Last stop civilisation

25th Jan. Cochrane.

Up, bikes packed and loaded, we made it as far as an Internet cafe. I had a couple of things that needed sorting on the Internet, Aerolinas had changed one of our future flights, looks like they discontinued the flight that we had previously booked to get up back to Buenos Aires in April. We sorted it all out, but by the time we had, it was midday. Still plenty of time to get some decent miles in as it stays light until about 9.30pm, but by then we both decided we’d actually prefer one last day of civilisation before the next 4-5 days of cycling south to Villa O’Higgins.

So today has been a good day of leisure. We booked ourselves into a hostel and have a room to ourselves. Tomorrow the bike legs will come back out…

Rivers and graders

24th Jan, Wild camp Rio Baker to Cochrane (28.5M)

Breakfast with a view

A leisurely rise enjoying coffee and porridge in idyllic surrounds. Then it was onwards and southwards. After 30mins of riding we reached a signed parking area and small trail which we walked down to the confluence of the rivers Baker and Neff. Two big rivers forming quite a dramatic confluence. The river Baker before the confluence  is a vivid turquoise blue with small, but very powerful falls  just before the confluence, the river Neff is a milky glacial river and after the joining you can really see where the waters  meet and mix.

Again on the map it looked like the road south from the confluence just followed the river Baker to near Cochrane, but in reality the road doesn’t  stay that close to the river and we spent the day climbing and descending rough gravelly roads. Gareth even resorted to employing a grader to level the roads in front of him on one ascent. Very helpful, but far to slow on the descents!

Mileage-wise not a big day on paper, but I was knackered on arriving in Cochrane. The sun was very intense all day and we hadn’t really carried enough water expecting to be riding  closer to the rivers than we actually were. An ice-cold coke and a sit down in the shade sorted me out and we were son ready to hunt out some accomadation and stock up on supplies for the coming few days.

We found camping in the garden of a hospedaje, which was the only camping in town. It was OK, cheaper than a hostel and had showers with hot water, but became very crowded and noisy. For  the second time since leaving Coyhaique we promised ourselves not to camp in hospedaje gardens again! We treated ourselves to a meal out, partly to get clear of the campsite for a while and also to get some good and varied food into our systems.  Both of us had a beer and a large piece of steak and veg, a nice change from pasta or rice. Delicious!

Turquoise beautiful river

23rd Jan, Puerto Rio Tranquillo to Wild camp on Rio Baker (44.5M)

Cloud cover  to start  the  day, but  we soon warmed up as the sun burnt through and we wound our way up some small climbs. The road surface was much better today than the road had been north of Puerto Rio Tranquillo that we had been riding on a couple of days ago. 

Today, on the map, officially we were following the edge of the lake  (Lago General Carrera), but the road seemed to have other ideas and it was constantly undulating through this section of the Carretera Austral. The lake and mountain scenery over our left shoulder was absolutely amazing however and more than made up for the amount of effort the cycling required.

We arrived at Puerto Betrand late in the afternoon. A much smaller place than I was expecting. 2 tiny general stores where we managed to buy bread and cheese , orange juice and an ice-cream and a rafting centre were the only signs of life on the lake front. We could only find a cramped, no facility campsite, which wasn’t really very appealing , so we decided to carry on along the road heading south. About 8km further on we found a lovely pitch right on the bank of the Rio Baker. Absolutely  beautiful.  We even managed a very refreshing river wash, once the rafters had gone past!

Relaxing times

22nd Jan, Camping Pudu, Puerto Rio Tranquillo

A beautiful campsite with a beautiful beach setting on the Lago General Carrera, so we decided to stop turning the pedals for a day and enjoy the rest and scenery. It was a lovely relaxed day, lots of reading and diary writing. Our only activity was a pleasant  1km walk to and from the town to get a few supplies.

ROUGH RIDE!!!!

