More ripio, but coming strongly recommended

Two weeks and lots of blog to catch up on. We've largely been away from towns, just surrounded by stunning beautiful scenery. It's been an amazing, lots of biking days but not so many miles each day. We've taken our time and enjoyed the beautiful scenery through the Chilean and Argentinian Lake districts. I'd certainly come back to this region again. Maybe with my walking boots next time and possibly a couple of weeks later when I think the autumn display of colours will be spectacular.

2nd April, Pucon to Conaf campsite Chicay (25M)

Gareth feeling much better, we packed away our kit and loaded up our bikes again. We said our goodbyes to the Swiss couple Julie and Alex and on their strong recommendations headed eastwards and then southwards to circle the other side around Volcan Villarrica  via a dirt track and many thermal springs. We were warned that we would have probably 4km of pushing the bikes as the track becomes very rough in places, but they would both take the road again. it came with many recommendations, so we put aside our preference for the tarmac and reflected on that indeed all our favourite days of cycling had actually been on the ripio and headed out of  Pucon in that direction via  a panaderia (Gareth was feeling much better as we loaded our panniers with tasty bread and cakes!). We had tarmaced roads initially as we headed eastwards and amazing views of Volcan Villarica spouting steam into the air. It was the most active we'd seen the volcano since arriving in Pucon. We had some regrets that we hadn't joined a tour to climb the volcano but the cost and time constraints of waiting another day put us off for now.

Happy days on good ripio

After about 20km of tarmac we turned southwards along a ripio (dirt) road. The road was much quieter and was harder work due to the rough surface and the gradual climbing we were starting to do. I didn't tell Gareth at the time but for a while I had my doubts we were actually on the right road as it only signposted a 'Termus' (hot springs), not Conaripe the village we were ultimately headed towards. Thankfully after 20km and arrival that the Termus in question the signs did then start to appear for Conaripe. At that point I admitted my doubts, thankfully it was the right road! Cycling onwards the road became rougher and we passed an area of road works. certainly no improvement at the moment, soft earth is really not that easy to cycle on!

It wasn't all easy going, although all had Gareth had to do was push his bike in a straight line!

Like that...

Early afternoon we arrived at a beautiful grassy glade by a stream. It seemed purpose- made to camp in. It was perhaps earlier than we would usually stop and we hadn't yet passed through the rough uphill section where we would need to push our bikes, which we were hoping to get over with today, but we did stop and debate about setting up the tent here for today. We were beginning to get into our chilled, 'less miles and more scenery' is better mode. However before the final decision was made and while we were scouting ahead to check out alternative sights a couple of tour cyclists came into view heading northwards towards us. It was Jean-Charles and Audrey!!! Our french cycling friends from Antarctica. It was amazing to see them and great to catch up. It was the first time we'd actually met up in cycling gear. It really is a small world out there. They'd caught the navimag ferry the week before us, we'd taken different routes since the ferry, but on one of the smallest most isolated bits of road we met up!

An hour later we went our separate ways, Gareth and I actually cycling onwards for about another 2km to a conaf campsite (Chilean national parks) that the others had spotted on their way northwards. The site was lovely, isolated in the forest, only 2 others camped there and with toilets and showers (admittedly cold ones!).

Pucon

31st March and 1st April, Pucon
Rest days. Unfortunately yesterday (31st) Gareth spent the whole day feeling poorly. He was up for meals and fixed the broken spoke on my front wheel (thankfully it waited to break until the final 50m yesterday and I could walk into the campsite last night), otherwise he was struggling with an ongoing headache. I handwashed our dirty laundry, usually a job I hate, but actually was ok and I never thought I'd say it but there was a certain satisfaction watching all the dirty water run out our clothes as I scrubbed them. Good upper body workout as well!
Today, Gareth is feeling better although not 100%. A good time to mooch around town, write diaries in the sun and generally decide on our plans for the next 2 weeks.

