Villa O´Higgins is the start of the Carretera Austal, a gravel road that winds its way 1200 km up the mountains of Southern Chile. It is also where I started riding again properly after a very frustrating 3 weeks off the bike.
Myself and Blenka stocked up with the obligatory mountain of bread needed for a few days riding, said goodbye to Jay ( who was getting a bus to Coyhaique because of his knee) and set off into the miserable weather. It wasnt long until we had experienced another typical perculiarity of the Pategonian weather - the fact that you can get all four seasons in one day ( or the "crowded house effect" ). Within minutes we had gone from waterproofs to tshirt and shorts and couldnt stop saying how great the weather was. A couple of hours later however we were back to freezing cold rain and wind in our faces and were cowering in the trees by the side of the road shivering and generally being quite depressed!
What we did really notice on this leg of the trip is how much the weather and terrain affects our mood, we feel like manic drepressives going from incredibly high highs to horrible lows a few times a day as the weather and terrain continually keep switching from deep gravel up hills, with the driving rain soaking us through, to adrenaline pumping downhills in the sun, riding through spectaular valleys and mountains.
It was a 230km, four day ride to Cochrane, the first town of any size (3000 population) on the Austral. This took us through possibly the toughest leg of the Austral where the road is realy bad gravel (a combination of sand, gravel, pebbles, ruts and potholes
and the hills seem to go straight up the hillsides rather than attempting to go along any valleys! There were also some incredible sights and scenes along the way here to provide the "highs", in fact the most amazing scenery I think I have seen so far since we have been in South America. We also had some interesting camping along here, one night staying at a campsite in the middle of nowhere that was all a bit "Deliverance", with an old guy that wanted to show Blenka his colection of "arty" magazines. We made a quick exit that morning - I didnt want to hear any piggies squeeling!
We had a day off in Cocherane, theres not much in the town itself, but it was still pretty good to see a bit of civilization for a couple of days. We also bumped into Walter, an old Austrian hitch hiker (who loves his pisco and never seems to eat) for the third time here (after Puerto Natales and El Chalten).
The journey from Cocherane was another 6 days to Coyhaique, the largest town on the Austral where we would spend New Years Eve. We set off with four days food which included 1.2kg pasta, 500g instant potato, 8 packets of assorted powdered soups and suaces, 8 oranges, 4 apples, 1.5kg porrage oats, 1kg jam, 8 chocolate bars, and 56 bread rolls (which were gone in 3 days). We left Cochrane on Christmas Eve, meaning we would be riding on Christmas day. Myself and Blenk had decided we would just ignore the fact it was Christmas day instead of trying to celebrate, and have a big celebration in Coyhaique instead. As it turned out Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both really nice sunny days, the first couple of good days since Villa O Higgins, and we even found a bakery open on Christmas day so we treated ourselves to a Christmas Empanada (South American pasty). Bizarrely we also saw turkeys wandering about on Chrismas Eve and Christmas day, a sight we havnt seen before or since. Christmas dinner that night consisted of a mighty feast of instant potato, tinned mackeral and pepper sauce, our finest trail dinner to date
We went to bed that night feeling suitibly stuffed, as you should be on Christmas Day 
The remaing days riding were the usual mix of weather and hills. About 150 km from Coyhaique we hit a good patch that consisted of a 20km downhill and then 20km of tailwinds, the unexpected boost in distance that day made us decided to try and reach Coyhaique a day early ( we really wanted a shower at this point! ) but this would mean we´d have a 100km day to ride. Seeing as this was all on a rare stretch of paved road, and encouraged by a Dutch guy who had done it going the other way we though it was worth trying.
The final day started with a nice 5km downhill along the most amzing valley I have seen so far ( it says something about the Austral that I seem to think this every other vally we go through, but then reached the start of a 6 km climb switching back and forth up the side of a mountain to 1120m, our highest altitude yet (for a comparison Snowdon is 1085m). The climb actually wasnt nearly as bad as we had expected it to be, the thought of the impending downhill always seems to motivate you enough to get up the up hill. However, at the very peak of the pass we turned a corner into some of the worst weather we have seen. I had been in my Tshirt and shorts so was already soaked by the time I had my waterproofs on. we then had icy head winds for the downhill we had been waiting for making us completely freezing within minutes. I was on quite a low at this point and suggested we seek shelter in a hut was passed to dry off and warm up a bit. I was very miserable, very very miserable. Im not sure i´ve ever been so cold in my life as i was going down that hill (well thats what I though at the time, not being able to feel my fingers, and Blenka knows, I really didnt want to get out of that shelter! But we managed to warm up with some dry clothes and pressed on to the next vally where the weather was much better.
We went on for the rest of the day making good progress until about 60km where we hit a strong headwind (people going the other way never tell you about their tailwinds. These last 40km were tough, I think it was a combination of not eating enough, the tough climbs and weather earlier and the extra distance we did that day, but by 80km both me and Blenka were absolutely shattered. We had nothing left, the only thing keeping us going was the fact that we had come so far and a hostal and shower were now only 20 km away ( and someone had told us the last 20km were mostly downhill, although this was the same person who didnt say the last 40km were into strong headwinds.
