Patricio Corcoran
March 31st, Punta Arenas Patricio Corcoran sits in his office on the outskirts of Punta Arenas, a motorway on one side of his company headquarters, the Strait of Magellan on the other, and ponders who he is. “I am proud to be the son of an Irishman,” he says during...
Random encounters: the joy of travel
March, Argentina My journey south from Buenos Aires is barely a few days old when two unconnected incidents reinforce why I adore travel and the random incidents that make it such a joy. Hot, sweaty and tired, the bike and me slide into Trelew, a largish city of some...
Heading south!
Ruta 3, March 10th onwards Good signposting does not prevent me taking the wrong way out of Buenos Aires airport. For some stupid reason, I find myself heading north and, during a nanosecond’s hesitation on the PanAm highway that skirts the city, incur the wrath of a...
A journey through the Americas: Is this the end of the road? (Irish Times Article)
The helpful woman in the ferry office had said yes. Yes, there was a ferry from Punta Arenas to Porto Williams. It would be Thursday, the day after tomorrow, sailing at 6pm, check-in at 5pm. It would be a long sail: disembark at 1am Saturday – more than 30 hours...
Javi and Sandra
Monday, March 9th 2020 “Hello Peeeeter – how nice to meet you!” Sandra gives me a firm handshake and leads me across the road to a well used Mitsubishi four wheel drive where partner Javier is behind the wheel, agitating the accelerator gently. Javi wants to get...
Buenos Aires cemetery
Monday, March 9th 2020 Buenos Aires La Ricoleta Cemetery presents itself to the world with a sense of enormous self-importance. Behind the neo-classical portico entrance, with its four Doric columns, there are stories upon stories that together tell the story of...
Motofreight & Getting There
February 2020, Dublin to Feltham Turning my dream into reality has an inauspicious start. It’s the early hours of a Thursday morning in late February. It’s started to spit rain and I’m standing on the dockside in Dublin Port, getting colder and feeling a tad...
Buying The Bike
Devon, England, November 2019 Stephen Hingston looks wistfully at his gleaming R1200 GS Adventure, one eye on the pristine machine now sitting on his driveway in Devon, and the other on me – the bike’s new owner. I am about to ride off on his beloved four-year old...
Uneasy rider: From Tierra del Fuego to Alaska on a motorbike (Irish Times Article)
IN A NEW SERIES, PETER MURTAGH TRAVELS FROM PATAGONIA TO ALASKA ON A MOTORBIKE A group of bikers, all looking the part, are standing on the forecourt of a petrol station in the middle of south Argentina’s Patagonian Desert, fascinating themselves over their machines...
Coming Soon!
I'm heading south -- London to Buenos Aires and from there to Tierra del Fuego -- in early March 2020. Soon after, I'll begin writing here, frequently but perhaps not on a daily basis, and every Saturday in the Irish Times (irishtimes.com). In the meantime, bear with...