Welcome to mad nomad’s adventurous website! This site is about travelling the way I’ve been dreaming of as a child! When I took the decision to make my dream come true, it seemed remote and totally unfamiliar to me. Finally, after two years of profound research and intense preparation, I hit the road!

   On the 14^th of April 2007, I set off solo from Thessaloniki, Greece by my small motorcycle (Honda XR 250S), on a journey to four countries, for ten months’ time: Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India. During my trip, however, there were many changes in my schedule, and, finally, I ended up returning to Greece after two years and two and a half months, having covered 73,000 km. (45,361 miles), after travelling to 14 Asian countries: Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh! That was my journey known as “greece2india“. You will find my trip reports from that time at moto.gr forum

The black line indicates my route to Asia, while the grey one shows the way back.

   On July 18^th, 2013, we hit the road for an even longer journey! Africa and Middle East were calling us and we were eager to explore those lands! Why do I use the plural form? This time, Christina Pefani, the she-mad nomad, was travelling with me for 10 months. Therefore, we were riding two motorcycles of the same type (Honda XR 250), travelling according to my usual recipe: innumerous detours, in order to visit everything interesting, years on the road, to catch the scent of the local societies we visit, always guided by the love for People and Nature. Since August 2014, I kept traveling solo, as Christina decided to fly from Zambia back to Greece because of personal reasons. I finally completed this three-year adventure on June 29th, 2016 having covered 96,000 km (59,653 miles) in 39 countries. That was the expedition called “mad about Africa“! You can check out our route on LiveTrips and you can enjoy our reports at the Trip diary section.

My route around Africa and the Middle East (short reports at: livetrips.gr)

   On July the 23^rd, 2023, we set off on a different expedition… During the “mad about Americas“, we shall explore the entire American continent, from Patagonia, all the way to Alaska! The composition however will differ this time round. I shall be traveling, as per usual, on my favourite motorbike, the Honda XR 250S that we named Cactakis. Angeliki Doucas though will be traveling in a van, which we reconstructed over a period of three years and turned it into a campervan. This van, Don Rufos, as we call it, will be our home for the following years. We equipped it with all the creature comforts, so we can sleep, cook, bathe, have endless energy and carry all our equipment for the activities that we wanted to include in our journey, in order to implement what we named “Action Traveling”. The activities in question are: enduro motorcycling (off-roading), kayaking in lakes and rivers, sailing (which is my profession), paragliding, horse-riding and trekking in areas that are inaccessible for all other means of transport! Don’t ask us how long this will last… We hope that it will last as long as possible and certainly longer than my previous expedition, more than three years that is! You can follow our journey on LiveTrips and you can enjoy our reports at the Trip diary section.

Check out our reports at: livetrips.gr

mad nomad: Since there were requests for Angeliki to write a little something about our adventures, she penned the following article. Enjoy!

Once back to Argentina from Chile, we set off towards the East. A few hours before, we were at the Pacific Ocean and two days later at the Atlantic Ocean! We covered over 1,000 km (621 miles) in order to visit the Valdés Peninsula, which is home to many marine mammals! There were also two Welsh colonies on our way, so we stopped to see them. Both Dolavon and Gaiman have a lot of Welsh elements to them, which one can realise, if they’ve been to Wales.

The Welsh colony of Gaiman with its red dragon, which is the emblem of Wales.

We then spent a night at the secluded Punta Ninfas. There may not have been any people around, but there were countless female sea elephants (their men were absent at that time of the year). We got quite close to them and we spent plenty of time observing them! Prior to entering the Valdés Peninsula National Park, we made a stop at Puerto Madryn, a rather touristy town, on the beach. It was holiday season, so it was very busy and the beach was packed with bathers. There was nothing particularly memorable about the city or its beach. The Valdés Peninsula National Park was very close to it, though, and it was calling for us!

We spent a long time observing the female sea elephants, which we met at the secluded Punta Ninfas.

The Valdés Peninsula is huge and surrounded by vast, private farms. We explored it by motorbike, as there is no tarmac in sight, so there was no reason to trouble the van. We stopped at three different spots. We first visited the penguins, then the sea lions and sea elephants and finally the Puerto Pirámides village. One could get quite close to the penguins, so we spent a bit of time observing them. They are so much fun! On the next spot, we saw the female sea elephants with their cubs and the sea lions with their whole harems. Although we were quite far from the happenings on the beach, we were delighted by the sight! Thankfully, we got to see sea lions from really up close later on on our trip. We finally visited the picturesque village of Puerto Pirámides, which is a tourist resort and rather pretty. It reminded me a little of Cabo Polonio in Uruguay. We also got to see lots of guanacos on the way!