After 104km and 9 hours in the saddle, my longest day so far by a long way, we rolled up to the hostal in Coyhaique where jamie had been staying. Im not sure ive ever been to pleased to get somewhere!
Myself and Blenka stocked up with the obligatory mountain of bread needed for a few days riding, said goodbye to Jay ( who was getting a bus to Coyhaique because of his knee) and set off into the miserable weather. It wasnt long until we had experienced another typical perculiarity of the Pategonian weather - the fact that you can get all four seasons in one day ( or the "crowded house effect" ). Within minutes we had gone from waterproofs to tshirt and shorts and couldnt stop saying how great the weather was. A couple of hours later however we were back to freezing cold rain and wind in our faces and were cowering in the trees by the side of the road shivering and generally being quite depressed!
What we did really notice on this leg of the trip is how much the weather and terrain affects our mood, we feel like manic drepressives going from incredibly high highs to horrible lows a few times a day as the weather and terrain continually keep switching from deep gravel up hills, with the driving rain soaking us through, to adrenaline pumping downhills in the sun, riding through spectaular valleys and mountains.
It was a 230km, four day ride to Cochrane, the first town of any size (3000 population) on the Austral. This took us through possibly the toughest leg of the Austral where the road is realy bad gravel (a combination of sand, gravel, pebbles, ruts and potholes
and the hills seem to go straight up the hillsides rather than attempting to go along any valleys! There were also some incredible sights and scenes along the way here to provide the "highs", in fact the most amazing scenery I think I have seen so far since we have been in South America. We also had some interesting camping along here, one night staying at a campsite in the middle of nowhere that was all a bit "Deliverance", with an old guy that wanted to show Blenka his colection of "arty" magazines. We made a quick exit that morning - I didnt want to hear any piggies squeeling!We had a day off in Cocherane, theres not much in the town itself, but it was still pretty good to see a bit of civilization for a couple of days. We also bumped into Walter, an old Austrian hitch hiker (who loves his pisco and never seems to eat) for the third time here (after Puerto Natales and El Chalten).
The journey from Cocherane was another 6 days to Coyhaique, the largest town on the Austral where we would spend New Years Eve. We set off with four days food which included 1.2kg pasta, 500g instant potato, 8 packets of assorted powdered soups and suaces, 8 oranges, 4 apples, 1.5kg porrage oats, 1kg jam, 8 chocolate bars, and 56 bread rolls (which were gone in 3 days). We left Cochrane on Christmas Eve, meaning we would be riding on Christmas day. Myself and Blenk had decided we would just ignore the fact it was Christmas day instead of trying to celebrate, and have a big celebration in Coyhaique instead. As it turned out Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both really nice sunny days, the first couple of good days since Villa O Higgins, and we even found a bakery open on Christmas day so we treated ourselves to a Christmas Empanada (South American pasty). Bizarrely we also saw turkeys wandering about on Chrismas Eve and Christmas day, a sight we havnt seen before or since. Christmas dinner that night consisted of a mighty feast of instant potato, tinned mackeral and pepper sauce, our finest trail dinner to date
We went to bed that night feeling suitibly stuffed, as you should be on Christmas Day The remaing days riding were the usual mix of weather and hills. About 150 km from Coyhaique we hit a good patch that consisted of a 20km downhill and then 20km of tailwinds, the unexpected boost in distance that day made us decided to try and reach Coyhaique a day early ( we really wanted a shower at this point! ) but this would mean we´d have a 100km day to ride. Seeing as this was all on a rare stretch of paved road, and encouraged by a Dutch guy who had done it going the other way we though it was worth trying.
The final day started with a nice 5km downhill along the most amzing valley I have seen so far ( it says something about the Austral that I seem to think this every other vally we go through
, but then reached the start of a 6 km climb switching back and forth up the side of a mountain to 1120m, our highest altitude yet (for a comparison Snowdon is 1085m). The climb actually wasnt nearly as bad as we had expected it to be, the thought of the impending downhill always seems to motivate you enough to get up the up hill. However, at the very peak of the pass we turned a corner into some of the worst weather we have seen. I had been in my Tshirt and shorts so was already soaked by the time I had my waterproofs on. we then had icy head winds for the downhill we had been waiting for making us completely freezing within minutes. I was on quite a low at this point and suggested we seek shelter in a hut was passed to dry off and warm up a bit. I was very miserable, very very miserable. Im not sure i´ve ever been so cold in my life as i was going down that hill (well thats what I though at the time, not being able to feel my fingers, and Blenka knows, I really didnt want to get out of that shelter! But we managed to warm up with some dry clothes and pressed on to the next vally where the weather was much better.We went on for the rest of the day making good progress until about 60km where we hit a strong headwind (people going the other way never tell you about their tailwinds
. These last 40km were tough, I think it was a combination of not eating enough, the tough climbs and weather earlier and the extra distance we did that day, but by 80km both me and Blenka were absolutely shattered. We had nothing left, the only thing keeping us going was the fact that we had come so far and a hostal and shower were now only 20 km away ( and someone had told us the last 20km were mostly downhill, although this was the same person who didnt say the last 40km were into strong headwinds.After 104km and 9 hours in the saddle, my longest day so far by a long way, we rolled up to the hostal in Coyhaique where jamie had been staying. Im not sure ive ever been to pleased to get somewhere!
