It’s the traveller’s dilemma.

For my first biking trip I did 5,000 miles in ten days. Rather a lot..

I used to arrive exhausted at a campsite in the dark. Put up my tent and ride off again in the morning looking for breakfast. I only had a two week holiday and certainly couldn’t have kept that pace up for long.

For my African trip I did the reverse. I took eight months to go from Cape Town to Nairobi, when it’s possible to ride from London to Cape Town in three months. I saw and did quite a lot of things but now I think I was too slow. I’d wish I’d gone further and ridden the whole way back.

For this trip I’m intending to go all the way to Ushaia, at the bottom of Chile but there is a weather window. Apparently it’s only possible to ride down there in the summer, between 15 December and 15 February. After that it’s just too cold and it’s hard to ride a bike on snow.

I’d like to do three things on my way down that will probably add three weeks to my trip making me miss the mid February date by the same amount:

- A PADI diving course in Cozumel, Mexico.
- Visiting the Galapagos Islands from Quito, Ecuador.
- Visiting Easter Island from Santiago, Chile.

At the moment I think I'll see more.