Tag: Carretera Austral

Day 2: Manihueico – Hornopirén

Distance: 32.18 miles

Time: 3:59

Elevation Gain: 2,644 feet

After a good sleep in the ‘Glamping’ pod, I heated water to have with some quite pleasant granola with cranberries that I’d picked up at the supermarket, before packing up to leave.

The entire stay including the evening meal and a local craft beer, had cost around £20, which definitely seemed like good value, especially when combined with our host’s good humour.

Setting off, with Marlen and Pablo again, we enjoyed a short stretch along the coast, the weather was fair, but there was a stiff breeze in our faces as we headed in the direction of Contao.

Soon, however, the road turned inland and started to climb, and we struggled up steepening gradients, working our way through the trees, into ever strengthening sunshine.

The windchill took the edge off as we crested an undulating plateau at 800 feet elevation, and views back out towards the sea emerged.

A lengthy downhill followed with Pablo and Marlen rocketing into the distance, confidence inspired by their background in mountain biking, and also their far superior hydraulic disc brakes.

Shortly afterwards, we stopped at a local minimarket for some snacks, the sign suggested that it was open, but there was no one inside, not until the shopkeeper emerged from the house nearby to open it up for us.

Pickings were slim, but I ended up with a packet of small scones, the hardness of which gave the impression that they’d been in the shop for a considerable amount of time.

Surprisingly, though, they did taste quite good, especially after Pablo produced a squeezable pouch of Manjar Tradicional as an accompaniment. It’s a type of Dulche de Leche also common in his home country of Argentina.

Another climb led to an attractive and fertile open valley, with horses stretching their legs in the fields that lay either side of the road.

The last descent, down into Hornopirén, was joyous, with a great road surface, and fantastic views of the happily situated bay starting to unfold.

First port of call was, in fact, the ferry terminal, as we strove to source the elusive tickets for the next part of the route, the Bi-modal ferry to Caleta Gonzalo. Elusive, in that we had spent the entirety of the previous ferry crossing – the day before – attempting to buy tickets online, before realising that the system would not be working any time soon.

And in case you’re wondering what a Bi-modal ferry is, it’s a ferry journey, in which we’d have to get out and cycle in the middle. I’m sure it’ll catch on…

Day 1: Puerto Montt – Manihueico

Distance: 33.6 miles

Time: 3:41

Elevation Gain: 1,719 feet

Unsurprisingly, I got off to a slow start, rushing to get all of my equipment packed and out of the room by the midday check out time. Rolling down the hill to the large shopping centre down by the waterfront, I was optimistic that my bike seemed to be working quite well, and it felt quite comfortable after the last minute handlebar stem swap out.

Although the forecast was promising showers for the day, the hot weather of the last couple of days had made me regret only bringing merino wool baselayers as they could be a little warm in the sunshine, so I rushed back into Decathlon to pick up the lightest synthetic t-shirt I could find, and followed that up by hunting down the Unimarc supermarket to pick up some supplies and a lighter, for my stove.

Finally, setting off along the coastal cycle path at just after 2 o’clock, I was now officially pedalling along the Carretera Austral. Less than a mile later the main road climbed steeply over a bluff, and I continued along the coast to avoid it, being passed by a couple of cyclists going the other way, which gave me hope that this could be a passable route, a hope that soon evaporated when the road turned to dirt a few metres later, and even more so when I encountered a large puddle of standing water covering the entirety of the road.

Never keen to retrace my steps, I climbed tentatively around the edge and carried on my way, passing a large number of surprisingly docile dogs, one of which looked like it’d jumped out of its fur when I emerged at its side, and pedalled by. Finally, the shoe was on the other foot.

Eventually, I rejoined the main road, Highway 7, and as I stopped at a bus stop to have a snack, the pair of cyclists that I’d seen going the other way earlier on, cycled past, having presumably also encountered the large puddle on the dirt road, but taken evasive action.
Shortly after I stopped for my first Empanada of the ride, similar to pasties, this one was of the chicken and cheese variety and was very pleasant.

Back on the road, I was soon hot on the heels of the cyclists from earlier, and I was gaining on them as I tackled the first climb of the route, one that proved tough in the warm sunshine, especially as I was still wearing my waterproof trousers after the earlier downpours.

Catching up with the pair as they stopped outside a shop, we quickly became introduced, they were a couple from Switzerland, Marlen and Pablo, although Pablo was originally from Argentina.

There was some debate as to whether any of us were planning on pushing on towards the Caleta La Arena ferry this evening, or whether we were hoping to find somewhere to camp sooner. Pedro had cycled this stretch in the opposite direction the year before so was hoping to stop at a campsite this side of the ferry, but in the end we missed it, so carried on up and over a couple of short hills to the ferry port, conveniently just as the ferry was arriving.

Disembarking at Caleta Puelche, it was only 4 km to what Google Maps showed – mysteriously – as ‘Camping y Glamping’, and our hearts sank when we arrived and it was deserted, but we made good use of Pablo’s native Spanish language skills to call the number in the window, and the host rushed along to make us feel at home.