21st Jan 2012, Puerto Rio Tranquillo

Oh! They weren’t kidding when they said the road was rough and the only blessing was the choice of bikes we had made. Most of the people that we had met who had commented on the bad roads are all on touring bikes with narrow tyres and solid forks. We have mountain bikes and this seems to be the better option on the dirt roads. The road which took the German couple 5 hours we managed in 2 1/2, but we had both had enough by the end. The drivers on the road didn’t make it easy either especially the lorry drivers who seemed to be hell bent on getting to where they needed to be regardless of other road users.

We did finally get to Tranquillo and found a beautiful campsite on the shores of the general Carrera lake to recover at.

Come in for coffee

20th Jan 2012. Wild camp number two.

After a very good nights sleep and a belly full of porridge we set off on our way. Now the plan for today was to try and get to Puerto Rio Tranquillo. However due to the extra 10km we had to do yesterday we were doubtful we will manage it, but we decided to see what happened.

We hadn’t got to far down the road before we stopped for a photo stop. Every corner we went round we come to another amazing view. At the rate we were going I’d wouldn’t have been surprised if it wasn't a short mileage day after all.

After awhile however you start to slip in to cycling mode and in some cases a bit of madness as witnessed by Sarah at one lunch stop. In my defence I was only trying to bring a third party into the conversation!

The day went well and after stopping to fill up with water we found a German cyclist couple on the side of the road brewing up some coffee. They invited us to join them and we accepted. We probably ended up chatting with them for an hour or more. They were heading north and they told us that the next part of the road southwards for us was terrible, which we had been told before. What really alarmed us was when they told us it had taken them 5 hours to do 25km! There was no way of getting to Tranquillo with that between us.

So, we started looking for camping once we had parted company and as usual we came up against the chilean fencing system. They fence everything over here, I’m sure if I stood around long enough they’d put one around me. After another hours worth of pedalling (and the help of some biscuits) we finally found somewhere. It had been used before for camping and wasn’t to ideal, but we were tired and it was the only option we had seen in the hour. So we pitched camp, washed and had something to eat.

Farewell smooth roads!!!!

19th Jan 2012 Wild camp.

We got up early this morning to try and get a few miles under our belts before the wind became a problem, at this point we had turned to an westerly direction and that is the way the wind generally comes from. It was also to be the day we said our farewells to smooth riding and hello to saddle sores!  We did have a fair amount of cycling to do before this happened though.

We started the day with a descent into a head wind so it wasn’t as thrilling as it could of been. Then at the bottom we went straight back up to the same altitude we started at. The scenery along the road was a variety of waterfalls, mountains of varying colours and beautiful winding rivers.  Once we had reached the top of this climb we knew that at the bottom was the town of Villa Cerro Castillo and the end of the smooth riding, but probably most importantly the only place for three days to buy supplies.

The descent wasn't too special to begin with, but after over taking a lorry we came around a corner to the most amazing vista. Mountains in every direction all sporting massive glaciers and Mount Cerro Castillo shadowing them all. It was such a wonderful view that it took Sarah to point out the other thing which she had seen first. A beautiful alpine like decent! One long sweeping turn after another a great opportunity to practise my cornering. So with the sound of the over taken lorry approaching we got going. It was amazing and even with the amount of kit we were carrying we could get the bike round the corners really fast. At the bottom was a long straight which we dropped down as low as we could go on the bike. I managed to max out at 49.8mph a bit faster than Sarah, though it must be said that I have a weight advantage due to the numbers of empanadas (Little pasties) I have eaten recently.

When we did get to the town we did our shopping had some lunch in a bus stop, these building are very useful on hot days and you can watch the world go by in great comfort. We then cycled the last 100 metres of smooth surface. On with the suspension and that's how it’s to be for some time. The only relief from the surface are the stunning views you get along the way and we enjoyed stopping and taking many photos for the next part.

It was starting to get late so the priority changed to finding a campsite. It was on a bridge where we had stopped to look at the river, that such a place presented its self. It was along side the river with beautiful views, plenty of water for washing and cooking. I would also like to say peaceful, but the river we stopped to look at had a great waterfall high above us, which we could not see at first, but could hear. It sounded just like a jet engine it was so loud! It was a perfect tent pitch.