A sea lion with its harem, at the Valdés Peninsula National Park.

We were on our way towards the Andes again, heading to Los Antiguos, which is famous for its fruits and vegetables. Back in the day, it used to be a destination for the elderly of the Tehuelche tribe. The cherries we bought (it is considered the cherry capital), were probably the tastiest I have ever tried! We next visited the lakes Lago Posadas and Lago Pueyrredón, which share a border, but are of different colours! The landscapes were dreamy and there was not a single soul around… There was plenty of relentless wind, though!

Despite the gale-force wind, Elias opted to reach Lago Posadas on his motorbike, through an off-road route (RP 41), which he was well impressed by!

We continued our journey to the South and to the Argentina’s most famous sites, whilst driving through vast steppes. Just before arriving at the town of El Chaltén, we saw the iconic Mount Fitz Roy, with its pointed peaks, welcoming us. It was a magical sight, as we had seen it numerous times in photos and videos, but surely from up close it was very special. We spent several days in El Chaltén, as this area is a hiking heaven. We chose to do a three-day hike, during which we visited Mouth Fitz Roy, the Grand Glacier, several lakes, one of which also had icebergs (!), a waterfall, as well as Mount Torre. The hiking trails were well organised, with free camping spots. There were, however, far too many people. Upon our return to the town after such a trek, we ate amazing meats… I shall never forget the skirt steak in particular!

Beholding Mount Fitz Roy (3,405 m / 11,171 ft), during our tree-day hike!

After a few hours of driving southwards, we arrived at another popular, tourist destination in the Argentinian Patagonia, called El Calafate. This town is famous for the Perito Moreno Glacier, which you may have seen in photographs. The town centre is cute, it’s lively, there are shops and very tasty ice-creams! We spent Elias’ birthday there and we went to an outdoor festival, which was a lot of fun! Around 80 km (50 miles) away, lays the national park which houses the glacier. We spent a wonderful night at the Roca Lake in said park, in order to head to the glacier early on the following day. There was another 4×4 there, for the same reason, and the girl from the 4×4 got to see a puma! It is a very rare sight and I was quite jealous!

We spend a wonderful evening at the shores of Roca Lake, while a puma also appeared. Sadly though, we didn’t see it.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is an impressive sight and one cannot get enough of it! Neither of us had seen anything like it before and we spent hours gazing at it. As we found out, it is as big as the city of Buenos Aires, meaning that it’s really huge! We were lucky enough to see several icebergs breaking off from the glacier; they made a deafening sound whilst falling into the lake. It looked as if it was in slow motion! After spending hours admiring it, we returned to El Calafate and met up with a group of Greeks who were on a photographic expedition in Argentina and Chile. It was a very nice and full day!

The impressive Perito Moreno Glacier, contrary to others, does not shrink, but in fact advances up to two metres per day!

We dedicated a few days to this area and continued southwards; we were getting ever so close to Tierra del Fuego! Just a breath away from it, lays the Loyola Beach, where in 1911 a sailing vessel, the Marjory Glen, was grounded, following a fire in its hold. The shipwreck can be visited and had been used for military exercises by the Argentinian air-force, so it’s full of holes! The sight is impressive, but also eerie, just like the landscape around it.

The Patagonian seas are full of shipwrecks, since gale-force winds are common in these areas. Marjory Glen is one of those countless shipwrecks; it was grounded on this South Atlantic beach in 1911.

A few hours away from the Marjory Glen shipwreck lays Cabo Virgenes, which is home to a huge Magellanic penguin colony! In order to arrive there, we passed through oil fields and farms, while this is where the iconic road Ruta 40 begins. We had literally scoured it during the previous months! The penguin colony was very interesting and there was a lot of action, while we got to learn a lot of things about their way of life. I had dressed up as a penguin, in the hope of making friends, but I couldn’t fool them…

The huge colony of Magellanic penguins, just opposite of Tierra del Fuego, was very interesting!

Everything had been going surprisingly well for quite some time, so upon our return from Cabo Virgenes, one of our tires got badly torn from the stones. This called for an urgent tire change. We entered Chile again, in order to find a solution, but also in order to explore a part of it, which was very interesting, prior to getting to Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost point of our journey! We were gazing at the Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego opposite for quite some time, with a sense of accomplishment for having succeeded in reaching the edge of the Earth…

This is the sixth episode of our documentary about our adventures in Argentina (with English subtitles):

mad nomad: Since there were requests for Angeliki to write a little something about our adventures, she penned the following article. Enjoy!

Time was passing by and we were approaching the end of the three-month stay we were entitled to in Argentina. Thus, it was time to enter Chile for a few days, in order to renew our stay in Argentina. In theory, we could return to Argentina on the same day. We opted, however, to stay in Chile for a bit and to explore a part of it and its rivers in particular.

