Tag: cycle

Villa O’Higgins: At The End of The Road

I was almost at the end of the road. After Villa O’Higgins, the road continued for 7 kilometres more to Puerto Bahamondez, where the only option was to take a boat across Lago O’Higgins to Candelario Mancilla, 1 km from a Chilean border post and 20 km of no man’s land in a disputed area with Argentina.

Eventually, I’d reach the Argentinian border post, and then have to cross Lago Del Desierto on a small tourist boat, before pedalling out the 20 or so miles to the Argentinian mountain resort of El Chaltén, in a popular hiking area.

The next morning, I made for the Ruedas De La Patagonia office as soon as I got up, only to find that it wouldn’t be opening until 11 o’clock. After a wander around town and finding what was clearly the best stocked supermarket, I returned to check on the possibility of booking a place on the boat.

The ticket agent shook his head, ‘oh no no no no, Monday’, he said. Ok great, I said. That would be fine. He asked if I also wanted booked on the second boat, across Lago Del Desierto while I was at it. Yes, please, and thank you.

On the Friday night, on my last stretch into Villa O’Higgins, I’d finally had reception after a day and a half in the wilderness, and I received numerous messages from Desiree all at once. She was hoping I was doing ok in the bad weather, telling me that her accommodation at Giselle’s in Caleta Tortel was great, that she was feeling exhausted on her day off, that she’d got up for an early morning hike, and that she’d got back on the road, before taking a lift to the Puerto Yungay ferry, from Felipe, who was Chilean, was travelling in a campervan, and she had met before back down the road at El Blanco campsite.

From the ferry, she’d then pedalled to the Río Blanco María campsite, so she was now only around 50 miles from Villa O’Higgins. Her rental bike was to be returned in Villa O’Higgins on the Monday, and my ferry was now scheduled for the Monday too, it seemed possible now, that I might see her again, beforehand.

As it happened, she had a great day on the Saturday, in beautiful weather, making it 50 km to the glacier-clad mountain that I’d seen the day before, and leaving herself 30 km to do on the Sunday, to reach Villa O’Higgins.

The rest of my weekend was largely spent wandering backwards and forwards between the campsite and the town, a walk of under ten minutes. It was a picturesque little location, but an incredibly sleepy town. I did need to stock up on some supplies for my planned long day to El Chaltén, and of course I needed to keep stocking up for my extended stay in Villa O’Higgins as well.

Then late on the Sunday afternoon, just as Desiree was arriving in town, she messaged me asking if I wanted to cycle with her to the end of the road, as her bike would be getting returned the next day, and she wanted to make it to the end before she took it back.

We had a pleasant ride in warm sunshine, and soon covered the 7 km to the port, despite having to wait for a campervan to be rescued from a ditch, a short distance from the end.
It was a lovely moment and Desiree, was delighted to accomplish what had probably seemed like a – potentially – unrealistic goal, for someone with no previous experience of this type of trip.

We decided to celebrate by going out for dinner, and were almost ready to go when I received the bombshell news, that the boat crossing on the Monday was cancelled. I looked ahead at the forecast, the weather didn’t look any better on the Tuesday. Oh dear, I thought, before accepting that I could now have an extra couple of beers to accompany the excellent burger at La Travesia, restaurant. And, what would be the harm in a little Calafate Pisco Sour as well?

After an unintentional cake breakfast at Café Norwest 340 – due to it being all that they served – it was now Monday afternoon, and I still had not received an update about the boat, and wasn’t really sure about what to do next. The options were, wait for a boat, which was – very much – at the mercy of the weather, before taking 2 buses, totalling over 400 km: the first from El Chaltén to El Calafate, in Argentina, and the second from El Calafate to Puerto Natales, back into Chile, where I had a flight booked on the Thursday morning. The alternative was, it seemed, to get myself back along the Carretera Austral to Coyhaique, with my bike, hope to pick up a box there, and then make for Balmaceda airport – by Thursday evening – when a flight was available. A third, more costly, option was to keep waiting for a boat, and hope I could eventually make it for a 7 hour flight from El Calafate airport, to Santiago, via Buenos Aires.

Desiree, left me pondering the decision, to help Felipe set up a BBQ, at his campsite, that he’d invited us to that evening. Too tired to decide what best to do, I fell asleep, only to awake 45 minutes later to several messages from her to say that she’d heard from the boat company and there was a sailing on the Tuesday. The message she forwarded didn’t seem to state that, but it did say that the safe passage form I’d filled in to cross the border would still be valid for the next day, which only seemed relevant if there was to be a boat.

