Villa OHiggins!

We made it to the end of the Carreterra Austral, Villa O Higgins. It saved the best for last, in terms of spectecular scencry and great rideing. Long day to day and dinner is ready so more later or tomorrow.. All well..

Ripio, ripio, ripio....

Not going to write too much as Tina is also updating and a big lunch in waiting for us to eat.

Sending this from the small town of Cochrane deep in the Patagonia wilderness. The riding has been very hard but the scenery has been incredible with turquiose lakes surrounded by snow capped mountains and fast flowing rivers flanked by lush green forest.

The weather has been kind... it is getting ditinctly more cold as we head deeper and deeper south, the bikes are holding together, we are holding together and the road is very bumpy.

Hope all is well in the rest of the world.... until later,
TIM

Cochrane - Chile

Since leaving Coihaique the riding has been getting harder and the landscape more impresssive. We have had a first taste of the famous Patagonia winds and rain, and the road surface is getting pretty rough. The day before yesterday Tim broke 3 spokes in 10 km, but it all seems ok now and we still have a few spares. From Coihaiye we went through Cerro castillo National Park, stunning with the highest poin of the Carretera (1200m) and mutli-coloured bare mountains. Then past Villa Cerro Castilla were the seal ended and the road got rough and very hilly, nest was beautiful braided Rio Murta, then lovely vistas and lots and lots of short sharp hills along Lago General Carrerra, the second largest lake in South America. We are meeting 3-5 cycle tourists a day now, among them a lovely retired couple from the UK on their "vuelta the jubelation", journey of celebration or retierement. Camped in the valley on turquis, large Rio Barker last night. Next stop Villa O Higgins, the end of the carreterra austal, 230 km away, so stocked up on lots of food. From there it is the ferry to El Chalten in Argentina. Next bit of road is supposed to be stunning, so looking forward. Hoope everyone is well, Tina :)

Rest day Coyhaique

Having a lazy day today sorting out stuff and giving our bikes some much needed attention. The hostal were are camping at is very cosy and comfortable, it will be hard to leave tomorrow morning. But we have our ferry for the tansfer from Villa o higgings to El Chaletan booked for the 17th, that gives us six days for the next 600 km, so we better hit the road again. Coyhaique has a museum on the construction of the carreterra austral, but it is under re-construction unfortunately so we could not see it. I did not realise that the first section of the carreterra austral, i.e. between Coihaiue and Chaiten, was only completed in 1982. Amazing how much this region has already changed in the past 30 years. Apart from the national park most of the land along the road sides has been cleared for farming, and it feels like tourism has already become a major source of income.
Sorry, we cannot post photos yet, we may have to do that from home or if we come across a super-modern internet cafe. Saying that I did not expect the high speed internet and wifi everyone seems to have here..
All the best for now..

Coyhaique

We arrived in Coyhaique today, the capital of this region and the biggest town (45,000 people) we have seen on this trip by far. Did a big shop of fruit and veg in the supermarket, since they are hard to come by in the littlel towns and usually in a pretty sad state. Not surprisingly considering the roads! The hostel / campground were are staying at is real nice, so we will probably hang out here for tomorrow as well and rest up. Chiliean campgrounds in the national parks were a nice surprise so far, cheap and spacious and usually very quiet. In most we had our own private shelter and fireplace. Over the last days we made good progress thanks to the tarseal from the Puerto Cisnes turnoff onwards. We also did some walks in the Queulat national park, to the "hanging glacier" and "enchanted forest", both impressive in their own way. I loved the moss covered trees and humming birds. We saw a pair of condors cruising over our heads as well. It was kind off bizarre to hit perfect tarseal with a big shoulder and brand new fancy lookouts and picnic areas after the steep, ruggered, switchback climb just before, especially since there was hardly any traffic. Seems like Patagonia is getting ready for more tourism. Over the last three days we saw six other cycle tourer, so it seems to be quite popular for cyclists already. We had the first little taste of the famous wind yesterday, but only for a few hours and it was only a strong breeze. From tht we have been told there is worse to come, but we shall see. Our bikes seem to deal real well with the rough conditions, so far we have a few broken supports on the carriers and a broken spoke (all fixed). The weather is still warm and sunny during the day, thankfully not as hot as before. It gets quite cold at nice, and rained last night, but we were cosy in our huge luxury shelter that was actualy big enough to put the tent up in. So much for the moment. Hope you had a good start in the new year! :)

