The road along the lake

This area of Chile is just incredible. Every day we seem to see more amazing mountains, glaciers, lakes, cliffs, rivers and waterfalls than I've ever seen in one country. The other day we were looking at a pretty anonymous cliff and saying how, if it were transported to the UK, it alone would attract more tourists than Cheddar Gorge. It's even more amazing to think that we're only seeing the parts visible from the road.

Big view, little Marion

We'd heard a lot of great stories about the road along the south of Lago General Carrera. It's described in the Lonely Planet as "Scary and stunning, it hits blind corners and steep inclines high above the lake with no guardrails." Being the optimists we are, the version in our head simply read "Stunning, high above the lake". Other people have described it as the highlight of  cycling in this area, so we took a detour from the Carretera Austral (which follows a northerly route around the lake) and got a ferry over to Chile Chico on the southern shore. After a rest day in Chile Chico to psyche ourselves up, we set off west; a 120km stretch before rejoining the Carretera Austral on the south west corner of the lake. The other issue with the road, which I failed to mention before, is the wind. The prevailing wind is from the northwest, and the road heads pretty much due west. Additionally the lake accelerates the wind towards the southern shore and, where the lake narrows, the wind is often above 60km/h. We figured so long as we were prepared for the worst, it would be fine! And it was. The road was everything it had been described to be. There were sections too steep to ride, sections where the washboarding went on and on and almost shook us to pieces, and sections where the wind literally pushed us backwards as we stood in the gravel holding the bikes (with brakes on!) . But around every corner we were stopping at yet another fantastic view. The lake is an unreal turquoise and the mountains on the northern shore seem to be cut out of card. Maybe you'll get a little of that from the photos.

Along the way we had a couple of nights camping, both with company. The first night we were accompanied by 2 dogs, about 5 hens, 5 chicks and a rabbit. The second night we camped in what looked like an empty field, and got woken at 6 by the sound of sheep surrounding the tent. Both nights we also had the company of hundreds of earwigs. I think we've finally got them out of the panniers now.

Writing this post, outside our cabin.

I'm writing this from a small lakeside village called Puerto Guadal [though it was posted from Cochrane where we found internet access for the first time in a week] which is only 10km from the junction with the main road, so we're pretty much there! Tonight we've treated ourselves to a night in a luxurious cabana next to the beach. After 6 nights camping on the trot, and the last 2 without showers, I think we deserve it!