progress...

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Well we obviously jinxed our vegetarian luck, with proclaiming our vegetarian sucess. That very night we had "lenteje and tocino" soup according to the picture filled with lots of veges, we found out afterwards tocino is pork fat! And it´s continued on that way as we blindly select foods from stalls and restaurants. Oh well!

Waking up in a saturated tent and putting on yesterday´s soggy clothes, in order to ride another 60km´s of muddy roads in relentless rain isn´t a particularly enthusiasm enhancing experience. Things aren´t too bad once moving, but this sort of weather isn´t conducive to the long leisurely lunch breaks we have become accustomed to. Riding up a steep and rough hill, for 10km´s in the driving rain and glacial winds might not be the high point of our trip, but the sight which greeted us at the top made up for it all. No, the stunning scenery wasn´t enough, it was the zig zag cruiser belonging to Fred and Anna, the fantastic French couple we met the day before. They were waiting for us with their hot coffee and lunch, and the warmth of their campervan and company. After a couple of hours of sharing stories over omlettes and soup the rain cleared for a dramatic descent, our spirits bouyed for the rest of the day despite the imclemency. The next highlight was finding a cute wee yellow kiosco on side of the road in nowhere, just as our energy levels were flagging, selling home baked goodies.

We often compare the Carretera Austral to lots of parts of NZ´s south Island. With the road here often effectively a single lane track with encroaching vegetation, it is easy to imagine, in the 30 or so minutes between cars, that we are riding around remote parts of the Marlborough sounds on a wet day. Or in other parts tramping in a secluded Canterbury high country valley. Leaving the salmon farming town of Puyuhuapi, the only part of the Carretera that is on the coast, we rode along an arm of a deep fiord then inland to sheer sided cliffs adorned with glaciers and numerous waterfalls reminiscent of Fiordland.

Far be it for us to stand in the way of progress, but we have been dismayed by the sight of road works for the last 200kms, in various stages of the transforming the road into a 2 lane asphalt highway. It´s a huge feat of engineering. Fulton Hogan have definately missed out on a massive job here, Gareth! There are sure to be many people who welcome the new road but undoubtably the face of the Chilean Patagonia is soon to change forever. We're glad we get to see it now.

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Photos

Damp
Hard to take good photos in the rain.

KJ and the Giant Gunnera
Thought of Mum and Jude as I cycled passed a grove of wild gunnera and fuschia.

A bridge not far enough
Difficult to build and maitain roads in these parts.

Drowned rats
Cooking in a bus shelter again.

"Patagonia without dams"
The environmental fight against exploitation by big international companies, who wish to tame the rivers and send the power north.