Carreterra Austral La Junta

Tim is writing the main blog today, but I want to write a few lines as well... The hot days are gone, we are in the west now, with misty drissle and much cooler temperatures. And it is actually a nice chance after the heat of Argentina. Please forgive any typos, half the letteres are gone on the keyboard. The landscape has been from nice to truely stunning pretty much the whole way from Bariloche. The road surfaces ranged from sealed to riverbed like gravel roads, deeply corruclated washboard to quite smooth gravel or clay on the Carreterra Austral. The rainforest is petty amazing, looking forward to doing some walking tomorrow. Most impressed by those huge leaved rhubarb-like plants. I just see that Tim is writing a major novel, so will stop here not to double up to much. Just want to say that we are well, eating too much and mostly enjoying ourselves (yesterday an exception obviously). Lots of love from Tina

The Carretera Austral

Happy New Year from Chile!

Since El Boson, Tina and I hit the ripio (gravel) roads of Argentina. They were a bit of a shock to be honest and it had me thinking wether we had seriously underestimated the next two months as most of way south will be on rippo. The road was bearly rideable, a mix of fist sized rocks and deep sand together with scprcing heat slowed out pace to a crawl. Luckily, it seemed to save the worst for first (well we hope so).

We meandered past the gorgous lak es in Los Alerces National Park on virtual traffic free roads, went fo a few short walks and made camp on the side of a river for New Years. The scenery was supurb, small rememnant glaciers hung high in the Andes and lush forest led all the way down tot he lakes, and there was barely ever a cloud in the sky. One thing I found interested was the flora. It resembeled the mountains of New Zealand closely. The forests were dominated by Nothofagus sp. (beech) with the odd podocarp intermersed for good measure. Even some of the birds were similar, I saw a bush wren looking bird (long since extinct in NZ) running around the bush!

We toasted the New Year in with a few beers with the fellow campers (early though as we were in bed by 11) and were up at the crack of dawn on New Years day eager to avoid the heat of the afternoons thats had been getting worse by the day. Just as we left the park we were astonished by a cavalcade of cars (that lasted all day) coming in the other direction, loaded to the hilt with various camping apparatus. Everyone had been telling us that Argentinians did not go on holiday until the New Years. We didn´t actually think that this meant that EVERYONE went on holiday first day of the year. Nevertheless, it was gret timing for us as we enjoyed a 20km strectch of ´pavimento´ before being thrust back into a hinesouly rough gravel road once more.

The route over the Andes to Chile strangely did not involve any major climbing, we simply slipped though a gap in the mountains following a river bed. The last day in Argentina was very hot.... up to 40C. The locals we met were astonished by the heat too.... one person told us it was the hottest day in December in living memory. It felt like it!

The first small town in Chile was Futaleufu, a mecca for white water kayakers and rafters in South America. It was a lovely little town in a stunning setting in a bowl of mountains. We spent a large portion of the day waiting outside the ATM while they tried to fix it. Eventualy they did, we got our all important Chilean Pesos and were set for the long strectch of wilderness ahead. We stayed the night at a peaceful little camp site on the river and jumping in for a swim pulled up a huge hunk of Didymo from the rocks... not pretty stuff.

Yesterday we hit the famed Carretera Austral. A road built with forced labout by Pinocet in to 70s to open up access to the southern portion of coastal Chile. The ride to it was stunning, through steeped gorged ravines, waterfalls and towering snowy peaks. It was also cloudy, slightly cool and there was even a touch of rain... it was bliss after the long wee of sun and heat we had had. Unfortunately during the descent we were one of the first on scene at a nasty traffic accident. We did what we could to help and after more help had arrived, we cycled on. I can´t really explain how it felt to leave after that.... just on with our holiday while behind us lives had changed for ever.

The ripio of the Carretera Australis is bliss compared with the rippo in Argentina... it is rideable, sometiomes fast and enjoyable. The road basically disects a wet forest with small farmletts here and there and the odd small town. The weather is damp but pleasant and we are looking forward to the road ahead.

I hope everyone is well and is enjoying the New Year... more updates from the road soon...