Carretera Austral & Ruta 40

Location:

El Calafate

From Fuetaleufu we ride to the Carretera Austral. This is the dirt road connecting the top of Chile to the bottom built by Augusto Pinochet's Chilean Army in the 70's and 80's. It was originally only there for the army but opened to the public in the late 1980's. It varies from deep sand and gravel, hard compacted surface two lanes wide, to rocky narrow twisty hairpins. Two stretches of newly graded sand catch at least three riders out as they are soft with no tracks to follow.

Puyuhuapi is on a sea inlet and is a small fishing town with little reason for existence other than it is on the road. Lots of German families and influence here and this town is no exception. We stay at a four storey wooden Bavarian style house with a shallow roof. It is very welcoming and friendly, with a small black cat tucked up behind the wood burning stove, who if picked up will make a brief appearance before returning to the best seat in the house.

The next day is more gravel initially very narrow, wet with rain and winding around the inlet. In the rain this is challenging and slow as there is always the promise of oncoming trucks and buses. After a while the dirt is replaced by perfect tarmac, and the road wends it way through beautiful autumnal red foliage and trees despite this not being autumn. The coarse grassed fields and pastures are all littered with dead grey timber lying haphazardly in huge numbers. It is quite striking and forms a lovely backdrop to smooth swooping roads.

Chris has a bad day when he locks the front brake on a switch from tarmac to gravel and goes down. He is remarkably fine, once again we avoid serious injury, but the front of his bike is missing. With no instruments, ignition lock mechanism trashed, no brake or clutch master cylinders or levers, and us in the midst of rural Patagonia, the bike is unrepairable. This despite Jeff’s best efforts, over two nights. The upside is Chris's swinging arm is fine and he very generously tells Jeff to strip it off his bike and fit it to Andy's so they have at least one functioning bike.

Off again and the scenery of yesterday afternoon continues as we get back on the dirt and travel down a valley with snow capped mountains framing the ride. We stopped and had Papa Reinas for lunch, which are stuffed baked potatoes with meat and veg filling. A cross between shepherds pie and a Cornish pasty.

Another border crossing today. The day is spent circumnavigating the deep blue lake largely on or directly above the shoreline. We arrive at the Chilean border post, which is a shed by the side of the road and complete the normal formalities. Ride on and they are building a cathedral of a border crossing, only months from completion. Why on this no traffic gravel road? When we get to the Argentinian side we realise why. On May 21st they opened their new border crossing point. Much nicer than the shed but now shortly to be outdone by the Chilean Cathedral. Oh and they have tarmac on their side as well - so there!

From here we are heading back to the famous Ruta 40. Another top to bottom road it stretches the length of Argentina. We hit the gravel and climb as the terrain fades to scrubby wind blown plains. And it is wind blown. The gravel is deep and you have to keep to the tracks cleared by previous vehicles. You are riding leaning into the wind but when it gusts you can be moved left or right involuntarily and into the deep gravel. It is a challenge to keep to the road and negotiate your way back to a track. We stop for fuel and a sandwich at, well, the only place that sells fuel and coffee and makes sandwiches. However the man making the coffee also serves the fuel so don't be in a hurry for either. Fortunately his daughter makes the sandwiches! Our destination for the night is a working estancia (farm). We arrive to flasks of tea and coffee and the most incredible location. Built in a natural bowl there is no wind and the coarse grass land on which they raise sheep is littered with their horses and the farm sheep dogs. After Lamb from the Parillia (BBQ) we retire to the main room and read, play a Finnish card game courtesy of Perti, jenga, and are serenaded by Max on guitar.

El Calafate is the entrance to the Argentinian Glaciers National Park. We are here for two days two visit the park and the Glaciers before the final weeks ride down to Ushuaia. A visit to the Perito Moreno Glacier is a must for most riders.

Still more Ruta 40 dirt to contend with along with Patagonian winds and a crossing of the Magellan. Still it is not over until the fat lady sings, or for us until the thin lady tango's in the Argentine Tango bar in Buenos Aires, the now traditional last night out!

The Lake District (Chile & Arg)

Location:

Fuetalufu

Leaving Santiago we have two days on the Pan Am to move the whole game south. The first night we stay at Salto De Lajo, where someone appears to have installed a not so mini Niagra Falls outside our cabins. On to Osorno where we are all fitting knobbly tyres at Moto Aventure Chile for the long stretches of dirt and gravel roads to come. This is a BMW hire bike company with a fleet of 40 R1200, 800 and 650 GS's, so if ever you are in Chile and want one...

“It'll be cold” says Kevin about the ride over the Andes back to Argentina. This turns out to be a bit of an understatement. The ride to the border is cold, very cold, and as we approach the border we see a snow plough coming the other way covered in snow. We should have taken this as a warning! We pass out of Chile but have 30 miles to go to the Argentinian side. This, for 15 miles has 2-3 inches of snow settled on the road! We pass a man fitting snow chains and a Mack truck stuck in the snow wheel spinning and going nowhere. It is very cold and slippery. When we get to the Argentinian side the customs ladies look out their window and laugh at us. This tells us a lot.

