We´ve been really bad about keeping up to date in the last few weeks, but it´s not entirely our fault - we´ve been in the middle of nowhere and it´s hard to find a shower, let alone an internet connection. Most people are still communicating with CB radio round here! Anyhow we´ll try to give a rundown of the last few weeks:
We spent a few days in El Calafate having made it there from Torres del Paine. As well as treating ourselves to a nice hotel for a couple of nights we went on a hike up the Perito Morreno glacier. The glacier was incredible but the highlight of the trip was a Japanese man who had forgotten to pack any warm clothes and so decided to wear a hotel bathrobe and some flannel exfoliating gloves to keep out the cold!
The Perito Moreno Glacier
From El Calafate we rode north to El Chalten to walk amongst more glaciers and get some incredible views of Mt Fitzroy on a bright sunny day. Then we took the virtually untrodden path between Argentina and Chile through a border crossing that can only be done by bike, on horseback, or on foot and involved two boat trips (across Lago del Desierto and Lago O´Higgins) and crossing several raging rivers with no bridges...
And since then we´ve covered the first 300km of the Carretera Austral, picked up a new cycling buddy and sustained one injury that´s left us grounded for a week in Coyhaique. We´ve done and seen so much that it would be difficult to capture it all but a run down of a few of the wonderful/bizarre places we´ve slept in the last few weeks might be the best way of summing it up:
1. The Kitsch Lounge
On leaving Torres del Paine we stumbled into Cerro Castillo (a small collection of huts and a rodeo stadium that sells itself as a buzzing metropolis) at about 11pm after cycling blindly in the dark for an hour over some very shoddy road. Needless to say we were exhausted and starving and very much hoping we´d find a bed after a long stretch in the tent. Sadly Cerro Castillo didn´t offer much in the way of hostels so we found ourselves sleeping on a local cafe owners´ living room floor surrounded by an extraordinary array of trinkets, including a diamante encrusted sombrero, at least 100 rodeo trophies and a life-sized model of a flamenco dancer.
2. The Sheep Pen
On the road to El Chalten we passed up the opportunity of sleeping with a pile of animal carcasses that were scattered amongst the only group of trees for hundreds of kms to bed down in a sheep pen on the shores of the spectacularly beautiful Lago Argentino. This was a truly incredible spot, miles from anyone and anything.
3. Butch Cassidy´s hideout
On the road to El Chalten there is an historic Parador called La Leona (Lewis) where we camped the night and Butch Cassidy once hid for a month having robbed a bank in Rio Gallegos. Presumably that was before it became a popular stop for coffee and cake and sold a range of souvenirs. Still, it was a great camping spot and made all the better by their herd of pet guanacos.
Swirling clouds above Butch´s hideout
4. The best view in the world
On leaving El Chalten we cycled 37km along a staggeringly beautiful valley to reach the boat crossing across Lago del Desierto. The sun was shining, the wind had gone and for the first time we were surrounded by trees and streams, rather than flat and arid scrub. We´d been thinking about this leg of the journey with a mixture of excitment and trepidation. This marked the start of the difficult and somewhat untrodden border crossing to Villa O´Higgins in Chile where we would begin our journey up the Carretera Austral.
The border crossing involves two lakes, a 20km hike through mud, rivers and along horse tracks that had been described to us as trenches. Every cyclist we´d met coming south had an even worse horror story about the crossing. One couple had done the crossing in 5 inches of snow, another had ripped his panniers on the thorn bushes that lined the paths and others just said it was exhausting, muddy and hellish and involved relaying your bags up first and then your bikes.
The border crossing involves two lakes, a 20km hike through mud, rivers and along horse tracks that had been described to us as trenches. Every cyclist we´d met coming south had an even worse horror story about the crossing. One couple had done the crossing in 5 inches of snow, another had ripped his panniers on the thorn bushes that lined the paths and others just said it was exhausting, muddy and hellish and involved relaying your bags up first and then your bikes.
Anyway, we set out from El Chalten in high spirits, boosted by the beautiful weather and wonderful scenery. We arrived on the southern shore of Lago del Desierto and took the last boat across arriving an hour later on the northern shore.
Looking back at Mt Fitzroy from our camping spot on the shores of Lago del Desierto
We camped that night on the shores of the lake and felt like the luckiest people alive as we had the most unbelievable views of Mount Fitzroy and there was noone there besides a couple of other cyclists and two carabineros keeping a vague eye on the border. We swam in the freezing lake and watched the sun set behind the huge peaks of Fitzroy. It was a brilliant start to the most adventurous leg of our journey so far.
5. The car park/dock
On making it safely across the border after an amazing and exhasuting hike with the bikes we caught the boat across Lago O´Higgins, the final part of the crossing. Unfortunately the boat picked us up at 8pm rather than 5pm which meant that by the time we finally reached the northern shore it was pitch black and too dark to cycle the 10km into Villa O´Higgins. Added to that we were now soaking wet after being rained on all day and we had no option but to pitch our tent on the concrete dock. This was definitely an anti climax after our spot on the shores of Desierto.
6. The Mosquito farm
After a brief stop in sleepy Villa O´Higgins we rode north to Puerto Yungay and had our first taste of the Carretera Austral. The road carves it´s way over mountains, beneath glaciers and along enormous valleys. The size of the landscape is hard to take in, we just have nothing comparable at home. Although the road is completely unsurfaced, and resembles a quarry more than a road at times, the scenery more than makes up for the bumpy ride and the ridiculously steep climbs. There are streams and waterfalls around every corner so there´s no shortage of fresh drinkng water and freezing cold showers.
Day one on the Carretera was brilliant and we were still feeling so lucky to have avoided any prolonged bouts of rain. After about 60kms on the hard-going surface our legs gave out and we happened upon what looked like a pretty good camping spot in a protected spot by a stream and decided to bed down for the night. As the sun went down a cloud of mosquitoes appeared and had a banquet at our expense. Our only defence was to build a fire and literally smoke ourselves in it, oh and eat all our chocolate for the next 4 days and down a huge carton of wine.
As well as it being our first day on the Carretera it was also our first day with our new friend Danny, a Californian medical student with the same interest in Choripan, bargain red wine, chocolate and fishing for wild salmon with crude fishing equipment (an old sweetcorn can and a fishing line). Our fishing attempts have so far been fruitless but it´s a good excuse for lengthy fish-spotting breaks after a hard stretch of cycling.
Ben and Danny contemplate the fishing situation
So that pretty much brings us up to date. Now we´re enjoying a break in Coyhaique while Ben´s back recovers and are looking forward to taking on the next stretch of this epic road before heading across to the island of Chiloe where we´ll need to re-think our route north in the aftermath of the terrible earthquake.
A typical day on the Carretera Austral
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