the love:
https://www.outdoorinov8.com/tikahistory.html
Sort of a Kiwi Arkel...?

They are old Tika panniers. Solid panniers but the attachment method is a bit of a PITA.

Catalina Island 2022

nice bike the SOMA

I recently did a several day solo backroad tour of southeastern Idaho.

I'll eventually be looping back behind and over the mountains in the background.

Idaho backcountry gravel

High altitude reservoir

I'll be traveling behind the mountain range that you can barely see in the gap

Local landmark

Starting into the Oneida Narrows

Oneida reservoir

Following the Bear River

My journey started behind those mountains


The touring rig.


There are roads all through those hills

Shallow drop bar on the Ogre is great, not convinced by the big Restrap panniers.

they look BIG ,