Puerto Bertrand to Villa O'Higgins

We had a tough journey into Cochrane (pronounced Cock-rainy), after lunch in pretty Puerto Bertrand, as the road rollercoastered sharply up then sharply down again with pretty loose terrain forcing us off our bikes for short pushes on a handful of occasions. Despite this we made good time but unfortunately it took it's toll on Pob's old knee injury so we decided to take a rest day. On our day off at Cochrane's Internet cafe (no wifi in town) we met a bunch of cyclists and worked out that there must be at least a dozen cycle tourers in town that day. We picked the brains of those travelling north about different route options to Ushuaia, and made arrangements to travel south the following day with Henry, a Londoner originally from Slovenia. The town itself is fairly small and nondescript, but it's population of around 3000 people makes it the southern hub of the Carretera Austral. The main highlight for us was the best ever Lomo a lo Pobre (which translates as either Poor man's steak or Pob's fave chilean steak dish) of large steak with 2 fried eggs, chips and fried onions at Ada's restaurant, just Northwest of the main plaza, if you're ever in the area...

The following day we set off with Henry, and also Jens, a German staying at Henry's hostel. They were heading down the Carratera to Puerto Yunguay, while we planned to detour off to Caleta Tortel. Also we planned to do it in 3x40km days, whilst they wanted to get to Yunguay (a similar total distance) in 2 days. So when we found nice wild camp spot mid-afternoon, they went on to make the most of the tailwind. It soon started raining so we were glad to have stopped, and cooked in the tent vestibule.

The rainfall only briefly paused between about 9.30 and 11am the following morning, so the next day's cycling was tough. As Pob's knee still wasn't in top form, my bike now carries the tent, which was extra heavy from all the rain. We met 3 pairs of cyclists heading north and each time we quizzed them, in the increaingly heavy rain, about how far it was to the junction off to Tortel - they had all come direct from Puerto Yunguay that day. By this time, completely soaked through - including supposedly waterproof gloves and jackets, both Pob and I were dreaming of a warm hostel bed in Tortel, drying off our cycling clothes, tent and most of all, our sopping shoes. So we decided to go for PB of ripio distance. What should have been a very pretty ride was somewhat marred by some serious rain in the late afternoon, and the countless waterfalls lost their appeal, but ~48miles later, we made it.

The road to Tortel was built in 2003, previously only accessible by boat. As I hope the pictures show, there are no roads, just boardwalks like jetties from the sea that they built too far inland. With steep hillside it also has a lot of steps, making it less bike-friendly, but we found our warm hostel at the top just 9 steps up from the carpark at the entrance. We felt we deserved another rest day so had plenty time to explore, despite several more downpours. We also decided to skip the long steep hill from the Tortel turnoff to Puerto Yungay, and luckily there is a bus on Thursday - not just the Sunday bus mentioned in the guidebook. This was a big decision as we haven't taken the bikes on a bus since our pampas-avoidance between Tununyan and Villa Pehuenia in the northern lakes.

Official Refugio at Rio Bravo

From Puerto Yungay we boarded the free 45min ferry to Rio Bravo. This crossing is part of the Carratera Austral, but as the amount of traffic is fairly small, it is apparently cheaper for the government to operate the ferry, in a very nice boat, 3 times a day in summer, than it would be to bridge the crossing. We arrived at Rio Bravo at 6.45pm and it was still pouring with rain, but to our delight, there is a shiny new Refugio so we had a free roof over our head for the night, along with Marten and Ari, 2 Dutch cyclists also heading south.

Unofficial Refugio 25km from Villa O'Higgins

This morning we had plans to split the final 100km stretch to Villa O'Higgins into 2 days. We started relatively early for us (9.30) and were quickly outclassed by Marten and Ari who zoomed off ahead. The weather was much improved and several times today I had a shadow, but we had a lot of gentle rain. We also had a very welcome tail wind. At 2.30 we'd already covered about 50km so we considered beating our recent ripio PB and making a push for the Saturday ferry at O'Higgins (previously we'd planned for the Monday boat). The tailwind stayed with us but the rain picked up again. We met Swinde, a German cyclist heading south, at kilometre 75 who helpfully informed us that the Saturday boat had been delayed due to bad weather, and that hostels in O'Higgins are quite pricey. So, I am typing this to you from a half built, but dry, hut at km 75 and the last 25km of the Carratera Austral will have to wait until tomorrow.

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!

Touring notes - Carretera Austral Part II

Today's post is brought to you from picturesque Puerto Ingeniero Ibanez, while waiting for the ferry to Chile Chico. We are having so much fun on the Carretera Austral and I wanted to write about some of my misconceptions of this route.