Since our first steps in Chile, at the town of Futaleufú, we felt as though we were in the Latin American Switzerland!

We entered Chile from the Futaleufú Pass. Although the two countries share thousands of kilometres of borders, the differences between them were evident from the very beginning. Argentina is plagued by a decades’ long financial crisis, while Chile has one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. This became apparent from the first houses that we saw, once we crossed the border. The architecture was somewhat different to that of Argentina, using wood as the main material, as well as an unusual style, which looks as if the walls are covered in wooden scales. Later on, we learned that this style originates from the island of Chiloé that we visited a few months later. The first town after the border is also called Futaleufú and is famous for its namesake river, which attracts kayak and rafting enthusiasts from all around the world. Said river is Class V, so we just marvelled at it and moved on to Río Yelcho that is more suited to our kayaking experience.

Río Futaleufú, although spectacular, is a Class V, so we just marvelled at it and found a calmer river for our kayak.

Another important difference between Chile and Argentina is the weather. Since Chile is on the windward side of the Andes, where the humidity coming from the ocean is discharged, the climate, as a result, is much rainier. We set off on a two-day route, covering around 50 km (31 miles) on our kayak on Río Yelcho. On our journey we saw glaciers, waterfalls, animals, farms, holiday homes and we were rowing along with the annoying tábanos (evil, large horseflies that bite hard)!

After two days on our kayak on Río Yelcho, we made it to the Pacific Ocean, which Elias saw for the first time!

On the second day of our journey, it was, unfortunately, raining, but we reached the Pacific Ocean for the first time on our trip! We also saw penguins next to our kayak! The route ended at the town of Chaitén and from there we headed back to the east, so that Elias could go on a longer journey on the kayak. The landscapes were magical, with lush vegetation and the impressive, massive leaves of the giant rhubarb plants!

The leaves of the giant rhubarb plants are by far the largest leaves we have ever seen!

The route that Elias would go on started from the town of Palena and went all the way to the Pacific Ocean, a total of 200 km (124 miles) this time round! I would rest and camp in several places along his route, which we estimated would take five days. I cooked different foods for him to take and we parted ways. We had an appointment on the third day at a bridge, so that I could film him, but unfortunately he didn’t show up, neither could I communicate with him via VHF.

Elias sailed on Río Palena by himself, as the journey would take several days and there are many rapids in this river.

I went to La Junta, the closest town, in order to purchase a Chilean SIM card for my phone and so, in the end, we managed to communicate! The wind was getting stronger and he couldn’t continue his course. After several misadventures, we managed to meet and I picked him up with the van. We spent another night in Chile and, on the following day, we headed to the border with Argentina. We did like Chile and look forward to exploring it further!

Camping on the shores of Río Palena, in a typical Patagonian landscape!

This is the first episode of our documentary about our adventures in Chile (with English subtitles):

mad nomad: Since there were requests for Angeliki to write a little something about our adventures, she penned the following article. Enjoy!

We were by now properly in Patagonia and the landscapes could not have been more magical! Lakes, rivers, forests and cute settlements comprised a landscape that one does not come across often! We started off with an unprecedented experience for both of us. Although we have both been on volcanoes before, this was the first time for both of us to ascend a volcano on a motorbike! The route to the Batea Mahuida Volcano, although off-road and quite steep, was easily done two up. The view at the summit, which has an altitude of 1,948 metres (6,391 ft), was rewarding, as we could see all the way to neighbouring Chile, while several lakes were also visible, the most impressive of which being Lake Aluminé.

We ascended to the crater of the Batea Mahuida Volcano two up on the XR!

Since we had started ascending volcanoes, we thought it proper to continue doing so… Luckily, there were quite a few candidates in the area! We were eventually won over by the Lanín Volcano, which lies in the namesake national park. Said park is managed by members of the indigenous Mapuche tribe, who live in the area and keep everything very well organised. Our plan was to hike to the base of this impressive volcano, whose summit reaches 3,747 metres (12,293 ft). The route had it all! It went through a river, countless araucaria trees, as well as snow towards its end, in the alpine zone. We massively enjoyed the hike and continued our tour around this huge national park.

This is the Lanín Volcano; we hiked up to its base.

On the South of the national park and on the shores of a lake, lies the city of San Martín de los Andes. It was the first time during our trip that we came across a purely European city, which was reminiscent of a Swiss winter resort. San Martín de los Andes is mainly inhabited by descendants of German settlers and this is evident everywhere. The buildings are mainly made out of wood, while the prices at the shops and restaurants are very Western. We restocked and headed to Lake Queñi, which was recommended by an Argentinian couple we had met earlier on our trip.

