Team Elephant spent its Christmas in Ushuaia, in southern Tierra del Fuego. This is as far south as you can go on a motorcycle.  Riding to the end of the road, and taking a photo in front of the sign that says this is the end of the road, is something of pilgrimage for many travellers.  Like others before us, we rode down to where Ruta 3 ends and the ocean starts and felt quietly pleased with ourselves for having come this far.  We even went to the trouble of finding the most southerly Argentinian post office and sending a couple of post cards to our grandchildren.

As we may have mentioned in passing in the last blog, the ride down was not without its difficulties and the weather continued to bitch after we settled into a warm room at a hostel with a million dollar view.  Christmas eve was miserable and cold and we woke on Christmas morning to a dusting of fresh snow on the mountains behind the town and icy winds to chill the air.  We spent the day cooking a simple lunch and sharing it with a couple of other orphan travellers in our hostel. It was a quiet and pleasurable day a long way from home.

After a few more days exploring this amazing corner of the world we are left with the problem of getting ourselves out to the warm north again. We plan to cross to Chilean Tierra del Fuego then spend the next week jumping ferries north through the Chilean Fjords. We will, hopefully, find a place that is both warm and wind free somewhere in southern Chile which will be reason enough for a small celebration to welcome the new year.

We hope you all enjoyed a relaxing and peaceful holiday and that you have plenty to celebrate when the new year rolls around in a few days. Team Elephant has it on excellent authority that 2017 is going to be one of the great years and we can't wait to tear into it!