The World's End (Self-Guided)

Fourteen nights through Patagonia, self-guided with a support vehicle behind, from Temuco in Chile to Ushuaia at the bottom of the continent.

The route zigzags between Chile and Argentina on the Ruta 40 and the Carretera Austral, the first a very long road down the Argentine side and the second a gravel and tarmac route through Chilean fjord country that was only completed in the 1980s.

The marble caves on Lago General Carrera come early, where the water has cut swirling patterns into a marble headland and the colour comes off the glacial silt. The Perito Moreno Glacier follows, one of very few glaciers anywhere still advancing, which calves into a lake in front of a viewing platform. Torres del Paine comes next with its granite towers, then the Patagonian lakes and the 73 Malditos pass, which is harder gravel than the rest of the route, before Ushuaia, the southernmost city on the planet.

Bike hire is included, on a KTM 890 Adventure with a BMW R1250 GS available as an upgrade, and a discount applies for anyone bringing their own. A support vehicle carries the luggage. Fifteen days self-guided means riding at a chosen pace with the route and the hotels arranged, which suits Patagonia, where the wind decides a good deal. The season runs roughly November to March, and the crosswinds on the Ruta 40 are the thing nobody warns about enough: they can move a loaded bike across a lane and they blow for days at a time. Fifteen days is also what the distances here demand, since the towns are a long way apart and the fuel stops further.