Maybe we will stay a bit longer

18th Jan 2012.  Laguna Chaguay


There are some places in the world that you shouldn't leave to quickly and here is one of them. I woke early after a good night sleep and I enjoyed a wonderful dawn chorus, then I went back to sleep. Once up we both came to the decision that maybe it would be nice to stay for a rest day and do the chilling out we should have done in Coyhaique. We had a wonderful day of reading and diary writing. I also fixed the saucepan handle, after it had finally given up the ghost. So, with the aid of the saw blades we purchased at Coyhaique for fixing the bike I went about repairing it with a spoke. It took some head scratching but once a plan was formed I went about my work, the final out come? One serviceable handle, I think?

I think the altitude got to me! Rock jigsaw puzzles!!

Later in the day we went on a 2 hour walk, which turned into a 4 hour jolly and took in a mountain which afforded beautiful views of the valley cycled up and the mountains around us. I will now admit it killed me, I maybe able to conquer hills and mountains on the bike, but walking up them is a different kettle of fish and it took it's toll. I will survive and the views were worth it.

who's the ghostly figure massaging Sarah?

On returning to the campsite we decided that the cold of last night would be fended off with a fire, but also a nice hot shower would help. Being a boy I jumped at the chance at lighting a fire (responsibly) After a few lungs worth of smoke I wasn't so enthusiastic. What I did get going heated the water and cooked tea for us and kept us warm.

Too Many Gears!!

Tuesday 17th Jan. Laguna Chaguay

Right, the bikes are fixed and cleaned and we left Coyhaique behind. Not my favourite place, but it served a purpose of getting us back on the road. We  were still on tarmac so the going was good and we soon found a rhythm which meant we covered the miles quickly. Sarah had to get used to her new gear shifters and there were a couple of near misses when she did a dodgy change and I wasn't paying attention and almost crashed into her. She soon got the hang of them and she seems to like them to.
On route we met a guy from Turkey (who now lives in the States) he was also enjoying the scenery from the saddle, although it did appear that hills weren¨t his favourite part of cycling, this struck us as strange as he was cycling in the Andes and there is not alot of flat cycling to be had around here! Sarah chatted to him for awhile then we bid him farewell as he was stopping to buy some eggs from a small village. A few miles down the road he arrived at where we had decided to eat and joined us for lunch. It turned out he had been cycling for 4 months, but the first part of his trip he was using his bike to access areas for skiing. At first I thought he had said he had been skiing ON his bike. This got the cogs turning and I was desperately trying to figure out how you could fit skis on a bike. I was wrong! We parted company and may see him on route as we are all heading in the same direction.
We actually surprised ourselves and arrived at our intended campsite ahead of plan, after later study of the map we found the information we gained from our Lonely Planet was 10km short. Good for today, bad for tomorrow. We didn't mind though as the campsite was great. It is run by CONAF (Corporacion Nacional Forestal) and they have thought of everything at this campsite. Pitches are seperated buy fences and they are nice and big, we had a covered area, picnic table and fire pit and fire wood. The other great thing is it had hot showers. It certainly ticked all the boxes.

Rest and repair

14th-16th Jan. Coyhaique

We needed some recovery and repair time off the bikes so we decided that we´d stop in Coyhaique until Tuesday. Gareth spent a lot of time cleaning and repairing the bikes, mine especially, but also adjusting and giving his bike some TLC as well. The gravel roads are certainly hard on the bikes. Lots of rattling around and harsh grit seems to get into everything.

To me fell blog duties. Quite a lot of catching up as there have been no real Internet connections for a while, certainly not high speed enough to cope with uploading photos. 

My bad luck also doesn´t quite seemed to have finished yet as yesterday I returned to the tent to find that my thermarest has a huge airbubble about where my shoulder goes. Looks like some of the air compartments have broken down. I have therefore created ´Sarah´s list of woes´, some of which have now been fixed, but others we will have to live with; Gareth´s bad back (on the mend now), no money (all fine now, lots of ATMs in Coyhaique), broken bike (better now, lovingly fixed by Gareth), lost cleat screw (now replaced), lots and lots of rain (not so at the moment), broken tent pole, dodgey saucepan handle, broken thermarest (will have to live with as no replacements or repairs here) and broken crocs (repaired by me).

