3rd April, Conaf campsite to Termus Pellaifa, (29.5M)
A peaceful nights sleep although it was really cold this morning cooking breakfast (porridge) and packing the tent away. The sun had yet to reach us through the trees and sunrise doesn't happen until almost 8am now anyway.
Within 20mins of pedalling out of the campsite with a combination of pushing and riding the bikes uphill we were soon down to our cycle shorts and t-shirts again. The Swiss couple, Jean-Charles and Audrey, the Conaf warden and the road signs were all right, the road was in BAD condition for the next 9km after leaving the campsite. On our uphill section it looked like water had washed a lot of the road away and there was a huge gully down the middle of the road. The signs said that the route was for pedestrians only, but it looked like a few motorbikes and possible a 4WD had passed through and obviously cyclists! We have 3 maps that show this area, on one the route is marked as a white road, on the other it is marked as a track and on the 3rd it isn't marked at all. Sort of sums up Chilean signage and maps.
The sky was perfectly clear, not a cloud in sight. We had a beautiful day out on the bikes. The road condition was bad but there were no worries about meeting traffic, just 2 walkers, so we could meander all over the road searching for the best part of the road. We did manage to cycle sections of the uphill part, just a fair amount of pushing in there as well. In some ways it was great that everyone had stressed how bad the road was and how much pushing we would have to do as in the end the top of the path arrived as a pleasant surprise. It really hadn't been as bad as people had lead us to believe.
From the top of the pass there was a signed footpath leading to a glacier and a viewpoint. We weren't in any hurry to get to any particular destination, so we decided to lock and leave the bikes and set off up the path to the view point. The path headed uphill through forest, passing a large number of native monkey puzzle trees, I hadn't realised that they were native to this region of Chile and Argentina. Above the tree line the views opened up and we had spectacular views of volcanoes Lanin and Quetrupillan to one side, ascending hillside in front, which was strewn with fine volcanic rocks and then behind us beautiful views down a valley. At least it was beautiful from where we were, it took us a while to work out what was going on as it looked like the valley was full of a salt lakes. In fact once we had got the binoculars out we realised that the valley was completely filled with wispy clouds. Beautiful to look at, but we were just hoping that it wasn't where we were headed as otherwise we could see that pretty soon we would be out of the sun and beneath a layer of cloud!
Walking back to the bikes, everything was as we'd left it and we sat in the sun for so food before starting our descent. The next 4-5km through the national park and rough track was great fun. Pretty much all downhill so not much pedalling effort required, with plenty of corners, tree roots and the occasional rock to dodge so really different and interesting cycling for a while. I loved it. Once past the national park boundary the path opened up to ripio road again.Very slightly smoother, definitely less tree roots to dodge and the occasional car.
We continued downward and could see that we were ultimately approaching the cloud filled valley we'd spotted from the viewpoint. We thought about stopping in the sun above the cloud, but ultimately we wanted to get on a bit and the forecast was for the weather to get worse over the next few days so we thought we might as well push on. Passing through the cloud was slightly eerie. Intermittent light broke through from the sun, but it was cold, damp and gloomy. We soon stopped to put on leggings and lots of layers of clothes on. Downwards and downwards, easy cycling, but doing absolutely nothing to help warm us up. Surprisingly as we reached Conaripe on the shores of lake Calafquen, the sun did start to reach us again. The cloud was forming a layer or band in the middle part of the valley, obscuring views but above and below the band of cloud the day was good. Unfortunately it did mean that we didn't have any of the views of Volcan Villarica that we should have been able to see from this side, just rocky hillside disappearing into the cloud.
A coffee stop was definitely in order and we found a restaurant that served us some nescafe on a tray. Instant coffee is the norm especially in Chile. Usually they will give you the jar, possibly some milk or some powdered stuff and then some hot water to add to it all. Most important was being able to wrap my hands around a nice warm cup.
Feeling better after the coffee we found our way to a panadaria, bought some fresh bread and empanadas and were then ready to head on a bit further. Out of the village we followed a river valley slowly uphill. The weather quickly improved and the cold damp clouds soon became a distant memory. As we cycled onwards passing through tiny villages the road became steeper so that before we knew it we were climbing over another small pass. Again lovely views down into a valley, this time over lake Pellaifa. A hairpined descent and we were at the gate to 'Termus Conaripe'. We'd decided at this point that if we could pitch our tent near or at the Termus (hotsprings) then that was far enough for us today. Termus Conaripe was a large, much advertised Termus and although they did deals for lunch or 'elevenses' with entrance to the hotsprings, it wasn't cheap and didn't look like the kind of place that a couple of scruffy cyclists could pitch their tent on the lawn.
We were in luck however as a small road to the side advertised 'EcoTermus Pellaifa' 2km on a handwritten sign and at half the entrance price as the Conaripe hotsprings. We weren't sure what and 'EcoTermus' was but decided it was worth the detour to find out. A rough road downhill, I was really hoping that we'd not e retracing our steps right away, and we arrived at a small cluster of houses. Past these and we were at the Termus. They were doing a lot of work to develop it, creating an archway over the entrance and extra buildings. Passing through the entrance we found that they also had a campsite and with some confusion over cost we eventually pitched tent and then paid for the campsite. The sign said 6000 peso each entrance fee to the pools, we paid for camping that was 5000peso each and included free use of the pools. I couldn't really get my head round it and thought my Spanish was definitely regressing, but all the better for us. So tent pitched very quickly we made our way to the changing rooms and then onto the pools. There were 2 other families in them, but plenty of room for us all and there were 4 pools of varying heat, the hottest at 40 degC the coldest, (frio) very cold and wasn't ventured into! We were in the pools for ages, it was our 1st bath in 6 months! By 8pm we were the only ones in there and although the pools were flood lit and we were open until midnight, by 8.45pm we decided we'd better get out as we were turning into prunes.
It was good timing as we showered, got back at the tent we had time to cook our dinner before retreating into the tent to eat it as the forecasted bad weather eventually reached us. This was certainly one of our best campsites, very quiet with only us there, cold showers but 3 hot baths all inclusive!
We left the bikes on the deck in the rain and hurried inside to find some seats next to a radiator. We quickly utilised it and no one complained as we spread out our wet kit to dry. The ferry journey across Lago Pirehueica takes 1.5hours and is meant to be incredibly beautiful. We did get some views of the surrounding hills and waterfalls, but we remained inside and enjoyed it from the warm, dry interior of the ferry this time.
