We will cross Uruguay "easily" and soon reach our destination, Montevideo. Wrong! One day after crossing the border at Bella Unión, we are surprised by a strong headwind from the south, which at times only lets the speedometer show single figures. We struggle painfully against a force of nature that really "grates" on our nerves and our panniers. At least the road surface doesn't "grate" on our tyres as well, so we roll along nicely. The roads are perfectly paved and well built. They remind us once again of the Argentinian "corrugated" profile of ranges of hills lying across the road, rising to 500 metres above sea level. A seemingly endless up and down.

The difference from Argentina is striking: the traffic has dropped noticeably, and now in Uruguay we enjoy stress-free cycling. What stands out are the vintage cars, lorries and cars of American origin. Often, however, these vehicles are in a worrying state, and many have no liability insurance. You wonder how many years ago their last service was. We prefer being overtaken by old bangers with a friendly wave to being pushed off the road with "non-stop honking" by angry drivers, as in Argentina. Although there is a give-way-to-the-right rule, the law of the stronger or faster tends to apply. By now we have got used to this and understand "other countries, other customs".

Cycling through Uruguay …. Because the country is so thinly populated, the towns are often more than 50 kilometres apart. The flora offers no shade from the intense sun, and the small patches of woodland are often far from the road. For cycle tourists, these conditions make for real "lean stretches". Few places to stay or buy supplies means camping often, so a tent and a stove are essential. Far and wide there is nothing but prickly, coarse grassland and water (20% of Uruguay's 177,000 km² is water). Nobody would mind a tent, wild camping is no problem – or so you'd think. No, all the farms have fenced off their land with posts and wire fences you can't get over. The water "pumps" are not at the roadside, or the water is only drinkable with a Katadyn filter and chlorine tablets. The farms, with their striking wind-powered towers for pumping groundwater, give us the feeling that we haven't been completely abandoned by civilisation. Most of the time these "estancias" give us a place to spend the night. Sometimes we were even invited to shower in the workers' house and warm up by the fire.

The most beautiful thermal baths in Uruguay are on the Río Arapey (90 km north-east of Salto). Don't miss this "must"! That's the well-meant advice of a local. So off we go; we have enough time to add the place, 19 kilometres off our route, to our "timetable". Into a headwind, with countless potholes in the asphalt, we reach the "Termas del Arapey" after 2 hours. This resort, heavily "marked" by tourism, feels more like a holiday complex and didn't convince us of its supposed attractions. The same day we cycle the 19 kilometres back to Ruta 3, to find an "estancia" to camp at before dark. By now the southern polar wind has picked up alarmingly, and big black thunderclouds are approaching. Just 1 hour later, with no farm in sight yet, we are caught by a hurricane-like thunderstorm. A "bus stop shelter" gives us a little protection from the rain, but only standing on the bench, where the roof has stayed watertight.

Only 470 kilometres to go! A week has already passed since we crossed the border into Uruguay. Mostly into the cold headwind from the South Pole, we are steadily getting closer to our destination, Montevideo. If only it weren't for these cold nights that freeze the water in our bottles. It's winter here! Nothing happens before 8 in the morning. The outside of the tent is covered with frost, and the inside is wet with condensation. Every day we wait for the morning sun to dry our "house". It's usually no warmer than 7 degrees.

Only 200 kilometres to go! It will get even colder, a farmer predicts. You soon find yourself wishing for the summer warmth of the northern hemisphere again. The corrugated profile, caused by the ranges of hills lying across the road, has by now stretched out a little. Our road runs dead straight towards Montevideo, and tomorrow we will already be able to read our………

10,000th kilometre since the start of our journey in San Francisco on the counter. 125 kilometres before Montevideo, the milestone by the road tells us: "now you've left the 10,000th behind you". Quickly capture the moment on camera, a sandwich between the teeth, a handful of biscuits in the pocket, and on we go.

Only 100 kilometres to go! Tomorrow we could already reach Montevideo. Do the laundry (which is urgently needed), sleep in a bed with fresh sheets again, and not eat out of one "feeding bowl" with two spoons. Have we missed the comforts of everyday life? Yes, no, maybe, a little?

The "Antel Tower" (Uruguay's telecommunications giant) is Montevideo's landmark and shows us the way to the city centre. We don't need the road map any more. We reach the shore of the "Río de la Plata", where the Río Paraná and the Río Uruguay meet. The opposite shore (Argentina) is 100 kilometres away. Interesting: these gigantic masses of water flow into the South Atlantic Ocean, and the direction of the wind decides whether the water is salty or fresh.

Montevideo seems calm to us, with no traffic chaos. It was surprisingly easy to find our way into the centre of this big city by bike. The capital of Uruguay, with 1.5 million inhabitants, seems easy to find your way around and well kept, even if the unsightly "ANCAP refinery" for petroleum production at first makes you think it's an industrial city.

We've made it! Montevideo!
Now we want to rest first, plan the journey home, enjoy a sightseeing tour of Montevideo and forget about the bikes for a few days, before we take the coach from Montevideo to Colonia del Sacramento and the ferry across the "Río de la Plata" to Buenos Aires (Argentina).

The country and its people:
Uruguay has 3.3 million inhabitants, 40% of whom live in the capital, Montevideo, 50% in the other large towns, and 10% in the countryside (farmland). Salto, the country's second-largest city, with "only" 100,000 inhabitants, seems almost "provincial" compared with the capital.
Uruguay borders Argentina, Brazil and the Atlantic Ocean, and is the smallest Spanish-speaking country in South America.

The wide grasslands of the pampas are used by large herds of up to 5,000 cattle per "estancia" (farm). Only 5% of Uruguay's total area is forested. Uruguay is also the first country in the world to have the right to water guaranteed in its constitution.

The bus companies have modern, air-conditioned vehicles for long-distance travel, which makes the bus the country's main means of transport.

2,000 km of railway, 9,000 km of roads, 1,600 km of navigable waterways, 9 ports, 64 airfields, 14 of them with paved runways

The main port of South America is in Montevideo, not far from the city boundary, and handles more than 1 million containers a year. According to statistics, Montevideo is the second-safest city in the world after Tokyo.

The name Montevideo is made up of:

Monte = hill,
vi (Roman VI) = 6
d (de) = of
e (este) = east
o (oeste) = west

Alligators are only found on the upper reaches of the "Río Uruguay". After Alaska, Uruguay has the 2nd-largest colony of seals and sea lions, which live on the "Isla de Lobos" near Punta del Este.

Uruguay is one of the few countries where school and higher education are free. Although the level of education is one of the highest in South America, over 20% of people live below the poverty line.

After 750 kilometres we leave Uruguay with these memories:

Our 10,000th kilometre, reached at milestone "125" before Montevideo

An extreme southern polar wind that only lets the speedometer show single figures

Cold: hat, gloves, windstopper

The outer tent coated with ice, the water in our bottles frozen

Temperatures: -2 degrees at night, +2 degrees in the tent, +7 degrees from 08:00 in the morning

Lots of camping at petrol stations, farms and the roadside

Little traffic: vintage cars, horse-drawn carts, new cars and rusty old bangers

Corrugated terrain across the whole country, with ranges of hills lying across the road

From sea level up to max. 500 metres above sea level, up and down like in Argentina

Huge farmland, fauna, flora and huge herds of cattle

Our water filter lets us get drinking water from the marshes

A sightseeing tour of Montevideo

Biker info for the route

-	Active (10 days of riding)	740 kilometres
-	Total climbing	3,000 m
-	Average speed	17.6 km/h
-	Riding time in motion	42 hours