a journey by bike: January 2007

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Where are we now?

The Carretera Austral

The red line is getting frighteningly long and the green one is shrinking rapidly, we're starting to think we might actually make it!

We are now on the Carretera Austral, the road Pinochet built to link Patagonia with the rest of Chile to encourage the area to be populated. His reason being to deter those lovely Argentinians from invading bringing with them all their delicious icecream, chocolate, wine and steaks.

We are now in Coihaique (Coyhaique) around half way down. It's a great place to rest for a few days and to prepare for the rest of the road south.

There's been at least 4 earthquakes (tremors) since our arrival, centred around Volcano Hudson. I woke up last night with a start thinking there was a much larger tremor only to realise it was Sarah turning over in the top bunk!

Saturday, January 27, 2007 | Permalink

Thursday, January 25, 2007

1639km from Santiago, 30km to Coyhaique.

400km down the Carretera near Mañihuales.

A roadsign for the road heading north. Is it really useful to know the distance to Arica? Maybe it helps with planning toilet stops.

We hoped the weather would hold until we arrived at Coyhaique.

Coyhaique in the shadow of the massif behind. The town has 45,000 inhabitants more than half of all people living in the Chilean Austral region.

The storm arrives right on cue.

Black skies, but the rain has held off so far.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 | Permalink

Roadworks & sausages.

42km of roadworks made us feel at home.

Preparing for dinner. Note the perfectly whittled sausage sticks standing in the foreground.

Whittling is a dying art. Everyone should go out and whittle something today.

Clyde & Rich, send in some pictures of your whittlework and we'll put it on the blog.

Sausages and whittled bamboo skewers.

Our home in the forest.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 | Permalink

Green valleys, pointy peaks & precipitous places.

A small lake and another stunning and very pointy mountain.

This is the valley looking from the opposite end to the camping spot.

Cliffs along the road side cast the road into darkness.

For lazy climbers, the cragging all the way along the Carretera Austral is heaven sent.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 | Permalink

Bulls ears and sparrows.

Bulls ears collected before they go to the slaughter house. Why they couldn't just remove the tags isn't clear.

It's not really a sparrow, it's a condor a long way up riding the thermals.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 | Permalink

Sunset at the worlds best camp spot.

Setting up camp under the twin peaks of a patagonian mountain.

The last bit of sun hitting the summit.

Sarah's Alpkit Pipedream 600 sleeping bag being aired in the morning sun.

Packing and unpacking takes around 3 hours a day, but in places like this who cares?

The valley in the distance is where we would be riding for the rest of the morning.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 | Permalink

More glaciers, more waterfalls & more sunshine.

The sun shining on the Swiss contingent.

Look at those little cyclists in the bottom left corner.

Sarah. Totally out of control.

Another glacier hanging high over the road.

Clouds hiding the peaks.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 | Permalink

Ventisquero Colgante.

The Colgante Glacier part of the much bigger Queulat Glacier

Hanging off a huge cliff the amount of water coming from under the glacier was incredible.

Occasionally there'd be a thunderous crash of ice tumbling into the valley below.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 | Permalink

In flight meals, fondues & kangaroos.

We're no crash investigators but if you look closely you'll see a chimney on the roof.

Maybe there's a good reason they don't use woodburning stoves on planes, not even Ryan Air.

A suspension bridge in the Natioanal Park at Queulat.

Sarah fishing for our dinner.

After catching Ryan who was standing behind her, we decided to stick to spagetti and tomato sauce again.

A busy little camp. I failed to mention we'd also bumped into Ryan again who we'd last seen at Christmas.

We were now five.

Our first wet day on the famously wet Carretera was spent lounging in the Agua Termales at Puyuguapi. A well deserved rest.

The sun was shining and we were all back on the road.

The church with no walls at Puyuguapi.

Just another glacier.

An impressive suspension bridge but still a dirt road.

A nice yellow house with a dead pig hanging outside the living room window.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 | Permalink

Fast birds & the Carretera Austral

We hooked up with two Swiss Cyclists, Susan & Gaby and set off down the Carretera Austral on some nice asphalt.

After 20km the asphalt finished and the roadworks started.

It was lunchtime and this eagle was in a hurry to go and catch a trout for for lunch.

We'd also invested in some fishing equipment ready to catch trout at every stream.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 | Permalink

Eventually....a ferry and a rolling hotel.

Unfortuanely most of our time in Castro was spent standing outside the ferry office waiting for tickets. However, we met a diverse group of travellers and ended up having a great day with some very funny people.

The tourists on this truck didn't have our problems as their every need was catered for on this 'rolling hotel'. They even slept in the trailer in tiny pods which looked frighteningly similar to what you might expect to see in a morgue!