Cycling the Carretera Austral

In the snow over the mountain pass into Chile.

Loads of melting water is coming from the mountains.

Welcome in Chile.

In National Park Puyehue we wanna stay at a ranger station but no one was there.

We cycled up, looked around but couldn't find anyone.

We didn't search further for a park ranger and did put our tent up beside the toilet building.

Nice waterfall straight behind our tent.

In the morning still no ranger seen.

We put down our tent, eat breakfast and take off again. Thanks not seen rangers.

The road is easy and with nice views around.

Fisherman

At night we find a nice spot along Lake Rupanco. The spot is very populair by fisherman but most of them don't have a license to fish. At some point the boat in the photo came along filled with police officers. All fisherman were running away.

10 minutes after the boat with the police was gone a lot of fisherman came back and fished till sunset 😀

The rain and the winds are getting worse.

Lunchtime.

Rain but big smile.

Another National Park to cycle through.

Cabañas Am See. (Translated from German: House for rent along the lake) In Chile we see a lot of German language, but why?

A place to set up our tent was hard to find. This spot close to the road will do but it rains hard 🙁

It rained all night long. We pack up and continue in the rain again.

Asphalt becomes dirt road. With all this water indeed dirty.

Some roadworks.

Fisherman

Big fish farms in the lakes.

Another camp in the rain.

Finally the famous Carretera Austral is coming up.

No Rain 🙂

Gravel roads and waterfalls along them.

At a viewpoint we pitch our tent.

In the morning finally sun again after four days of rain.

But as soon we want to leave our camp spot it starts raining again.

Rain turns into hail. Not funny if you're in a downhill at 50kmp/h.

The hail was short but intense. When we pass this roadworks it's dry again.

The Carretera Austral does not continue by land all the time. Sometimes you have to take ferries. From this town, called Hornopirén, the ferry goes 80km over a lake because there is no road around the lake .

Ferry booking office. We have to wait. Everything closes here between 13:30 and 17:00. Siesta, although the weather isn't hot at all.

In the meantime we enjoy the little town.

Because there is just one ferry going a day we have to wait till the next day. We check in at a cabaña and dry our stuff above the woodstove.

Leaving the cabaña again. The ferry is leaving in a few minutes, we have to hurry.

Just on time. The ferry is still there.

There we go. 7 hours on the ferry for a stretch of 80 kilometers.

Views from the ferry.

The ferry crossing also includes an 30 km ride over land for which there is a bus waiting for us to bring us to the next ferry.

Our bus, just 30km.

And the next ferry.

Me and my boat.

In the evening we hop of the boat and find our way to a free campground. To reach it we have to cross a hanging bridge.

Not to bad for a free campground.

And back again to the Carretera Austral the next morning.

Look out point.

Lakes and waterfalls.

Dusty roads at some parts.

Camp spot along the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic Ocean.

Romantic dinner at sunset.

Just 10m from the beach we spot sea lions and a lot of dolphins.

Birdy

Hi 😀 I'm ready to go again.

Dahm!! Arjan's back rim cracked. Made something out of old found plastic to hold the rim together. The next town is 350km away so it has to hold for a few days.

An abandoned campground is our place to stay for the night.

No one there but beautiful spot.

We don't put up our tent but sleep in this old cabaña.

Free rainpants. Not to bad and even my size.

Insects found on the campsite.

The next morning we wake up again in our cabaña and take off again.

In 2016 a big mudslide washed away a lot of forrest and even parts of a town. 20 people died 🙁

It is in this town we meet Jochen from Germany. We start cycling together.

Snow...

The crack in Arjan's rim turns bad. A second plastic part has to be made.

It's a rain again.

A few waterfalls in a row,

Because the bad weather we sleep with this family. Warm and cosy.

Still rainy the next day.

50 shades of grey.

Some bridges on the Carretera Austral are just washed away.

Time for chocolate.

5km up.

On iOverlander we found this campsite. No one there, not even the owner but we camp underneath the roof. Nice and dry.

Crack is getting worse and worse. We hope we can make it to the bigger town and find a new rim.

Just 81km to Puerto Aysén. Hopefully Arjan's rim will hold.