Despite my woes, which I can laugh about at the moment, it´s been a good few rest days. Now ready to get back on the bike, out of the city and continue the Carretera Austral southwards.

Tired? or is it the beer?

Money, Gears and Wine

13th Jan, Wild camp Condor to Coyhaique (41.3M)

Friday 13th, but I was doing my best not to have anymore bad luck. Things, such as the weather, had improved a lot, but we still had a few broken items to attend to.

Todays ride was lovely. I was definitely feeling the love for the bike again and Gareth was getting there. The suncream was back in use, We had a tail wind for most of the day and at least half the day was on good gravel roads, hard packed and easy to cycle on. The road was really quiet and we could easily bird watch and chat. We passed a few cyclists heading the other way and cars every so often. Definitely the better route choice than going all the way to Coyhaique on busier and longer tarmaced roads.

The gravel road surface gradually deteriorated towards the end of the day, but was partly made up for with 10km of Tarmac on the final approach into Coyhaique. When we stopped at the view point overlooking Coyhaique, our initial impression was ´how huge!´ Certainly by the standards of the towns and villages on the Northern Carretera it was. We were certainly more hopeful for getting the bike fixed.

Arriving in Coyhaique required cycling up a final pull where I really did think my chain or my knees might snap. Thankfully neither did.

So, first things first, we found an ATM to draw out some money, then on to the bike shop. It was open and had a new gear system for sale. The downside was they only sold it as  a complete package of integrated brakes and gears. It was good quality shimano as an equivalent and newer version of what was already on my bike, but not cheap. There was no alternative, so I parted with my newly acquired pesos and Gareth and I left fully equipped to fix the bike (well for Gareth to fix the bike) tomorrow.

It´s been a while, but Gareth and I felt we´d well earned after all those days of strict budgeting and cycling our celebratory double scoop ice cream, which we purchased and promptly ate in the plaza.

Next stop was phone centre so that Gareth could wish his Mum Happy Birthday and then find a campsite. Dinner consisted of fresh salad, cheese, cold meats and wine, delicious and none of which we´d had for a while.

Sun and Condors

12th Jan, Wild camp Old road to Wild camp Condors (65.7M)

Very chilly morning, but no rain. Porridge was cooked outside the tent for the first time in a while. Once packed up we set off on the bikes with multiple layers of clothes on, although these soon came off as the day warmed up. The weather gradually improved throughout the day to the point of sunburnt faces by the end. Beautiful scenery and rolling tarmaced roads suddenly made it all worth while again.

Towards the end of the day we passed through Villa Manihuales where according to a French cyclist we´d met en route today there was some camping in ´Jorge´s´ garden. We unfortunately didn´t find Jorge or his garden so elected to carry on for a few more km out of the town. We then had 13 very hard km straight into a headwind blowing up the valley from the sea. Both of us were on the look out for campsites but there were no official ones and there were relentless fences on both sides of the road. 

13km out of Villa Manihuales we came to a fork in the road. 62km to Coyhaique along dirt road or 72km along Tarmac (although our map actually said the tarmaced route was longer yet). Eventually we decided on the dirt, it was shorter, it wasn´t into the wind anymore and there was probably more potential for wild camping. It was a good decision. We found a lovely pitch on a grassy bank above the quiet dirt road that we had chosen. We cooked and ate in the warm setting sun and we could watch the condors circling on thermals around the surrounding mountains.

The weather improves, but not our equipment

11th Jan, Puyuhuapi to Wild camp Old road (40.8M)

We set off today after breakfast at the hospedaje, feeling much better about things. Our kit was generally dry and much better wrapped now. Only our bags themselves and the tent remained wet. Threatening skies meant that we left the hospedaje in full waterproof cover but within 15mins and a climb out of the village we were soon loosing layers. It was a beautiful cycle today, initially along the edge of the fjord before turning inland to parque national Queulat. We stopped at the park administration and paid our entry fee so that we could walk up to a couple of the view points of Ventisquero Colgante. An impressive hanging glacier with waterfalls leaving it to fill a beautiful lake before a raging river left the lake to flow down the valley to its outlet at the fjord we´d just cycled out of.

