The Carretera Austral (CA) has a big reputation in Chile. It’s also known as Ruta 7. It runs 1240kms from Puerto Montt down to Villa O’Higgins. It sounded like a cool route to do, and it also only happens to be the only road that goes south in this part section of Chile and runs through the region called Patagonia. We’ve all seen the Tshirts. Chile is a very long and very skinny country. It’s almost the exact same length as Cape York to Hobart in Tassie (4300kms). Most of it is taken up by the Andes and the southern part has lots of islands, sea passages and no roads. And Ferries. And there is not one continuous road from north to south. I find that interesting. And there is even a small section down near the bottom where there is no actual defined border. Also interesting.

I had heard that the last part of the CA was gravel and so I already wasn’t super keen but I thought I’d decide later. The first day there are 3 ferries to take as part of the highway. The first one is no problem. Runs regularly, and no booking required. The second one takes about 4.5 hours and you have to book it about a week in advance this time of year. The third ferry is interconnected to the second one so if you’re on that one you are fine. I tried to book and failed so I just rode out of town on Ruta 7, took the first ferry no problem and then on to the town of Hornopieren and thought I’d try my luck with ferry number two. Luck wasn’t with me. But it also wasn’t with all the people who had booked weeks or months ago either as the ferry has been delayed by 8 hours because of weather and tides.

In a slightly complicated process I was able to book on the over night ferry that gets you in at 5:00am or sometime ridiculous and then at the other end there isn’t a town. Just the highway. The 10:00am ferry is much better but the day I was there it ended up leaving at 6:00pm instead of 10:00am. And some how I ended up on it instead of the night ferry. All the 10 people on bikes ended up on the ferry. It was still light when we left and so I got to check out the nice views as we motored up the inland ocean passage.

It arrived at the port about 11:30pm and then we all had to disembark and ride or drive about 20 minutes on a dark gravel road to get to the third ferry. A nice little motorbike convoy. We all felt sorry for the dozen or so people on bicycles. We then boarded the last ferry for a 45 minute ride which let us off on another dark gravel road. I’d made friends with an American couple on a bike and a Chilean guy on a bike. We all decide to ride about 25kms to a campground. Apparently there was a hotel a few kilometres away which two American riders had booked to stay in but at $350AUD for half a night I decided my tent sounded appealing. I can’t say I enjoyed the dark gravel road, but since there wasn’t a lot of options, it was nice riding with other people.

I was glad I had my camping gear, and this was the exact circumstance that I cart it around for. We were all set up by 2:00am and I even managed a few hours sleep. Next morning I was up early and rode the last 50kms into the nearest town of Chaiten. I was going to stay there, it sounded cool, but it was pretty early still and the place didn’t do much for me. I filled up with fuel, had a nice breakfast at a little homestlye café and then headed south. To somewhere? But. When I got internet my phone told me I was being tracked. I checked it out and it seems like the ferry tracks you. Probably to make sure you don’t get lost or that they leave you behind. I found that interesting. They stopped tracking me which was probably a good thing?

I rode on south about 200kms to a small, beautiful lakeside town called Puyuhuapi. On my morning walk the lake was so calm it looked fake. I found a lovely little place called Hostal Don Claudio (and only $24AUD) where I was very resourceful and used some of my things to create a nice little drying area for all my damp (not wet) camping gear. I also had a nice fish and roast veggie dinner ($30AUD). And in the morning I was surprised to find there was a nice breakfast with homemade bread rolls and scrambled eggs.

I continued south on the Carretera Austral (Ruta 7) and it was as it had been described. Very beautiful, and probably a bit more lush than I had expected Patagonia to be. I did about 350kms to the end of the bitumen road and a town called Villa Cerro Castillo. Most of the road was sealed, except for a small uphill section of about 25kms. It wasn’t a pleasant part of the ride and I was worried that I might fire up my sciatica again, but that was the only part and I was fine. But it did make me question about whether I should do the entire Ruta 7. Even if I didn’t ride all the way, there was still 300kms of gravel to get to the town of Chile Chico which was on the border with Argentina and I had to cross there as it was the only way that you can continue going south.

I found an interesting little hostel called El Rodeo in someone’s backyard for $32AUD, without breakfast, or style. But it was dry and safe and in a small town with not many options. But the owner asked me if I was riding to Chile Chico or taking the ferry. What ferry. No one mentioned a ferry. It meant I had to backtrack about 40kms to the port town of Puerto Ingeniero Ibanez and try and get a ticket on a small booked out ferry. Surely there was a bit of space down the side to squeeze a bike in. The ticket counter opened at 10:00am and I was there at nine and by 12:00 I was on the ferry sailing across the lake. Ten dollars and 2.5 hours and no gravel road. And sadly no more Carretera Austral but I can’t do everything and I’m just happy my sciatica is doing okay and I avoided a long stretch of gravel.

I had wanted to spend the night in Chile Chico because I liked the name. I found a nice place to stay but it was full. But they lady was lovely and had a friend down the road who had a room above her shed which turned out to be great and $32AUD. I checked out the local lake which actually had people swimming in it. I was wearing my Antarctic thermals. There was also a nice lookout that looked straight down the main street and across to Argentina a few kilometres away. Yet again, I was headed from Chile into Argentina. But this time Patagonian Argentina.

KMS 23,503