So far so good.

We check in at a small hostel along the way.

Cracked... no longer possible to fix 🙁

Walking instead of cycling and thumb up for a ride with a pickup car or big truck.

After walking 10km a truck with logs stops and gives us a ride to halfway the town we need to be.

Thanks for the ride!!!!

Dropped of in the middle of nowhere.

Walking again and hoping for a next lift.

Nice views around.

Long way to go.

After a few kilometers a farmer stops and offers us a ride with his pick-up.

He had to go to town because his dog, Dooly, is very ill. Poor old dog.

Dropped of again, now close to a bicycle repair shop. Thanks!!!

In two days the bicycle was fixed again. We say good bye to our hosts and hit the road again.

Waterfall full of ice.

Next National Park is coming up.

Camping in a National Park is not allowed but here we found a nice hidden spot, unseen from the road.

Jochen is still with us. (or we with him... I don't know haha..)

Deers.

More deers on the left.

Bye deers.

Ice fall.

Winding down the next few kilometers 🙂

Lunchtime.

Road construction. The Carretera Austral (which is the main road from north to south Chile) is closed every weekday between 13:00 and 17:00 because of explotions. When we pass this part of the road it's Sunday so we can pass through. But still it is dusty.

Work is still in progress.

End of the pavement.

Dusty again.

At an old shelter we put up our tent.

Full moon party tonight 😉

The Carretera Austral is definitely one of the most beautiful parts of our trip through the Americas.

Hi Jochen.

From here we say good bye to Jochen. We cycled together for nearly two weeks.

We continue. Jochen stays a little longer because he is not flying back home in five weeks, as we do.

The cows and Arjan going up the mountain at the same speed 😀

Campfire at night along a wild, deep, blue river.

Coffee...Tea...???

In the morning cows around our tent.

Hard to see on photos but the colour of the rivers are so deep blue here. Unbelievable!

Enjoying the view.

Campsite.

We met Piero from Italy while he and we where cycling in Mexico. He was on his way to Canada, we on our way south. Now we meet again in the deep south of Patagonia. He working now at a brewery brewing good beers, we still cycling further south to Ushuaia.
Funny how paths can cross again after so many months and so many kilometres.

Wild river in a narrow cayon.

Going all the way down to the river.

And down.

And down.

There we are.

Most of the time when having a flat tire it's not hard to find the hole in the tire. This time Arjan needed a small stream to find it.

The Carretera Austral (Ruta 7) is going left. We go straight to Tortel from where we need to catch a ferry because the border crossing at Villa o Higgens, where we wanted to cross into Argentina again, is closed till the first of November. We don't have enough time to wait for that so we are gonna take a ferry for 3 days and sadly skip Villa O'Higgens 🙁

Close to Tortel we camp along a big river.

Breakfast

Mate (tea)

Freedom !!!!!!

Freshly washed on the bike again.

At Tortel we met Roel from Holland. 73 years old and still going (very) strong. Cycling through South America on his own on a plustire 29er mountainbike. "Why sit alone at home when you're older and don't have to work anymore if you can explore the world as well?" Inspiring man 🙂

Tortel is full of stairs.

And stairs

and stairs.

Cycling around in Tortel is like this.

At night we check in at the 3 day ferry to Puerto Natales.

Here we meet up with Frank (NL) and Jacinta (B)(@spinningsouth on Insta or spinningsouth.com) They came cycling from Vancouver, Canada and also will end up in Ushuaia, as we do.

On the second day we pass a ship wreck in one of the many fjords.

Puerto Eden. The only stop in the whole ferry ride.

We go off the boat for an hour. Stretch our legs.

Walk around the little fishermans town.

Kim making new friends.

At peoples home we drink a coffee and eat cake. Also we do a small workshop in local crafts.

Back to the ferry again.

Bye Puerto Eden.

Arjan does some photo editing while cruising.

The first night on the ferry we had a lot of rain but now the weather is sunny 🙂

Beautiful views along the trip.

The last night on the ferry to Puerto Natales. From Puerto Natales we will hike in the famous Torres del Paine National Park. But that will be in a next blog. Good night for now. Cheerzzzz....