Beginning the Carraterra Austral

We left Villa O'Higgins feeling supremely confident about our cycling ability as we sped speedily past a chainsmoking Frenchman pulling a trailer. With water cascading from hundreds of waterfalls straight from the glacier just above us we no longer needed to carry our body weight in water and it made a huge difference. Sadly this confidence dissolved rapidly in the rain that began to fall and we ducked into an unused house after 40 km to dry off. With the rain falling heavily we managed just another 15km to another refugio in the form of a small wooden cabin where we managed to relight the fire and spend a dry and warmish night.

The rain had only intensified by morning and we resigned ourselves to getting thoroughly wet as we forced ourselves to leave in the early afternoon. The views were beautiful but with our extremities freezing rapidly we weren't in the highest of spirits as we made it to the ferry crossing. We leaked onto the boat and aggressively hugged the two radiators on board for the duration of the crossing. On the other side we joined a Swede, an Argentinian and a German in another purpose built refugio and very slowly warmed our cockels.

The next day brought better weather but with it news of floods further up the road. With the road ahead blocked and running low on cooking gas we changed plans and detoured to Tortel, a tiny village built on stilts beside a lake. With all the heavy rain a section of this road was flooded as well but a helpful fella popped us in a truck and drove us through the worst of it. A dog, soon to be named Yungay followed us the 40km to town and stayed dutifully by our side for the next 2 days before we managed to persuade her to follow another cyclist back home.

We spent a relaxing day wandering about Tortel, and met an awesome Canadian family embarking on their 7 month cycling trip around South America with a 4 and 5 year old cycling in tow. We spent the following morning waiting with them for the almost ever present rain to subside before setting off again in the afternoon.

The road for the next few weeks is unpaved and our skinny tyres have about as much grip on the road as teenage girl has on her emotions. As people fly past us with what seem like bus tyres on their bikes we slip and slide onwards at a much gentler rate. We happened upon an impromptu campsite in the evening and joined the wine, chocolate and campfire provided by our American, Swiss and French neighbours for the night (and Zoro the dog who had followed them for their 60km ride).

A bumpy and slippery journey the following day brought us (and Zoro) into Cochrane where we are loading up on supplies before heading onwards later today.

A glacier, a lot more wind and a spectacular border crossing

We spent our rest day visiting the Perito Morino glacier, an immense 70 metre high, 6km wide river of ice that is like nothing we had ever seen before.


We left El Chalten in optimistic spirits, the wind catapulting us 20 miles in the first hour without a sweat broken. The road turned sharply North whilst the wind sadly did not. The roads wound their way through desert like terrain and we made our way to an abandoned hostel beside a river, our first stop. The next day was harder and the day after that was the hardest of the trip. We rose before dawn in a futile attempt to beat the wind which battered us all day as the road climbed into the mountains. We were both thrown from our bikes on several occasions and the final 10 miles was torturous. But out of nowhere a 1km sign arrived and we struggled into town as tired as we have been, but, in theory, having come to the end of the winds that afflict this part of the world.


The Argentinian / Chilean border has been fought over in recent years and now lies on a small patch of land straddled between two lakes, Lago del Desierto and Lago O'Higgins. So two days, two boats, a bit of cycling and a 6 hour trek dropped us gracefully back into Chile.

We left El Chalten on a dirt road that wound its way 40 kms down to Lago del Desierto. The sun was out, the wind barely tickled us and the views were stunning. We reached the harbour around 4 and got ourselves a passenger boat that crossed the lake to the North shore. We set up camp beside the lake overlooking Mount Fitz Roy and prepared ourselves for the following day.

We awoke to rain, and as is our cowardly habit, we stayed firmly enveloped in our sleeping bags until 12 when the clouds parted and we prepared for a good old fashioned hike with a bike. The path that led us towards Chile was the width of a bike and had us pushing, pulling and carrying our bikes as we slipped around in the mud like tadpoles. After around an hour we came to our first river crossing and as Anna wandered off for a nature wee Matt took the sensible option and elected to carry over the electronics bag before attempting to move our other posessions. After a tentative and successful first step, the blundering second broke through the branch and left him flapping around in the water like a wet chicken. It was at this well timed point that Anna returned to point out the nicely formed bridge 5 metres away.

The journey continued in a slightly soggier manner and we crossed a few more streams more successfully, a bog, not quite as successfully and arrived out of the forest at what could almost be described as a road after a couple more hours.The steep downhill overlooking the huge turquoise lago O'Higgins was treacherous but we survived a couple of gentle falls to arrive at the Chilean border post. Just 1km further and we caught the last boat for two days with just 1 minute to spare. 3 hours on the water, a weary 7 kms into town and we have arrived at the start of the Carraterra Austral, a gravel road that stretches 2000km through Southern Chile.