I thought monkey impressions would help keep me warm

The sun came out after our walk and we even managed to get the tent out and dry whilst we had lunch.
Cycling onwards we followed the river for a while before we climbed out of the valley via 3km of steep hair pinned ascent over a ´mini pass´. It was marked at 500m at the top so certainly not a high pass but it was climbed from sea level and certainly an effort with loaded bikes and limited gears. Descending off the other side we were both on the lookout for camping opportunities but the valley down was steep sided and very scenic with no space for a tent. However sooner than expected we were at the bottom of the descent and rejoining a tarmaced road. Hurray! Even better because within a few km we spotted an area where the old road went a different route from the new tarmaced road around a bluff of rock. Behind which was a perfect little pitch hidden from the road. We collected water from small trickles nearby as the River Cisnes in the canyon below us certainly wasn´t accessible.

Hopefully there will be no traffic on this road tonight

Unfortunately the day ended with more equipment failure as one of our tent poles cracked as we were putting the tent up. Not entirely surprisingly as Gareth had noticed a crack in it a long time ago. We used a sleeve from the repair kit and it seems to be holding up at the moment. Also adding to the failing equipment list is our saucepan handle that seems to be in thinning and therefore threatening to drop the pans. All things are being added to a list that can be hopefully repaired or replaced in Coyhaique.

Wet...

10th Jan, Wild camp nr river to Puyuhuapi (42.9M)

The sunis out there somewhere

Possibly a slight lull in the rain this morning as we packed the tent away, but nothing significant. Tent, bikes, a lot of our kit and us were very wet. However we got back on the road and the weather was better than it had been. We had a couple of spells where the cloud lifted and reminded us that there were amazing mountains out there. I coped with my limited gears, Gareth made a few small adjustments to try and get them to run a little better, but it certainly wasn´t ideal with the amount of force going through the chain and derailler at times. Both of us tried to shut our ears to the noise of our dirty wet chains and mechanics.

Not sure whether to be happy....

At La Junta, the next village, still no ATM, but we managed to buy supplies at a supermercado using my visa card and then sheltered under a bandstand to eat.
The weather generally improved throughout the day except for our final descent into Puyuhuapi where wind driven rain descended on us again. Limited money or not, we wanted hot showers and a dry bed tonight.From the tourist office we were directed to Hospedaje Don Luis, where we had a double room, hot showers and a stove to hang some of our wet gear over. Perfect.

HAPPY

RAIN!!!!

9th Jan. Wild camp nr. river
I woke at 7, 8 and 10am each time hoping the rain would have stopped, but there was no let up at all. We then decided to try and sit out the rain today and hopefully it would be better tomorrow. We had enough food for 1 day before we would need to move on tomorrow.
Today the rain stopped for 30mins. We had one quick stretch of the legs, but otherwise spent the day tent-bound. The kindle came into it´s own, I got out my spanish notes from lessons in Buenos Aires and actually the day passed fairly quickly.

Things begin to go wrong...

8th Jan, Wild camp NR Villa Santa Lucia to wild camp by river (24.6M)
We´d heard reports that it was going to rain soon, but hadn´t quite realised the significance of that statement. We woke this morning to grey skies but ate breakfast and packed up in the dry. We then had about 30mins of cycling in the dry before the 3 days of rain began.
Initially the rain didn´t really matter, we were warm, the roads were still cyclable and the views still good. However the rain just didn´t let up and the views gradually disappeared as the mountains were completely covered by cloud. In a brief break off the bikes we got cold so we pushed on. There was one brief reprieve in the rain and views of the valley opened up in front of us. We had a lovely descent and then as it levelled out and I tried to change gear, I realised I couldn´t. No movement in my right (rear cassette) gear-shifter at all. We stopped and Gareth looked it over, but no obvious cause or solution. The rain started up again so we decided to cycle on, me just using my 3 front gears. Very hard work on some of the ascents but generally I managed them, just a couple where I had to push the bike past the steepest parts.

