Advertisement
Published: March 14th 2011
I thought our journey to the Carretera Austral deserved an entry of it's own as it has been pretty epic. The Carretera Austral is the road which winds through southern Chile and is supposed to be one of the most beautiful routes in the world so a lot of cyclists come here to do it. The problem is that it starts on the border of Chile and Argentina so is difficult to get to and involves a 35km unpaved cycle, a ferry, a 6km trek through footpaths not designed for bikes, a 16km unpaved cycle and then another ferry. The second ferry only leaves once a week so timing is pretty important if you don't want to wait a while! The first 35km from El Chalten to the ferry were really cool as we went past Mt Fitz Roy and had some great views of it. At the ferry we met a Swiss couple who were also touring by bike and we decided to stick together as we'd heard the first 6km through footpaths were very tough pushing bikes. We didn't realise just how tough though!
The 6km of footpaths took us about 5 hours to do. It started with
some really steep hills, where we had to push 45kg of bike and gear up, lifting them over rocks and mud. We also had to cross 3 rivers without bridges, the first time we took all the bags of the bikes and lifted them across a makeshift bridge made from logs. The rest we just took our shoes and socks off and pushed them across, getting numb feet in the process as it was freezing! Once we'd got through the first 6km there was a big descent on unpaved roads down to Lago O'Higgins where the second ferry left from. As our bikes had taken such a battering none of us has properly working brakes so was a pretty scary descent, we all had to change our brake pads the next day as they were completely worn down!
The second ferry took 3 hours so we arrived at about 10:30pm, with a 7km ride in the dark to get to Villa O'Higgins left to do. Luckily they eat late in Chile as we didn't get to a restaurant until 12:30am to have dinner!
The plan now is to spend the next 3 weeks or so travelling up the
Chile Border
The most welcome sign i've ever seen after 6km of muddy footpathsCarretera Austral before making our way onto the pan american highway which will take us up to northern Chile.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.182s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 15; qc: 71; dbt: 0.1401s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Ian Phillips
non-member comment
Tom Phillips - well done
Wow Tom this stage sounds pretty ardous, but hopefully well worth it when you rest up and start touring. Dont forget to tighten up your bolts on the bike before starting out.Guess you will need some brake pads replacements too at some stage. Not sure if you have heard about the tsunami in Japan 10,000 plus peopel killed. The teutonic plate faults runs through Chile so dont be surprised if you feel some earthquake tremours too. Take care Dado