Advertisement
Published: February 12th 2015
Cerro Castillo Foothills Farm
Beautiful View from farm campsiteWoke to find thankfully the wind had disappeared and all calm. Long drive 0f 350 kms crossing into Chile; what fun at the border! After going through immigration the customs officers decided they would check all luggage, both backpacks and main luggage. So everything had to be unloaded off the trucks; the checking was done by hand as no scanners at this particular border.
Arrived in beautiful hot sunshine at a farm at the foot of the Cerro Castillo range where we camped for the night. Some of the group went horse riding, while our hosts, a lovely Chilean farming family barbeque two whole lambs stretched over a fire. A fantastic evening with the tastiest lamb ever, boiled potatoes and side salads.
Day 16 – Puyuhaupi – 08 January 2015 A lovely scenic drive of 250 kms along the Carretera Austral heading to our camp in the Quelant National Park. The Carretera Austral started by General Pinochet in 1976 and parts are still being built or improved. We had an early start due to part of the road being closed for explosions of the rock face at 1
Cerro Castillo Foothills Farm
Close up of mountain view from the farm pm. However an electrical fault caused a problem with Gus and we were delayed while Nick fixed the problem. The rain started and somehow the repair effected the windscreen wipers and another delay. We eventually we reached the junction too late at 2.20 pm and had to wait until 5pm for it to re-open. Julie unloaded the stove and kettles and to the amazement of other drivers we had a brew up in a bus shelter. After a very bumpy and several bends along the side of a river one side and mountains on the other side we arrived at our campsite in pouring rain and again we grouped together to put up the tents quickly so that they would not get wet before covering with the fly sheets. We camped in the Quincho (kitchen) area, where should have had a good view of a hanging glacier, but too much cloud.
Day 17 – Futlafue – 09 January 2015 Today we continued along the Carretera Austral, still lots of road works with several forced stops by the road workers to let oncoming traffic through. We stopped at a remote village called Puyuhuapi to take photos and stretch our
Cerro Castillo Foothills Farm
Group returning from horse ride legs. Here there is an inlet from the sea and is a tsunami hazard area, so plenty of signs advising direction for evacuation in the event of one. A very pretty place with small boats on the shore and little tourism, which no doubt will change when the Carretera Austral is complete.
Continuing on our way we stopped walk a while along the road taking in the beautiful scenery and taking photos before Gus followed and collected us along the way. Stunning lunch stop overlooking a river with a backdrop of mountains before journeying on. After a while we came off the Carretera Austral to take a router 231 a quiet back road where several of us took turns to sit on the roof seats. A lovely sunny day to view the countryside from a truck roof!
Arriving at our campsite four of us took the option of an upgrade into a carabana – a lovely log cabin on a farm, again beautiful hot weather and so lovely to be wearing a T shirt and not several layers.
As it is the last camping night of this leg everyone at to sweep out the tents and ensure
Cerro Castillo Foothills Farm
Group returning from horse ride cleaned for next group. This included mine even though I will not be using it until the next leg in a week’s time. Susan is leaving at Santiago so will have a new tent mate.
Some of the group went white water rafting while dinner was being prepared by the cook group – beef stew and rice! Unfortunately, Shirley while jumping off a rock in to the river landed flat and knocked herself out, she quickly came round and pulled on to the raft in safely. Back at the camp she was clearly in shock and shook up. The camp owner and the crew took her to hospital for a check-up. Thankfully all ok apart from bruised ribs and headache.
A really enjoyable day ended with a few glasses of wine in the carabana.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.116s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 7; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0592s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