The rain was persistent and after probably another 40mins of cycling when I ended up falling off my bike as I tried to stop because my left bike shoe wouldn´t release from the pedals (I´d lost a cleat screw days ago, but had been coping until now), we decided to investigate a camp pitch next to the river, which was the reason for me trying to stop anyway. There was water and it wasn´t visible from the road so we set up the tent, got ourselves in it and relatively dry. Unfortunately we´d got a bit lax with packing our kit up in plastic bags properly (our pannier bags are the non-waterproof kind) and fair bit of it was damp or wet. Importantly though we both had warm dry clothes and sleeping bag. We got the stove out and had a very welcome cup of soup and other nibbles before Gareth looked at my shifter. Diagnosis terminal, as both of us suspected but had hoped otherwise. A small spring had snapped inside and the mechanism jammed. No chance of repair, probably anywhere but certainly not on the side of the road.
Nothing for it today but to hole up in the tent and hope that the rain will have eased by the morning. We knew that there was a bike shop in Coyhaique, 300km away and that the options were trying to hitch, one or both of us trying to get a bus or continuing the cycle on the remaining gears that I have. We planned at least to try cycling on to the next village tomorrow and see how I got on, then either continue or bus from the village to Coyhaique if needed.

The gravel Carretera begins

7th Jan, Wild camp Sunny Meadow to Wild camp just south Villa Santa Lucia (38.2M)
A beautiful nights sleep, completely peaceful and breakfast with beautiful surroundings. Once packed we were on the road again, back down the dirt track 2km to rejoin the Carretera Austral. We then had our final few km of tarmac before hitting the bumpy gravel roads again.. The road surface was then really poor for a good 30-40km as we passed through a series of roadworks, cyclable for most of it, but with really loose bumpy gravel and a few areas that we had to push the bikes over. The road surface always seems to get worse whilst they are in the process of ´improving it´. The Tabanos (horseflies were out in force but generally OK whilst we were on the move. We stopped about halfway through the day for lunch and then a short walk to see views of Ventisquero Yelcho (a hanging glacier). Stunning and incredible that the huge lump of ice wasn´t that far from us, but we were happy walking and cycling in shorts and t-shirts. The river flowing from the glacier certainly had an icy-cold look and feel to it.
The final part to the day had a long unexpected climb through jungle scenery up and out of the valley. There were lovely views at the top and a great if somewhat bumpy descent on the other side.The valley opened out at Villa Santa Lucia where we stopped at a tiny ´supermercado´ for an ice lolly and a few other supplies. A couple of other cyclists were also having a well deserved break at the end of the day. Again they were heading northwards so we had a cat and some information about the route ahead before continuing.
Within 10km we found water and a secluded place to camp and pitched up for the night.

Our start to the Carretera Austral

6th Jan, Chaiten to Wild camp Sunny Meadow (24.2M)

So, a little rested from the bed on the ferry we arrived at Chaiten, our first town on the Carretera Austral (the name of ruta 7, the road that runs the length of Northern Chilean Patagonia, there is a small section to the north of Chaiten but a couple of ferry rides are required to connect up all the bits of road).
Chaiten had a few surprises, or lack of surprises for us. It was much smaller than either of us expected, there was 1 bank and 1 ATM that only took mastercard, a problem for us as we only have visa, a potential oversight in our planning. We opted not to change our ´emergency´ USD yet but see if we could make do with the pesos we have. The petrol station also refused to fill up our petrol bottle (which we use for cooking) not a problem yet, but a potential worry if other garages do the same.
So feeling a little disheartened we set off from Chaiten. However, newly tarmaced roads, sunshine, a tailwind and beautiful volcanic/ mountainous scenery soon cheered us up. 20km down the road a small garage that filled up our petrol canister for us no problem and even provided free coffee (what were they thinking when there are cyclists around?)! We had a good chat with Mark, Nick and Diego, 3 cyclists heading northwards. None of us were in a hurry, Gareth and I had planned a short day, the other 3 had a few days to wait for their Quellon bound ferry.