Making actual progress...

This blog entry isn't half as interesting as the last one, which I am happy to say is due to our relative success and lack of tears that have been spilt in the last week.

With those tearful days still fresh in our windswept memories we checked the weather forecast for the following day and promptly crawled back into bed for a second, perfectly sheltered, rest day.

The decision proved an inspired one as we began cycling, pushing our legs in a circular motion as before, but this time moving forwards at surprising speed. This was a bit more like what we had planned. The winds barely hampered our progress as we propelled ourselves up the coast. That day was the easiest yet, but we made the most ground. We stopped to camp in a picturesque little field beside the ocean. On closer inspection we found around 20 lamb carcasses, got a bit scared and moved on to a place with a little less dead things.

The next day was similarly calm and progress was good, we easily outstripped the herd/pack/gaggle of emus that raced beside us. Day three followed a similar pattern until the winds picked up as we approached Puerto Natales. Although enduring a tough final 10km, we were feeling happy and nicely overconfident as we dug into our evening steaks.

We had another day to let the bikes rest before heading back to Argentina. They needed it, I fail to believe that anyone else has ever done this cycling touring lark carrying several kilos of condiments around with them. We spent a rainy and windy morning climbing to the border, and then about 5 minutes going down the other side. The day brightened up and it was a beautiful day winding our way beside a river. The next 3 days followed in a similar vein, with us making good progress and passing fantastic scenery (and flamingos). On the evening of the third day we turned a corner and began a 20km descent overlooking spectacular views of Lago Argentino and the surrounding countryside. One more morning spent battling against the wind and we have arrived in El Calafate. For the first time ahead of schedule.


                                 Donate lots of money to Casa de Sara please!

 

Leaving Tierra del Fuego...

"I hate this", "I can't do this", "this isn't fun anymore", "I'm done", "I quit,"; these are just a few of the strategically censored outbursts that have been uttered in the last 6 days. But, we made it.... a tiny bit further up South America.

When I was sat in a cozy living room in Vermont I wrote down a neat little table of travel distances and proposed time taken on a piece of paper, I have now destroyed that piece of paper. What I originally thought would take us 3 easy days has taken us 6 incredibly sore ones.

It took us two relatively uneventful days to reach the Chilean border. I remember thinking at the time that it was a difficult two days but compared to the following few it was like cycling round a beautiful wooded park in Guildford. We arrived at the border to find two fresh grievances, firstly, that the Chileans hadn't bothered to pave their roads, and secondly that they wanted to take away our food. We spent 20 minutes eating our way through several carrots, pineapples, peaches and other veg before crossing into Chile, our 2nd country of the trip.

After camping in a disused house by the police station on the 2nd night the road turned West towards Punta Arenas. Sadly, the wind, which had never really bothered me in my life before this trip, decided to blow due East at 60kmph. Putting that together with the gravel road and we were pushing hard and still averaging less than 5 miles an hour. You can't really go anywhere if you're averaging less than 5 miles an hour. With miles of flat open spaces, the only place to camp we could find was in a beautiful ditch beside the road.

We had barely left that ditch the following day when talk of quitting reached unprecedented levels, the winds hadn't abated at all and progress was pathetic and exhausting. Rain was sporadic and moods were at an all time low. The chances of us reaching Punta Arenas before we ran out of food and water were looking dismal. We even attempted hitchhiking for a while but (thankfully) nobody picked us up. It wasn't until around 4 that the winds died down a little bit, the road got slightly less holey and we set out determined to make some progress. We crept closer, spending the night in a small valley with a group of llamas, sheep, a fox and even an owl as our neighbours.

We awoke determined but on seeing the rain and the wind we crawled back into our tent for a few more hours. We struggled onwards in the afternoon but ran out of water and had to hike to a farm to replenish our containers. Again it was the evening when we made some progress, the winds reducing slightly as we hit the coast and some very Scottish looking scenery and made it to 35 kilometres from our destination by 9.

Up at dawn and we were on our way, the wind and rain subsiding as we approached Porvenir where we bought some food, a couple of cervezas and boarded the ferry off the Tierra del Fuego. A few hours later and we were in Punta Arenas eating an obscenely large steak and feeling pretty good about things.

Tomorrow we continue towards Torres del Paine, and hopefully on the way we will meet some friendly penguins.

4 Days, 136 miles, 3 cries, rain, snow, sleet, sun and unbelievable wind. And 4 very sore cheeks.

Well this is not quite as easy as I had planned, this lovely little warm up ride took us an extra day and damaged face, groin and knees to name just three.