Cycling in the shadow of Volcan Villarrica

30th March, Panguipulli to Pucon (54M)


Now today wasn't to be my crowning glory, by the end of it I was practically on my knees. Why? Well my body decided to give me a lesson on recovery.
I woke up feeling a little under the weather and thought very little of it, partly due to the fact that it was the fifth day of cycling and it was usual for me to be a bit off colour. I however didn't think and paid the price.
The cycling was all tarmac and on relatively quiet roads the day was perfect with amazing scenery and a slight tail wind. We covered miles well, but as we got further into the day I started to struggle, so we found ourselves in Lican Ray a small town which in the summer months is a tourist attraction, but when we arrived it felt very shut down and only school kids were wondering the streets (on their siesta). Anyway, we found the central plaza and sat down and had some lunch. After this, we headed on and up a climb out of the town. I really suffered there. The air was still and I started to over heat and I was soon calling for a rest and a drink of the old faithful coka cola to see if I could get a kick start. It had the desired effect and I made it to the top, but from there on in I was to be  "THE WEAKEST LINK".
We past though beautiful scenery and views of volcanoes popped up here and there, but still I felt bad. My head was starting to pound and I had bad indigestion, something I never suffer from. Sarah had had a bad headache yesterday and we thought I might have got it off her. I really didn't care much for diagnosis, more interested in cure. I downed some ibruprofen and it worked, though another drug sorted out the stomach thing. We kept on going and we soon found the outskirts of Villarrica and the decision was made to carry on to Pucon. Not a good decision, but I wasn't to keen on having to get on the bike again tomorrow.
This was a very busy road and we were pleased when we had got to the end of it. At one point a nice Chilean stopped and offered a lift and we declined, I was later to regret this. Sarah decided to stop and go and have a look at one of the beaches along the road, but I had to keep going as I was now in autopilot and if I had stopped I probably wouldn't of got going again. She caught me up pretty quickly and we found that there was a descent all the way into Pucon. We found the tourist office, Closed! So, we counted on our lonely planet and went to the only campsite in town and this is where I rested my throbbing head and fell asleep.

Is this Herefordshire??

29th March, Rio Bueno to Panguipulli (78M)

Food break in a bus shelter on ruta 5

Another morning of mist, this time from the river in town. Again as we left town and cycled northwards the sun came out and the mist dissipated. We'd elected to speed up our journey north a bit and cycle 60km on Ruta 5,a dual carriage way, heading north to south in Chile. There was a huge hard shoulder and not much traffic so the riding was safe if not overly scenic.  It was a quick 60km with good road surface and not many hills.

Quieter roads

At Los Lagos we turned off the main road and took smaller (still tarmaced roads) eastwards. We were constantly on the look out for campsites, or places where we could camp but it was again very agricultural and diary country. As Gareth pointed out, except for the volcanoes in the background we could be cycling through herefordshire! Typical Chilean signage had us excited for a while,one sign said camping was 4km away, the next sign pointed us down a gravel road that went on and on with no sign of civilisation, typical Chilean signage!

Lake views

So with nowhere we stop before we eventually arrived with weary legs at Panguipulli. A long downhill into town was welcomed and I felt well deserved. Thankfully there was someone still in the tourist office and we were directed to a 'campsite 1km out of town with lovely lake views'. All good until the final 100m up to the campsite which was almost vertically up a gravel drive. I'd wrongly assumed 'lake views' was 'lake side'. However once at the site, the views were great and also except for one other couple we had the campsite to ourselves again.

not quite 'lakeside'

