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.