In the end, we all decided that our tents could wait for another day, and the ‘glamping’ setup would do the trick, in this case, a large tent with bed, lights, and power. He also offered to make us burgers for dinner, so my stove could also remain happily ensconced within my panniers.

What Better Place Than Here?

With the possibility of a winter trip to Chile in mind, I did consider not going on a cycle tour in the summer, before, eventually deciding that I would be better to have the extra miles in the legs if I was to tackle a challenging route like the Carretera Austral, a route which comprises 40% dirt roads.

In the end, I enjoyed an excellent route through Norway, a country which I was expecting would offer similar challenges and climate to Patagonian Chile, however, considering the lengthy spells of good weather I enjoyed, perhaps it would be optimistic to expect the same again?

The journey started with a trio of flights, the middle flight of which would be, by some duration, the longest flight I’d ever been on, 15 hours it would take to whisk me from Heathrow to Santiago, Chile’s capital city. The flight passed quite quickly, probably largely because I knew I was unlikely to be able to sleep on the plane, so I lined up a series of films to see me through, taking in my first Christmas films of the season by watching Die Hard and Home Alone, perhaps a little late as my family had already had our own Christmas celebration two days prior to make up for the fact that I wouldn’t be around on the day.

After what seemed like another 15 hours, waiting to get through Passport Control at Santiago Airport, I was soon on my final flight, to Puerto Montt, the starting off point for my route. This flight also passed quite quickly, largely because I was chatting to a keen hiker, Zoe from Manchester, who had previously summited Mount Kilimanjaro and trekked to Everest base camp, and was travelling with her infant daughter Aurora. Zoe’s partner is Chilean and runs a hostel and guest house in Puerto Natales where my route will finish, so potentially somewhere to stay when I get that far.

On landing at Puerto Montt airport, my intention had been to get some form of transport to take me and my kit the 12 miles into town, but on collecting my bike box from the baggage carousel, it was looking a bit structurally unsound, so I decided to rip it open and set about putting my bike back together there and then.

For this tour, I am using a different bike from my previous tours, a Thorn Club Tour, that I have had for several years and bought with the main purpose of taking it on routes which would feature some poorer road surfaces. I have fitted a set of Schwalbe G-One Overland 45 mm tyres, hopefully they should soak up some of the bumps in the road.

Removing the bike from the box, everything looked fine, but I soon realised that I was missing a critical part of the back brake, a V-brake noodle which ensures the cable runs correctly, and without it the back brake wouldn’t work properly. I also noticed that changing the handlebar stem – at the last minute – had caused the rear derailleur cable housing to be pulled too tight, so the gears weren’t working particularly well either.

Luckily the route into Puerto Montt appeared to be quite flat, so I decided to see how I got on…

Making it into town, largely able to skirt along the shoulder of the road and thus avoiding some very heavy traffic, I quickly checked into my hotel for the next three nights, the Courtyard by Marriot, Puerto Montt, and rushed down the hill to Decathlon which, fortunately for me, happened to be open until half 9 in the evening, and also happened to sell the elusive V-brake noodles.

After finally getting some sleep that evening, I didn’t plan much for my first full day in Chile, paying a visit to the vast Jumbo supermarket, to pick up some sun tan lotion, and its companion homewares and DIY store, EASY, to pick up some wire cutters for the bike cables, insect repellent, and a gas canister.

My Christmas Day was largely spent working on the bike, the brakes were an easy fix, but the problem with the gear cable housing took substantially longer to deal with, involving unwrapping the bar tape and feeding the housing through the handlebars, before putting it all back together again.

Eventually, the bike was ready to go and I retired to the hotel restaurant to enjoy a traditional Christmas dinner of seafood soup and herb-crusted salmon with risotto.

Tomorrow I would be setting off along the Carretera Austral, and I still had a significant amount of packing to do…

Chile for January

It has not escaped my attention that 2026 will signify a decade since I started writing this blog, and so, I thought it would be a good opportunity to mark the occasion by ticking a fairly significant cycle-touring challenge off my list: namely, the Carretera Austral, or ‘Southern Highway’.

The Carretera Austral is an 800 mile sliver of tarmac and gravel, that cuts through a sparsely populated, and geographically complex, portion of Chile’s Patagonian Lake District. Begun by General Pinochet in 1976, the route was only fully realised in 2000, and links a series of tiny – previously isolated – coastal communities between Puerto Montt in the north, and Villa O’Higgins in the south.

As Villa O’Higgins is a long way from an airport that offers regular commercially-available flights, there is the added complication that I will need to push on farther south, via a combination of ferries and hike-a-bike, to reach a remote Argentinian border post near the popular trekking hub of El Chaltén, before continuing southwards and ultimately crossing back into Chile, ending the trip in Puerto Natales, which, conveniently, offers the dual purpose of providing a means to onward flights, and also acting as the perfect launchpad for visiting one of my longest-serving bucket list destinations, Torres Del Paine National Park.

It would be something of an understatement to say that I am extremely excited about having the opportunity to undertake this adventure, one that I had been contemplating for many years, before seriously considering it for last winter. Then, when I spotted that Pierre – who I cycled with in Vietnam in 2020 – was attempting the route, I was determined to get – not only – some advice about the challenges he had encountered, but also an endorsement that I should do it too…