I rushed along to the office, and was delighted to find out that it was true, there was a boat scheduled for 5 AM on the Tuesday morning, and the man would WhatsApp me the details. In an instant, my trip was saved. I rushed along to the BBQ to tell the the others the good news, and then we had a very pleasant evening taking it in turns to jam on Felipe’s 3/4-sized travel guitar that he carried in the van.

Day 19: Caleta Tortel – Puerto Yungay

Distance: 27.18 miles

Time: 3:55

Elevation Gain: 2,336 feet

The next day, Desiree was taking a rest day, and I was pushing on the 45 km or so to Puerto Yungay ferry terminal, ideally in time to make the last ferry at 7 o’clock, and continue the 8 miles to Río Bravo María campsite.

By the time that we headed out for lunch though, that was already seeming optimistic, and I soon started to realise that it was likely I’d be arriving at the ferry port after the last ferry had already left, and I’d be camping in the vicinity of the port.

This feeling was reinforced quite quickly, when Desiree, liking the look of the Calafate cake in a craft shop, proposed the idea of having coffee and cake first, and then going for lunch straight after. Sounded like my kind of plan.

The cake was delicious, and the boardwalk around the harbour offered up fantastic views of the layout of the town, as it reached upwards from the coast. A short chat with some construction workers informed us that the wooden boards used in the creation of the walkways required to be replaced every 12 years, no doubt maintaining the place was a year round occupation.

We moved on to El Mirador restaurant for lunch, and when the waitress pointed out that there were only 3 items on the menu, and one of them was salmon, it was a fairly easy choice in what to have, for both of us.

It was almost 4 PM, before I finally moved on, but it had been a very pleasant day so far, so I wasn’t regretting not getting back on the road in the morning when the forecast was good.

It was a tough stretch back out of Caleta Tortel, into the wind, and I hadn’t got very far at all, when I passed the Colombian couple from 2 nights before on their way into town.

If I thought that the initial part was tough, I hadn’t seen anything yet. Conditions had worsened when I reached the bottom of the climb over to Puerto Yungay, and the sign at the bottom warned of 20 km of dangerous curves. Sounded fun.

The opening hairpins were unrideable and I was forced to push up what seemed like a steep open boulder field. As the road climbed, the views back down towards the river had virtually disappeared into the gloom.

The next part was direct, steep and narrow, and with the addition of a few cars making their way over the pass, it was a tricky part to navigate, but eventually the road climbed onto a plateau and swept past Lago Caiquen.

Dropping down the other side, I had to manoeuvre my way around a truck that had skidded into the safety barrier, and was now stuck, at times having to battle with my bike to stop it doing the same, thanks to brakes that were struggling in the wet conditions.

Eventually, at almost 9 o’clock, I rolled down the hill towards the ferry port at Puerto Yungay, dragging my bike up a ramp towards a building with a porch which offered some shelter from the rain, while I looked for somewhere to pitch my tent.

Soon after, I heard voices from inside, and then someone opened the door. You can sleep in here if you want, said one of a pair of German cyclists, Fabian and Noah, who were inside a waiting area that was apparently there for the usage of cyclists.

Fabian and Noah had teamed up while waiting, for several days, for the boat, at Candelario Mancilla, perhaps a precursor of things to come for myself as I’d be taking the same boat in the opposite direction. Yes they had the phone number for the ferry company they said, and that was the first I’d had the correct one, it was evidently a very popular service, I didn’t have a booking and now I was stuck a day away from Villa O’Higgins, without any signal. There was a boat scheduled for the day after next, and unless I was very lucky, I wouldn’t be on it.

Day 13: Villa Cerro Castillo – Camping Doña Dora

Distance: 51.93 miles

Time: 7:28

Elevation Gain: 3,878 feet

Although the next stop on my itinerary was Doña Dora campsite, more than 50 miles away, I was still riding with Desiree and was aware that she was a lot newer to this than me, so my thought for today was to split the 73 miles to Puerto Río Tranquilo more evenly into two days, and see where we ended up, with the possible option of a wild camp in what was quite a remote section.

We stopped off at a fruteria and the supermarket to stock up on supplies before setting off out of town, there was a long climb to start the day, but the views we were seeing, and the ones we were heading too, of the Cerro Castillo mountain massif made it all worthwhile.

Soon we reached the dreaded ‘fin pavimento’ sign, where, effectively, the tarmac ran out for the rest of the route. And, when it did, it was replaced with the worst surface imaginable, large chunky stones right across the carriageway, and with a regular procession of trucks and pick up trucks for company.

The views along the Río Ibáñez remained sensational, with one sweeping downhill bend offering incredible views of the river’s flood plain and an en-widened meander in the glacially-fed river.

Once we reached level ground, down alongside the river now, the going was tough. There was a strong headwind, the first occasional showers for a week or so, and the road surface itself was punishing, with an occasional smoother track near the middle, and with patches of washboard, alongside deep pools of dry dust as the road dropped towards the edges, oftentimes where we forced by the fast-moving oncoming traffic.