Destination, destination

28th March Wild camp near Entre Lagos to Rio Bueno (42M)
After such a beautiful sunset on the lake last night despite not being able to actually see the sun as it dipped below the horizon, we decided that sunrise over the mountains at the other end of the lake would also be amazing. So alarms set, we peeked out this morning to no view at all, just damp silent air. An autumnal lake mist had taken over. It was dry enough to cook and eat breakfast outside and we packed up and continued on our way. As soon as we were away from the lake, the mist cleared and the sun was out.
Passing through Entre Lagos we stocked up with some food and petrol (for our stove) and then leaving the town also meant leaving tarmac again and we had a good 2.5hours of bumpy riding. Hard work, especially on unfit legs. In consolation except for the ongoing corrugations there was actually very little ascent or descent. For such flat country to ride through there were a couple of river gorges with bridges over them that were really deep and seemed to come out of nowhere.  Passing these by we eventually came to a small village. We stopped at a small stream for lunch and yet again changed our destination travel plans. The lure of tarmaced roads won out over another 2hours of bumpy ripio. So instead of cycling towards Lago Ranco and the uncertainty of wild camping in a hugely agricultural farmed area we turned west down 20km of tarmaced road to the town Rio Bueno. My main worry about here was also accommodation as despite being a large town on the map, it certainly didn't appear to be touristy. It wasn't, but we found accommodation in a 'motel/cabana' and had an en suite double room to ourselves. Certainly adequate to rest some weary cyclists legs.

Sound Advice.

27th March 


Again not much urgency this morning, and another late start. Sarah decided to go and have a chat with the owner to see if she could find out about camping further on the road. The out come was "No camping" and why not take this road? After a little debate we decided that we should take this alternative route.

When I said Gareth looked like a startled rabbit, he took it to heart..

The first part was tarmac and then the second was dirt, very good dirt according to the camp owner. We first had to go up a long hill which is my least favourite way of starting a ride, but once this was done it flattened out a little. The tarmac section was nice and quiet and time went quickly and the scenery was stunning. Part of the day was spent riding towards volcano Osorno, we'd seen this volcano after Christmas and it had an amazing snow cap, but during the time since we'd last seen it, the snow was now looking rather thin on top. The down side to this view was the fact it meant that we were getting close to the dirt track. When we did arrive at the turning we sat down and had some lunch, whilst enjoying this peace and quiet a lorry pulled up and asked US! for directions. Sarah said something in Spanish and I stood there looking pretty. The break was soon over and the rough ride was in hand.
Good ripio my A***! Sarah will disagree with me, but I have felt better the only god send to the potential long rough road was, some genius had tarmaced the final section and this made me feel so much better.
Volcano Osorno was now out of sight, but we did get to see Volcano Puyhue steaming away in the distance, a very cool sight.
The plan was to get to a campsite for the night, but as we were cycling out to where we knew there was one, Sarah mentioned about wild camping. I dismissed it as we had already agreed on a campsite. As we rode along the road though I gave this some thought and decided that, not only would we save money, it would probably be a lot quieter too. So the search was on. I soon spotted a likely looking spot and it fitted the hole perfectly. A beach front pitch with on-suite and fresh fruit and beautiful views. Most importantly of all though, just us.

Quick Someone call the police!! Somebodies pinched my cycling legs

 26th March 2012

Lunch break in the sun at the church

We are really out of practise with this cycling. Not only has our fitness deserted us, but also our ability of getting up early has too. When we did finally drag ourselves out of comfy bed, eat our porridge and pack our bikes it was getting on for 12 noon. Sarah found that her front suspension forks had locked and the release switch was just turning, so I did a little bit of tinkering and bobs your uncle job done and we're off.

Volcan Osorno

Now the first part of the ride was spent on route 5 which resembles a 2 lane motorway (dual carriageway), but with only the tenth of UK roads traffic, and it felt really wrong being on it, but we had a huge amount of room on our hard shoulder. We're weren't on this for too long before we turned onto a quieter road which was to take us to Puerto Octay. What a contrast, hardly any traffic and beautiful scenery. The real strange thing was that other than cycling on the wrong side of the road it felt like we were back home. It really did turn into a lovely days riding, other than the lack of leg to get me up the hills, but they'll be back!
Our home for the night was a lovely little campsite in Puerto Octay which was deserted and was nice and quiet. The town was very small, but had everything we needed including icecream. A nice place to finish our first day back in the saddles.

View from our campsite, lovely for a swim