The picturesque town of San Martín de los Andes looked more like a winter resort in Switzerland than in Argentina!

Following an incredibly beautiful, but also demanding route in the forest, we arrived at said lake. For me, up until that point, it was the most challenging route I had ever driven on! The last 8 km (5 miles) took me an hour, while I also used the 4×4 and the low gears. I drove through rivers, over potholes, tree trunks and tree roots, rocks and stones; at the end, though, I felt that I am now ready to tackle anything! Since then, 11 months after the beginning of our expedition, only twice did I have a harder time driving.

The secluded Lake Queñi was, probably, the prettiest place we visited in Patagonia!

Once we arrived at Lake Queñi, all of our tiredness was gone and the landscape compensated us to the max! The view was breath-taking, but also uniquely calming. Lots of other people however made the same plans as us, so the spot was packed with campers! It was also Christmas. About an hour’s hike away from the lake, there are also natural hot springs! We spent quite a bit of time soaking in the hot water and enjoying nature’s generous gifts. We explored the area for a few more days and then returned to San Martín de los Andes, in order to adventure on the Camino de los 7 Lagos route.

The Queñi Hot Springs, a stream with boiling hot water, cascading from the mountain, was our reward for the demanding off-road route we completed!

As the name suggests, the Camino de los 7 Lagos is a route that passes by seven lakes. Each lake is prettier than the previous one! Since it was still holiday season, it was packed with people everywhere and the grills were on fire! We stayed on the shores of Río Pichi Traful for a couple of nights, where we met a lovely couple of Brazilian overlanders, with whom we played board games. We had so been longing to play board games with more than two persons! On our way out, we passed through Villa Angostura, where allegedly Hitler found refuge, after escaping from Germany. The town was also extremely German and touristic, but also had the best ice cream I have eaten on our trip so far! It was New Year’s Eve by now, which we spent on the shores of the Lake Nahuel Huapi, just a breath away from the famous city of Bariloche.

The Road of the Seven Lakes goes through gorgeous landscapes with turquoise lakes, rivers and snow-capped mountains!

In order to celebrate the New Year, we organised a two-day trip on our kayak! We sailed down Río Limay, all the way to its confluence with Río Traful. It was a gorgeous route, which allowed us to see the area from a different perspective. It was also our first journey on our kayak in the American continent! Upon our return, we stayed in Bariloche for a few days, in order to repair a few things on the van that had broken down. We also wandered around the city, where many Swiss immigrants settled and really looks like Switzerland! We tried the city’s famous chocolates as well! During winter, lots of tourists flock to the city, since there are several ski resorts around, but there were plenty of tourists in summertime too, when we were visiting!

The first river we sailed in on our kayak was the enchanting Río Limay!

Close to Bariloche, there is a very beautiful route, which is called Circuito Chico. It was a very impressive route as well, with lakes, rivers and forests. We stopped at the brewery that produces my favourite local beer, which has the imaginative name Patagonia and is located in a small piece of heaven! A Swiss village called Colonia Suiza, is also to be found on the same route. It is extremely touristy, but also extremely pretty and I felt a deep nostalgia for my time in Switzerland.

The Circuito Chico route reveals epically beautiful landscapes!

Our next stop was the town of El Bolsón, where Elias had arranged to fly on his paraglider. This town, although I hadn’t heard of it, made a great impression on us, because of its location in a valley with a river and mountains all over, its chilled atmosphere and its delicious empanadas! Moreover, a forest on the mountain where Elias was taking off from, has been turned into an open air gallery of wood sculptures. A number of artists from different countries got together and carved sixty wood sculptures on tree trunks that were saved from a huge fire that broke out in 1978. The view from the forest and the surrounding mountains was spectacular!

Flying on my paraglider between Patagonia’s snow-capped mountains felt like a dream!

Next on, we entered the province of Chubut, which is very sparsely populated. Our first stop was the Cholila settlement, which is famous as it was used as a hideout for four years in the early 20th century by Butch Cassidy, a notorious US outlaw. One can visit the farm, where Butch Cassidy, along with two other members of his gang, resided. One can also visit a very interesting museum on his time there, which also features everyday items from that era. According to legend, Butch Cassidy was killed in Bolivia. Later on, we may follow his footsteps there as well. We completed this part of our trip at Los Alerces National Park, with the impressive arrayan trees, whose trunk peels off. We shall now enter Chile for a bit, in order to renew our entry permit in Argentina, so we’ll see you there!

Butch Cassidy, the notorious outlaw, would graze his livestock around here and, in a way, I was jealous of him!

This is the fifth episode of our documentary about our adventures in Argentina (with English subtitles):