I knew it would be beautiful but hadn't realised how accessible it is. This may be heavily influenced by the fact we have just completed a long asphalt section - possibly our last stretch of paving until we get home... There are several other cyclists heading our way and a few brave ones heading north against prevailing winds which has made for some great chat whilst on the road and off. The road is steadily becoming more and more paved which may mean future cyclists have to struggle with more zooming traffic and also takes away from the natural beauty of the place. However, flat road allows you to concentrate more on the view and less on how to tackle the sandier, pebblier bits of ripio.

Simple things like the availability of fresh tomatoes and perfectly ripe avocados have improved our lunch repertoire - along with our fellow cyclists proving that it is possible to carry such things for a couple of days without making a mess of the inside of a pannier.

We have been incredibly lucky with the weather - we still haven't had to cycle in any appreciable amount of rain (Superstitious readers may be interested to know my wrists are leaning on a wooden table). Quelet National Park that Pob mentioned in his last post gets 4000mm rain/year but we have lovely warm sunshine.

I was quite worried about horseflies here, and they are EVERYWHERE, but they're much easier to deal with than mozzies. They don't torture you at night when you're trying to sleep, they're big so easy to see and quite slow so satisfyingly easy to squash. Oddly they like to bite you through your clothes not straight through your skin so covering up doesn't help. Another cyclist described it like a dance which I think is exactly right - just imagine the Macarena playing then: Hit left shoulder, hit right shoulder, hit left hip, hit right hip, clap, jump about a bit and yelp when you squash one. Repeat to fade.

Happy New Year!

We have our first proper hangover of the trip, which I guess in a way is a good thing! We went out for a lovely meal last night with Hugh and Pauline, followed by a disco in the gymnasium, where Marion danced with pretty much every one of the local bachelors....

We're in the tiny fishing village of Puerto Puyuhuapi in the Queulat National Park where we spent last night in a small campsite with 7 other cycle tourists all heading down the Carretera Austral! Today we're off to see a hanging glacier, and generally taking it easy.

Happy New Year everyone!

Finally on the Carretera Austral

2 posts in one day?! This may become a more common occurrence as we come across WiFi less and less frequently.

We are now in La Junta, a small town on the Carretera Austral in Chile. This is the road which we will take for the next 900km south. If the first few days are anything to go by then its going to be quite a trip! We left the small welsh town of Trevelin on the 27th, with company! We happened to be staying in the same hostel as an English couple, Hugh and Pauline, and an Austrian, Nadja. They had met a few days previously and were heading in the same direction as us, so we joined them. It's lovely to have some company from home and to be with English speaking people for the first decent amount of time since Lou left us in November!

From Trevelin we went over the border to Futaleufu in Chile were we had an early birthday celebration meal out, it was going to be camping the following night! I then rode the next few day with a decorated bike, courtesy of Marion's birthday presents.

Since then we've had a couple of nights wild camping in the most stunning scenery. It's been incredibly hot, and dry which would be unbearable were it not for frequent lakes, streams and rivers to refill water bottles and cool off in. We'd heard that this road was going to be spectacular and so far it's more than lived up to its reputation. So long as we manage to keep stocked up with pasta sauce and tuna all should be fine. Tonight though, we shall be finding some proper food.

Wine!

This is a little out of sync, but I need to brain-dump and Pob will shortly be posting some more up to date details of our trip.

I like the Argentinian way of life, but apparently in Argentina the adults drink more fizzy drinks than they do wine. This is not something Pob and I have been trying to emulate over the last few months.

The following grape growing info comes with a big health warning - most of it was gleaned from poorly understood bodega (vineyard) tours in Spanish or occasionally pretty sketchy English. Also, it's taken me a while to get round to writing this but maybe that means this will be the mature, concentrated version.

Wine growing guide

Start with lots of sunshine which you can maximise by planting your grapes in East-West orientation for all-day exposure. This apparently makes the skin thicker (the grapes' way of making their own sunblock) and more skin means more flavour from tannins and such.

Start with a dry atmosphere (high altitude helps), with minimal rainfall but readily available water from snow melt. This allows you to vary watering during the growing season - limiting it before harvest to concentrate the juice and who wants watery wine?

For organic grapes, a sunnier, drier atmosphere means you'll have far fewer pests. Lavendar is useful because bugs like it more than they like grapes. Also plant roses as a disease warning system because they're much more sensitive than vines are, acting a bit like canaries for miners.