The beginning was perfect, we cycled at a rapid rate, defying the weight in our panniers and the rain in our faces. It wasn't until 200 metres down the road that we hit trouble. Anna's pedal broke and we had a 20 minute break trying to fix it. The rain hit hard after about 10 miles, switching to a bit of snow and sleet for a while before settling again on driving rain. We were soaked and shivering as we crawled to halt after just 21miles. Anna had been blown off her bike once, and ended the day with bags on her hands in an attempt to keep them warm. We found a camp ground of sorts, setting our tent up in a plastic igloo and warming and drying ourselves and possessions in the next door restaurant. Matt attempted to dry off his fashionable fluorescent jacket and proceeded to burn it comprehensively on the radiator.

Day two brought sunny skies and incredible scenery as we passed through the mountains. The wind was behind us and we made much better progress, leaving the snow behind. We even befriended a dog who dutifully ran along beside us for several miles. The day was a success aside from having incredibly burned faces. We managed to pick up some food and water in a village and camp just outside it, beside a beautiful little lake.

Day three brought the wind. All day the wind was against us or from the side, so strong that we could barely stay on the bikes let alone make much progress. We had aimed to cycle the rest of the distance to Rio Grande but had to reassess things. Downhill became harder than uphill and in our lowest gears we crawled along at an arthritic pensioner's walking pace. As we struggled along we came across Dorothy, a German lady who has been cycling all over the world for two years who left us with the positive advice "It can always get worse." We forced ourselves to within 40 kilometers of our destination, at times pushing the bikes when we couldn't stand up on them in the wind. (Anna had already been blown off for a second time). We set up camp in a relatively sheltered area by the beach and were fast asleep by 8.

The fourth day brought similar winds and we cycled hard all morning (surviving on nuts from our good buddy Dorothy as we had managed to run out of food) until finally we turned a corner and the wind was at our backs. 7 kilometers without pedaling feels pretty amazing. We coasted into town and have ourselves a full day of recovery before we continue Northwards. We have learned a lot, first of all that this may take a wee bit longer than we thought.

Onwards to Chile

Ushuaia, Argentina- arrival and departure

After a nightmare of a time trying to get everyone and everything here in one piece, we finally arrived safe and sound in Ushuaia on the 31st. There were no taxi's big enough to carry our boxed up bikes to the hostel so we had to set up shop outside the airport and put our bikes back together.

A couple of hours later we were on our way. After a few wrong turns and a couple right turns we got to our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and set off for some food. We ate and were immediately hit with exhaustion and slept from about 7 to 11:00 pm. It doesn't get dark until midnight here so we couldn't believe how late it was. We then realized it was New Year's Eve and also our fake anniversary so we grabbed a bottle of vino and headed to the heated common room for a few games of cards. Matt cheated, of course, and won every game. We managed to stay awake for an hour or two before heading back for a solid 10 hour slumber. Best sleep ever.

The following day was beautiful. The weather was fantastic and the views of the coast and surrounding mountains were crystal clear. We teamed up with a some guys from Sau Paulo that were staying at the same hostel and hiked up to visit Martial Glacier. The snow was wet and slippery so we did some epic no-sled sledding.

 

We spent the afternoon and evening preparing for today. We will be camping off the main road for the next 2 or 3 days, so we had to pack enough food and water to get us to Rio Grande. The bikes are reeeeeheally heavy. Good thing Matt has power thighs of steal and can handle the heaviest of bags. The weather is not looking great today. It's cold, raining, and the winds are blowing at about 30 mph in the opposite direction of where we're going. Excited for a casual day 1.  

 

Getting ready

The 30th of December is approaching like a giraffe, surprisingly quickly. We are not entirely ready.

Packing list

Recently a lot of time has be spent discussing what we actually need to take with us. Matt rationally pushing for spare tires and inner tubes while Anna lays out the extensive benefits of avocado eye cream and plastic egg holders. Compromises will be made, and hopefully we will end up with fully laden bikes that we can still cycle up hills.

Thighs

Matt has always been blessed with sizeable thighs. Whilst this has made trouser shopping a nightmare it might just be that this cycling trip will let him prove to the world (mainly just Anna) that they are made of powerful muscle tissue rather than chubby lard. The point is that we really don't know yet.
Training hasn't been as extensive as it might have been and however much planning you do you still don't really know what to expect. In other words, we have done approximately no training.

Departure

We will be arriving in Ushuaia, the southern-most city in the world, on new years eve and after starting gently with a rest day on the 1st of January our journey will commence.

Follow our fascinating (from now on) blog which we'll be updating every week or so along the way. Or, if severely dyslexic, just scroll through the pictures and enjoy.