End of the road for us

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It’s the end of the road for us!

All good things come to an end or so we thought but the Carretera Austral had one last thing to throw at us. The road divides near the bottom of Chile and we had to decide where we stayed, the community of O Higgins or the remote outpost in the Chilean Fjords of Tortel . Both places were the end of the road.


We chose Tortel.


Not sure how to paint a picture of this place..... It rains 330 days a year, with mists, mountains all around and a car park at the top of a cliff as there are no roads down or in Tortel.


The dwellings hang from the sides of the steep sides and access is from wooden walkways, there are 7 km of these walkways and we had chosen one of the better places to stay.

We had been told to take a few bits of clothing in a rucksack as carrying cases up and down the wet slippery walkways with cases is regarded as Herculean and laughable by the locals. But we had driven the road and proved we were no mice’s we were MEN!


So with ALL our luggage in hand off we went..... and went ........and went, we must have walked more than 7km as we got lost. Yep it was right at the far end with fantastic views of the mist . The wooden corrugated lodge maybe shed is a better word, brought us to new levels of decoration and finishes.
The wife smiled a lot and the very grumpy looking husband seemed apalled with our presence, for two days he never stopped eyeing us up.


Our bedroom, a kind of shed extension, had had no expense not spared on it, we even had best two inch nails as coat hooks. Even Miller was silenced and never uttered a word of Spanisho!

So this was our village and home for two days , it really was the end of the road.

(Interestingly many of you will know Tortel as this was where Prince William came to 7 years ago when he was involved in Operation Rayleigh

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