We ride on into the Argentine lake district. It's like Windermere and Scarfell Pike on growth hormones. What in the UK lasts for minutes, here lasts for hundreds of kilometres. “I fancy a cheese and ham toasty and a coffee” says one rider at a stop and at the end of the road we come across an alpine lodge. The menu includes “Queso y Jamon sandwiche tostada” Excellent!

San Martin Los Andes is a lake front town where many riders have their first taste of Patagonian Lamb, which is barbecued over a real fire in the restaurant windows. The next day has an optional dirt side road. It has among the best views of the trip. Sharp edged mountains capped with frosty white snow, round hills with porcupines of fir trees, turquoise gem stone lakes with white horses, it is incredible.

It is a bad day for Andy though as he hits a pothole with a square rock at the far edge that lifts his front wheel high, flattens the tyre and trashes the wheel. It also allows the swinging arm to hit the rock before the rear wheel with disastrous results.... It snaps in two!

We have a day off on Barriloche, also known as Chocolate Town, which allows us all to prepare for Ruta 40 and Carreterra Austral. We have over 1000 miles of dirt roads to do and we need to be fresh and energetic, or at least something close! Again we are riding to Chile and traversing the Argentinian Lake District which remains incredibly beautiful. Lake, Mountain. Lake. Lake, Mountain, but you can't get jaded as each corner brings a new vista that takes your breath away. We cross the border at a shed at the end of 40 miles of gravel at which the guards are very friendly and relaxed. Their chubby tabby cat is highly furr'ed and needs to be at these temperatures. A whole seven kilometres later we arrive at Fuetalufu. A frontier town with a nice grassed central square and little else. The hostel is log construction with high ceilings, an unusual collection of old tills and typewriters and a great roaring fire. Perfect…

Northern Chile & Argentina

Location:

Santiago

Today we enter Chile and the last but one country on the trip. Arica to Antofagasto is 470 miles through the Atacama Desert and the desert valleys this morning are full of clouds. We cross the plains above them surrounded by miles of rock scattered sand and then descend through the clouds into rift valleys suddenly emerging under the clouds into the valley, then cross the valley and repeat in reverse. From Iquique we follow the coast road all the way to Antofagasto. The road is two lane wedged in between the huge sand dune on our left and the pacific on our right.

After a few days in Chile we are crossing to Argentina for the first time. It's a 300 mile day with 120 miles of dirt on a road used only by us and the Dakar Rally earlier this year and again in 2010. This is all at over 4500m altitude. The road is initially well compacted and grippy, and progress to the border post is swift and uneventful. Then Nick goes down on the soft sand and while unhurt, the combination of high altitude and the crash sends him into shock. Jeff arrives with the van and in 5 minutes flat, his bike and Nick are in it. As all this is happening Simon rides back to say that Paul has also gone down but is up and about, although his bike is pretty battered.

When Jeff arrives with Nick at Paul’s accident they realise while Paul's bike is a definite non runner, Nick's in the van is a go’er. Paul is OK to ride and so in 3 minutes flat Jeff unloads Nicks bike, loads Paul's and speeds off. At the border the Argentinian customs guys could not be more helpful. A guard accompanies Nick and Jeff to Fiambala and the local hospital, where after an X ray and now out of the high altitude Nick is given the all clear. Paul and Nick spend the evening comparing bruises!

The next morning is a nice simple tarmac 200 mile day and so 4 riders promptly get lost leaving town (as does Jeff in the van!) and ride 20 miles down the wrong road, 20 miles back to town and then leave again! After yesterday we need an easy day and we get one to Villa Union and a lovely hotel with a fantastic restaurant that serves the best steak of the trip so far. Welcome to Argentina proper! The next day passes without incident as dirt sections are treated with unsurprising caution by all. Then we have a group ride into Santiago where we will be for four days to get the bikes serviced and to rest up, get Paul and Nick to hospital to get checked out and generally re-group.

BMW Chile have supplied the Carabineros with a fleet of R1200RT's and they have arranged for us to enter Santiago with a Police escort, stopping traffic and blocking roads with red lights flashing. Their uniforms are dark green with highly polished black riding boots and elbow length white gloves to stop the traffic. Great fun as they race past our nice staggered formation directly at on-coming traffic that swerves to avoid them. They are scraping the engine bars around corners as they swoop in and out and we arrive at the hotel like royalty on tour, although we look decidedly scruffy next to them. This is all filmed by the main Chilean news channel and shown that evening on the 9pm news!

About four weeks to go to Ushuaia but this includes 1500 dirt miles on Ruta 40 and Carretera Austral. In some ways little time is left, but still 5000 challenging miles and 5 weeks...