Well I washed, Gareth contemplated it

After that good stop at the garage, we cycled a further 5km up to the hot springs at El Amarillo. We were hoping for a hot soak and camping. It was incredibly expensive however so Gareth and I decided to give it a miss. A short way back along the road we found a perfect meadow for wild camping, really secluded and apart from long grasses that started off my hay fever and lack of access to the nearby river it was perfect. The river wasn´t far away and we just wandered a short way up the road for a wash. We had a supply of water in our dromedaries for cooking and drinking so no real problem. I cycled back up to the hot springs hoping to let the 3 guys know about our find if they wanted to join us, unfortunately they also had left and I had no idea which way they had gone from there, back to the Carretera Austral or further along the road to find their own wild camping?
Gareth and I were happy with our quiet little pitch, very peaceful and plenty of humming birds and other wildlife to watch.

The Midnight ferry

5th Jan, Huillinco to Quellon (51.4M)
Beautiful sunshine again and it should  have meant a good day on the bikes except that Gareth managed to pull his back somehow lifting our teabag supply into the food pannier, really not that heavy a load, we´re not that huge a tea drinkers!.
Anyway after some stretching and resting we managed to get packed and on the bikes.
I had a good cycle day along rolling green landscape, Gareth I think was in a fair amount discomfort with his back, but we had a deadline today to catch the once weekly ferry from Quellon to Chaiten on the Carretera Austral. After retracing our tracks 15km from the campsite we were back on ruta 5 and turned to head south. We met a couple of Italian cyclists at the junction, also heading south to get the ferry from Quellon. We then passed each other a couple of times throughout the day before cycling the final 20km into Quellon together. We´d made good time and after confirming our tickets we had quite a few hours to wait before the ferry scheduled to leave at 12 midnight. Time was spent finding a toilet to wash off some of the cycling dirt and then a picnic in the plaza followed by a few rounds of ¨UNO¨ , which passed the time successfully.
We got to the port for 10pm as requested along with about 10 other cyclists. It then took 2 hours for the ferry to be loaded, all the cars and lorries had to reverse onto the ferry so it was 12.30 before  the ferry actually left. Both of us, but Gareth with his sore back especially, were very thankful for the beds that we´d booked at a slightly higher cost for the crossing, they were comfy and the crossing took 8 hours in the end so well worth the money.

Strong westerlies

3rd Jan, Castro to Huillinco (22M)

So on the bikes again but not so far as we found an idealic campsite overlooking a beautiful lake. Showers with hot water, although we did have to specify time and go into the campsite owners house for it, a little weird but hot water none the less. Good views, a nice coffee shop and plenty of time to relax and read.









4th Jan, Lake Huilllinco
The plan was to cycle west along the lake shore this morning on unloaded bikes to do a few walks in parque national de Chiloe. However the weather across the lake on the Pacific coast looked pretty dire and the strong westerly wind had started early today so after a bit of deliberation we decided that both of us could do with a rest before getting to the Carretera Austral and why put a lot of effort cycling into the wind only to get soaked on a hike. So reasons justified enough we stopped exactly where we were for another day.

Castro

2nd Jan. Castro
Rest day in Castro. A much busier place today.
We were keen to book the ferry off the island, from the southern island town of Quellon to Chaiten  on the mainland, northern Chilian patagonia. It seemed unlikely that it would get fully booked, but it only runs once a week on a Thursday and we couldn´t afford to be stranded on the island for an extra week. No problems the booking however, so we had the rest of the day to explore the town, catch up with the blog, do the washing etc.

New Years day, nice quiet roads.

1st Jan, Chepu to Castro (57M)
We had a  bit of a debate about leaving Chepu so quickly after putting so much effort into getting here, but in the end we decided to move on. The huge number of horseflies at Chepu, make trekking and being outside during the warm part of the day uncomfortable. I had hoped to go kayaking on the river, but that wasn´t on today, so we decided to move on. We had a small amount of doubling back on yesterdays route and then took another gravel road to rejoin Ruta 5 heading southwards. Sooner than expected (after about 10miles) we rejoined the tarmaced ruta 5 and continued southwards to Castro the capital of Chiloe. Smells of asados (barbeques) filled our noses at the small villages we passed. Most shops were shut but a couple of small ones and garages were open. We had enough food with us, but gratefully stopped twice for a cold coke and then an icecream later in the day

New years day and Castro was like a ghost town. We found our way to a campsite south of town with all important hot showers!