A little low in energy, and certainly in motivation, Desiree had stopped up off the road up ahead, to take on some fuel. She had already forewarned me for what might happen next, that she was going to try to get a lift in a pickup truck. Not happy at having to abandon her by the side of the road, I offered to stay until she found a ride. But she remained resolute, she did this all the time, and she’d be fine, and as someone who’d lived in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Myanmar, she was probably in a better educated position to say that than most.

I re-evaluated the situation, it was nearly 4 o’clock and I’d only covered 15 miles or so, some of which had been extremely rough and punishing, however, I started to make strong progress in the challenging conditions, and quickly re-set my target for the day to Doña Dora campsite, which would be 50 miles for the day.

For 10 miles I pushed on, making good headway, until I reached a long steep slope of thick damp dirt, my wheels skidding on the peculiar surface, until I reached a layby, near the top, and stopped to take in the views of another fine bridge far below.

At that point, there was a toot from a passing pickup and I spotted Desiree happily waving from the passenger seat, it seemed likely she’d continue all the way to Puerto Río Tranquilo today.

After the long steep hill, the road started to undulate steeply along the side of Laguna Verde, and this trend in road profile remained, even when I reached a pronounced bend in the road, with my direction switching from West to South, and the delight of escaping the headwind, tempered by repeatedly energy sapping climbs.

The road was in a high valley along the river when I pedalled the last few miles to Doña Dora campsite at 10 o’clock, only shortly before dark. The camping spot was in sparsely populated forest-land at a farm, and the sole other occupants were an Argentinian couple with a campervan, who were hunkered down in a cosy communal cabin maintaining the fire, it was much appreciated when I was cooking up some pasta in the early hours of the morning.

Day 11: Coyhaique – El Blanco

Distance: 24.5 miles

Time: 3:17

Elevation Gain: 2,018 feet

After a reasonable sleep in the hotel, I was feeling tired after the long day in the hot sun, yesterday. Today was to be even hotter, peaking at 29°, so after breakfast, as I considered the possibility of packing up all my equipment and getting back on the road, I also considered the fact that this was roughly the half way point of the route between Puerto Montt and Villa O’Higgins, and I still had plenty of time to spare, so I came up with a better plan, take a day off. Unheard of for me on a trip, after the pedalling had started, but there we go. I booked another night in the hotel, and made for the sauna as that seemed a sensible idea when it was almost 30° outside. My watch had told me that I was only 32° acclimatised to the heat conditions, so clearly there was some work to do.

In the afternoon, I popped along to the pharmacist to pick up some eyedrops, in case there were dust based issues down the road, and then I made for the hardware store to pick up some WD-40, to give my bike a little TLC before the tarmac ran out for good.

In the evening, I headed into town, with my sights set on the best pizzeria around, Mamma Gaucha, which was handily placed on the one short pedestrianised area in the centre.

As I approached, I suddenly realised that I recognised the party of three sitting at one of the few tables outside. Or I thought I did, before realising that it was the German girl and the Dutch guy from the group of three cyclists that I’d met before, but on this occasion they were with another cyclist, Jan, from Sweden. I didn’t have to wait long for the Australian from the original trio to join the party. Would I like to join them, yes that sounded like an excellent idea.

One Hot Honey Pepperoni pizza and a few IPAs later, someone had the bright idea of finding another bar, and that we did, finding what seemed like a small local bar that was quite empty on what was a Monday night. But, as the night went on the bar got busier and busier, and then the Karaoke started…

As we all made to leave, at after 2 in the morning, I felt that it was no longer too soon to ask the question. So, what are your names? And now I can share for posterity, that the German girl is called Klara, the Dutch guy is Ry and the Australian is Marcus.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the next morning, I was in no rush to leave town, so I headed in the direction of the supermarket, stopping at the bike shop to pick up some handlebar tape en route.

On reaching the supermarket, one of the German couple was guarding their bikes outside, so I went to say hello. This was Fabian and his partner was Helena. 100 yards down the street I bumped I into the Swiss couple from the campsite the other night, on their way to lunch. Pierre and Claire, who were keen to know that my eyes had improved. Coyhaique had been an excellent place to be for bumping into fellow Carretera cyclists, and even better for finding out their names.

Before I left town, I sat in the square and wrapped a second roll of handlebar tape around my bars, anticipating that my hands would be less keen on the gravel roads than they had been on the tarmac.

After lunch, I set off on what would be part 2 of the Carretera Austral, things were about to become a little more challenging, but first I’d amble along the 20 miles to El Blanco, and leave the climbing for tomorrow.