Apparently birds don't like grapes but you may want to use nets to protect your fruit from hail stones.

To go one better than organic grapes, why not try biodynamic techniques? One bodega testing this out explained they were timing pruning and harvesting by the phases of the moon. The theory is to prune during new moon, when gravitational pull keeps all the nutrients in the roots, then harvest at full moon so maximal gravity draws the goodies to the grapes. Unfortunately the grapes are still a couple of years off being certified so there's no wine to try yet.

Even once the biodynamic stuff is certified, it might not be really good for decades because wine is said to be better from vines-of-a-certain-age. The average plant can last ~150 yrs and I seem to remember the best years are 80-110 years old. In another bodega we were told you can achieve the mature vine effect simply by taking a cutting from an older vine so the new vine is a clone of the old. This will not only start producing great grapes straight away but also last ~150 years. Sounds too good to be true to me - I don't know why everyone doesn't do it.

In the Southern hemisphere the harvest usually happens in February or March. However for a 'tarde' desert wine, the grapes are allowed to mature on the vine for longer increasing their sugar content.

When harvesting, make sure the grapes don't burst because this would start fermentation. Warmer (and therefore faster) fermentation should be avoided unless you want cheap plonk. Many bodegas control fermenting temperatures with cellars, or refrigerated tanks but we visited one champagnery that ferments the grapes in a cave!

To start fermentation you need to mulch the grapes. Most wines don't need added yeast because it exists naturally on the grapes themselves. Remove the bits (seeds and skin) straight away for white, remove afer a day for rose, or a couple of weeks later for red. After fermentation you leave the juice in a tank for several weeks to develop.. By this stage you could bottle your young wine now, or if you think your grapes are up to it and you want a better (more pricey, longer lasting) wine, move it to oak barrels. The barrels should be made from French or American oak, each of which imparts distinctive flavours to the wine through tannins. American oak is cheaper, imparting flavour faster and tends to provide notes of tropical fruits or vanilla, while French oak takes longer but is said to be of higher quality providing aromas like chocolate, coffee, mushrooms and tobacco.

While the wine is in the barrel some will evaporate, concentrating the flavours and upping the alcohol content. The tannins from the barrel also act as a preservative. Grape skins also contain tannins although the amount depends of the grape variety. This means that wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon, which is full of tannins, last longer than Malbecs, which have hardly any. Also, since white wines are separated from their skins right at the start, they just don't last as long as reds.

Wines oaked for a long time (e.g. 2 years) are more flavourful, alcoholic and can be kept for years longer, improving with time - up to a point. Natural cork also adds preservatives and flavour (although I gather this is controversial) and if using natural corks you should leaving the bottles on their side in a cool dry place for a few months. If you happen to have a spare 19th century fermentation tank, this would be ideal.

Next step - drink it!

Fake Wales and Real Whales

We've just got back from the Peninsula Valdes where we spent 4 days in the sun wildlife spotting. We stayed in the only village on the peninsula, Puerto Piramides, in an eco-hostel. The hot water was solar heated and the grey water was recycled for toilets. Good stuff, though we did have to endure a couple of brief power cuts (one in the middle of cooking) and a few hours without water.

The peninsula is home to (among many other arguably less interesting animals..): Sea lions, elephant seals, killer whales, Magallenic penguins and Southern Right whales. We hadn't expected to be able to see the whales as they tend to leave the area in mid December. However, when we arrived we heard that there were still a group of whales in the bay, so we jumped on the first boat available and went to have a look. We were lucky enough to see a mother with her newborn, helping it to swim, along with at least 5 other whales. It was incredible to see such huge mammals moving so gracefully through the water, and swimming right up to and under the boat. The photos don't do it justice. If you ever get the chance to go whale watching, you have to do it!

We hired a car and drove round the peninsula to see the other animals including a huge colony of sea lions and seals in the north (where we unfortunately missed killer-whale-feeding-time, though did spot their dorsal fins patrolling the shore).

On the final day we drove down south of the peninsula to Punta Tombo, where there is the largest continental colony of Magellanic penguins. The penguins are unbelievably curious and confident so you can get right up close to them. They're very cute and entertaining to watch (Marion couldn't stop smiling all day). It's nesting season so we got to see some very young pingus too.

We'd planned to spend the final afternoon drinking Welsh tea in the small welsh settlement Gaiman, but ran out of time. Fortunately, this whole area of Patagonia has a scattering of Welsh villages and on boxing day well be heading to Trevelin so the tea will have to wait until then!

We're now back in Esquel where we'll be spending Christmas before continuing the journey south. Happy Christmas everyone!