New Years Eve

31st Dec, Ancud to Chepu (21.1 M)
8miles of tarmac and then 13miles of very hilly loose gravel road. Certainly wouldn´t have won any speed competitions today. It was hard work and quite a few times had to get off to push the bikes up the hills as just couldn´t get any traction with the tyres. The tabanos (huge horse flies) were back as well, particularly bothersome when we were cycling at our slowest, ie up the hills. Trying to swat a fly up a steep gravel road was definitely a sure way to loose momentum and come off the bike! Pretty landscape, but it seemed to take a long time before the sea and therefore our destination at a river outlet came into view. The first campsite we tried was full!!! Very surprising, as so far on this trip we're often the only ones at campsites, but we perhaps should have realised that New Years eve was different.
Undeterred we cycled on another 500m across a bridge and were welcomed into a small ´campsite´ (garden) by Juan., an elderly Chilean. There was a sign up for camping, but it didn´t look like anyone had stopped for a while. However Juan was very friendly and chatty and I managed enough with my Spanish to discuss travel, job and the horseflies! No shower at the campsite, but there was a tap for drinking water and use of the toilet in Juans house. I made use of my swimsuit and nearby river for a wash.
New years eve was peaceful, Gareth cooked up a lovely rice, and veg concoction and we enjoyed the bottle of Chilean red wine we´d brought in.

Rest day in Ancud

30th Dec Ancud
After a few days consecutive days of cycling since Christmas we decided to have a day off and spend some time wandering around a small Chilean town. It was nice to have a break and the views of the Pacific were beautiful. I had to keep reminding myself it was the sea and not just a large lake, as we could see Chilean main land across the water and a peninsula of Chiloe jutting out North West of us. Such diffferent scenery from what we´d got used to during our time in Argentina.

One good turn...

29th Dec, Puerto Varas to Ancud, Chiloe (67.7M)


We left the lovely hostel much later than usual, making good use of the inclusive breakfast and internet, but still managed to cycle 67M today. The two volcanoes that had been present through most of yesterdays ride continued to be visable over our shoulders throughout today and gave us a good gauge of where we had come from and distance travelled (not always that encouraging).
The journey today was along Ruta 5, the transamerican highway. The inital part to Puerto Montt was a busy dual carriageway. However there was a good hard shoulder and apart from not being a relaxing cycle was safe enough. With very limited spanish vocab (need to look up pump, inner tube and tyre levers in the dictionary), Gareth helped out a young racing cyclist from Puerto Montt with a puncture. The young rider was carrying a spare inner tube, but no tyre levers or pump! He also had the baldest most worn out tyres ever seen. I hope he made it home without getting another puncture!
From Puerto Montt to Pargua it was single lane road but still with a hard shoulder. Our rest and food breaks were relatively short and we made good time. No obvious camping at Pargua and the whole area smelt of fish processing plants so we caught the ferry to Chiloe. This was easy enough, they seem to go every 20-30mins and you just drive/ cycle/ walk on and pay on board, only 1500peso each for the bikes (about 2 pound). It was nice to have a break from the bikes, watch the retreating views of the volcanoes and the approaching green hills of Chiloe. We met Larry, a  canadian motorcyclist, travelling down from Alaska to Ushuaia. really friendly, hopefully will meet up with him again on the island, but he is travelling a lot faster than us so possibly unlikely.
About 30minutes later we were back on the bikes and pedalling on much quieter roads (still ruta 5, the transamerican highway). After the port and the queue of traffic waiting leave the island, it was very peaceful with rolling green landscape. It very much reminded me of Ireland. 27km later we arrived at Ancud, the largest town on the north of the island. We found a campsite on a cliff above the town. We then spent a long time deciding if we´d risk the very exposed, windswept cliff-top camping with beautiful views, but eventually decided on caution in case the weather changed and pitched in one of the small sheltered sites. No view, but shelter from wind and rain.