31Jan 2020
I woke up at 6:47 in the mountain campsite in the Parque Nacional de Patagonia, about 20km from Cochrane. The air mattress was finally fixed, and I’d had a really good sleep. It was one of those days that just starts lazily, plus, I was hoping to to see the pumas that Hector had told me were regularly seen around the campsite.
The night before I had noticed that in the shelter near my tent there was a lot of cooking stuff. I hadn’t seen anyone there the night before but about 8:30am an American couple, Ken and Bobby, showed up. They offered me breakfast of salmon and scrambled eggs, which I gladly accepted. After breakfast, they made me a cup of coffee and we shared a few stories of the road. Then the ranger turned up to collect the camping fee, 8000 pesos, which seemed pretty expensive to me. The ranger told me there was a female puma with cubs around, but unfortunately I never saw them.
Time to hit the road. First stop was Cochrane for fuel, and to call Jackie. Leaving Cochrane, Google Maps decided to take me round in circles for a while, before I asked someone where the road was. Finally, I set off for Villa O’Higgins. Initially the road was tarmac, and I took another wrong turning. After about 10km I realised and turned round, into a very strong gusty wind which would continue for the next 50km. I’d come around a corner, and it would be like riding into a wall; the bike would slow, and then the wind would veer and try and blow me across the road.
When the tarmac stopped, the road wound into some hills. I stopped for break, and found a text from Jackie, telling me I had been heading for the Argentina border when I took a wrong turning. I mounted up and continued. The surface varied from sketchy gravel, to hard packed earth, to the occasional incongruous stretch of brick. The scenery was amazing. I was really glad of my decision to abandon Ruta 40 and come to Chile.
The temperature was nice, about 15 degrees, the bike was running well, and I was really enjoying the ride. Eventually the wind dropped a bit. Shortly after that, I came across another biker, just pulling out of one of the viewpoints, which are placed all along the Carreterra Austral. About a mile further on I pulled over, and so did the other biker. We introduced ourselves. Kurt is American, about the same age as me, on a KLR 650. After introductions and a brief chat we decided to ride to Villa O’Higgins together. He had no problem with me stopping for pictures, and we made frequent stops along the way, which turn out to be a problem later on. The weather was great, sunny with some scattered clouds. The ride to Puerto Yungay and the next ferry was great. During our frequent stops, Kurt told me he had been riding with a group he had met on the road. One of then had had to go home, and the rest had headed back to Argentina, save for one guy who had had a problem with his bike.
On arrival at Puerto Yungay, we had to wait an hour for the ferry, which was then delayed further by being refuelled by a truck. We had a coffee and chatted to some other travellers. Several guys on pushbikes sat around brewing drinks and chewing the fat. Kurt was hoping to catch a ferry the next night to southern Chile, but didn’t have a booking. He was meeting his travelling partners, all of whom he had met on the road, a few weeks later in Puntas Arenas. Several other bikers were also waiting for the ferry, and we chatted with them for a while. They were all from Argentina.
The ferry crossing took an hour. I bought a pretty disgusting hamburger, then sat on the deck watching he mountains slide past. Kurt joined me, and he told me more about his trip, which had started in the States. I couldn’t help thinking about friends who told me that they weren’t up to a trip like this, as they were too old, not fit enough, or kust scared of the ncertainty of life on the road. Here was Kurt, 58 years old,diabetic, and with a dodgy knee that meant he couldn’t stand on the pegs. In a cool bag on his bike, he had his insulin, which had to be kept chilled. The cool bag had to be kept filled with ice, and Kurt had managed to get all the way to Chile without ever running out of ice. If he did run out of ice, the insulin would only last three days. It just shows that obstacles to a trip like this are largely a case of mind over matter. If you really want to travel, you’ll make it work.
The road on the other side of the crossing was superb. After an initial few km of loose gravel, the surface became mainly hard packed gravel and dirt. It was smooth and fast, with the normal amazing variation in scenery. After some initial confusion due to the road being also called the X-91, and some more stops for pics, we realised we would be hard pushed to reach O’Higgins before dark. The road was the best dirt I had ridden on so far. Long flat bits, twisty mountain passes, rivers, waterfalls beside the road, it has it all. I absolutely loved it, as did Kurt.
30km before reaching O’Higgins, it got dark. My spotlights were suffering from the same Gremlin as the USB port, so kept flashing on and off. The road first lost visible texture, then became very difficult to see unless travelling in a straight line. The spotlights would flash on for a second, then go off again. The Himalayan stock headlight turns out to be pretty useless on a dirt road. Kurt rode just behind me, trying to light the way with his lights, but it was not the nicest 30km I’ve ever ridden. We arrived in O’Higgins just after 9pm, refuelled the bikes and set off to look for accommodation. Kurt had no cash so wanted to use his credit card. After riding around and asking people, a very helpful guy who had initially offered us rooms, cash only, took us to the local shop. The owner had a house available, and could take credit card payments in his shop. It was a very nice place to stay. We were told only to use one room in the house, but, not fancying listening to Kurt snoring all night, I slept in one of the other bedrooms. I cooked us some pasta, Kurt cooked two sausages he had, and we shared a bottle of wine. It was nearly 2 am before we got to bed.
I will stay in touch with Kurt, we got on really well. He wants to ride to the ‘Stans and Mongolia, which is also a trip I would like to do. Who knows, maybe we would meet up again. Kurt was leaving early the next morning, to try and catch the ferry from Puerto Yungay to Punta Arenas. I was planning on a lie-in, and catching the 2pm ferry back to Puerto Yungay.
