Chile’s most southern high way the Carretera Austral is 1238 km long and connects Villa O’Higgins in the South with Puerto Montt in the northern part of Patagonia. The Carreterra is also referred to as Ruta 7 and zigzagging all the way through Chilean Patagonia with about 18.000 meters of altitude. It’s about 70:30 paved with asphalt and gravel road.
O’Higgins in the South is a neat little town largely made of wooden houses: it is where we arrived with the boat from the Chilean-Argentinian boarder crossing.
The first couple of hundred kilometers of Ruta 7 are supposed to be the least “developed” and consist of gravel. However, the first days were surprisingly pretty good underground — cycling felt almost like on asphalt. We learned rapidly: there are many types of gravel.
On our first days on Ruta 7 we came across about 20 cyclists heading south. Too many to stop for each of them and have a chat. (Usually, it’s nice & helpful to exchange with cyclists about the next kilometres.) The more north we got, the less cyclists we met since the cycling season is coming to an end in late March & beginning of April.
The vegetation here is pretty jungle alike. Huge trees surrounded by all kinds of plants … everywhere. All again surrounded by snowy mountains overlooking the landscape. Being amidst all these plants made us feel surreal. A bit like Jurassic Park — just without the dinosaurs. 🙂 The roads wind constantly up and down and left and right so we could often see the respective other in front of panorama with jungle & mountains in the background.
We seemingly got lucky and had 4 very warm days with temperatures well above 20C — maybe a biiit too warm autumn in Patagonia? In these days we also cycled for about 1,5 days the western part of Lago Argentina, South Americas second largest lake with many spots to camp & beaches.
Right after the warm period we had a stark contrast: heavy rain came for more than a full day. The cold and humidity made us seek refuge on a small camping that also provided a little cabaña (shelter) with a fire place. Perfect to keep warm and smoke our wet clothes. 🔥
After around 200 km only on gravel there was the first 13 km stretch of asphalt just before the town of Cochrane. Cycling felt like flying compared the gravel roads before. In Cochrane we stayed two nights at a Warmshowers place where we did some yoga in the sunrise & helped gardening later. It felt great to do something with our hands.
The closer we got to the capital Coyhaique of Chile’s XI Region the more asphalt and “developed” it got. In Coyhaique we got hosted by Nico and his family. They are the organisers of the critical mass of Coyhaique: an international monthly bike demonstration. It took place right the day we arrived. We took part and got a free beer at a Patagonian-Belgian brewery.
by knOlle92