Next morning, we put away the Welsh flags and hid our doggy bag of surplus Welsh cakes deep in our luggage. The rain lashed down as we bounced our way along dirt roads winding its way through pretty valleys with snow capped mountains in the distance, and on to the Chilean border.
It was soooo quiet! Just one chap on a motorbike was ahead of us and we exchanged stories with another Wicked campervan American couple coming the other way.
Customs confiscated our strategically placed orange and soggy tomatoes. We had a bit of a laugh over the eggs. I said “take them” but he was so nice and tried to say that if they were cooked, we could carry them through. With my bad Spanish not understanding too well, he wanted to break one open on his desk to explain. NO NO said I, and that mild panic convinced him that I should chuck them. With people laughing and waving, we drove away. What a fun border it was, and we were both grinning that we’d successfully smuggled our Welsh cakes through.
We ran around the Chilean border town Futaleufu in pouring rain to restock with fresh fruit, veg and eggs and continued our drive to join the famous CARRETERRA AUSTRAL.
One good thing Pinochet did was to create a road that ran through the mountains down the spine of southern Chile so that they wouldn’t have to use the superior Argentinian roads further east on the plains. This has to be the most beautiful drive in the world. Neil and I spent over a week on it and every day we had spectacular scenery. Mountains would rise high above us, condors would soar between them. We’d see beautiful valleys and pretty mountain villages.
The road was mainly dirt and mud as it wound through the mountain passes, but section by section, the road was being upgraded. Some sections would have wide gravel ready for surfacing with tarmac. Some parts were already tarmacked, and over half the 1000km was still single dirt track. But there were huge areas of muddy road works and road closures. Whilst beautiful, it wasn’t always easy driving.
We took our hats off to the many cyclists we saw, as they pedalled their way through torrential rain, driving winds, mud, dust, gravel, steep hills with hairpin bends and huge lorries groaning their way around them. We were so so so very impressed by these hardy cyclists. We’ll certainly buy a pint for Jude Zebedee from our village of Culmstock who cycled the whole of it alone 3 years ago. What a woman!!!
Dolphins (not yet)
We decided to take a detour at La Junta off to the coast along a single dirt track to a tiny port called Puente Raul Marin Balmacea. Since we were short of time to get the last ferry over the river, Neil skimmed the camper over the 80km of sand and dirt to reach the ferry crossing. We made it and as we stopped, millions of mosquitoes invaded the van. There was one other van waiting for the tiny ferry with 3 PHD students who were conducting their research there, two American and one NZ. Given they were so isolated, they weren’t overly chatty, so we made our way to the beach at the end of the river to set up camp.
Having killed most of the mozzies in the van, we were relieved to find very few at the coast and due to recent rain, the sand was firm enough for us to drive right on to the beach. We were totally alone.
I’m stuck for words to describe how wonderful we felt. As the sun began to set over the horizon, casting golden glows across the sky, birds skimmed across the water in formation the Red Arrows would be proud of. As we watched for dolphins which didn’t come, the occasional seal would pop it’s head up and disappear quickly. A white rabbit hopped nearby and immediately disappeared into the reeds. The wind was just a whisper and the sea tranquil.
We were getting the one-pot cooking down to a fine art, we had plenty of gin and tonic. This was truly fine dining! And after toasting how lucky we were, we went to bed and slept like logs.
17th Jan 2017: Dolphins and the Carreterra Austral
Day 31
I was woken by a very excited Neil shouting DOLPHINS! There they were gliding in curves through the morning waters. They seemed to travel in pairs and some came up really close to Neil as he clanged the metal breakfast dishes while washing up. We never got them on camera despite Neil’s best efforts at making rather amusing dolphin noises to lure them in.
Back we returned along the track through lush vegetation followed by green pretty farm land with Gauchos riding horseback along the road, and back on the the Carreterra Austral.
The rain returned which was such a shame as we knew from reading our guides of the spectacular views we were missing with the highmountains shrouded in cloud. It was quite challenging driving at times.
We took a lunch break in a little German town called Puyuhyapi. Much of this part of Patagonia was settled by German, Swiss and Italian immigrants and many of the farms looked like pretty Alpine farms.
We read a rather amusing account of some German settlers from the Sudetenland who arrived here in the mid 30s. Being far removed from the reality of the war, they became patriotic Nazis, but in name only. A British ship was searching out Germans during WW2 and found this settlement. Convinced they were spies and treating them rather badly whilst finding no evidence of anti British behaviour, the British asked around about what they did. The locals said they spent a long time in the mountains, so the Brits decided they must have a transmitter up there. They forced to Germans up the mountains to search for evidence and finally reached the conclusion that they didn’t have a clue what was going on in the war. Feeling rather guilty about all this, the English officer invited them to dine with him on his ship. He was subsequently stripped of his rank!
I took over the driving after lunch. The torrential rain continued with rivers of mud gushing down the single track roads. And I loved it. This was real driving, negotiating steep hairpin bends in the mud, dodging cars, lorries motorbikes and cyclists coming the other way on the narrow roads. I felt so lucky it was my turn to take the wheel. And we both admired every cyclist, head down pumping their way through these obstacles.
We came upon one road closure which was closed for four hours. Those poor cyclists had to wait with the rest of us. We were lucky as we arrived just 30 minutes before it was due to open again, but once the flood gates were open it was like a free for all. Everyone was battling the oncoming traffic to get through. Tempers raised as stand offs occurred between drivers. We drove through the most precarious areas where the new road was being blasted out of rock. We noticed very unstable rocks lurching above us and deep potholes in the mud below. Since there was no detour available, they kept the road open under very dangerous conditions.
As we headed south, the weather cleared enough for us to gasp at the scenery surrounding us. How much had we missed? But we were lucky to have these breaks in the weather to appreciate the beauty of the road.
Finally the sun returned and we could once again enjoy the countryside of hills and farmland. We consulted IOVERLANDER and found a quiet wild camp near a river just off the road.
We had yet another perfect sunset evening. Occasionally an old truck with farm ands would drive past. We’d wave so they’d toot and wave back. It was good fun and we were perfectly safe.
South America 
16th Jan 2017: The Carreterra Austral
Day 30
Next morning, we put away the Welsh flags and hid our doggy bag of surplus Welsh cakes deep in our luggage. The rain lashed down as we bounced our way along dirt roads winding its way through pretty valleys with snow capped mountains in the distance, and on to the Chilean border.
It was soooo quiet! Just one chap on a motorbike was ahead of us and we exchanged stories with another Wicked campervan American couple coming the other way.
Customs confiscated our strategically placed orange and soggy tomatoes. We had a bit of a laugh over the eggs. I said “take them” but he was so nice and tried to say that if they were cooked, we could carry them through. With my bad Spanish not understanding too well, he wanted to break one open on his desk to explain. NO NO said I, and that mild panic convinced him that I should chuck them. With people laughing and waving, we drove away. What a fun border it was, and we were both grinning that we’d successfully smuggled our Welsh cakes through.
We ran around the Chilean border town Futaleufu in pouring rain to restock with fresh fruit, veg and eggs and continued our drive to join the famous CARRETERRA AUSTRAL.
One good thing Pinochet did was to create a road that ran through the mountains down the spine of southern Chile so that they wouldn’t have to use the superior Argentinian roads further east on the plains. This has to be the most beautiful drive in the world. Neil and I spent over a week on it and every day we had spectacular scenery. Mountains would rise high above us, condors would soar between them. We’d see beautiful valleys and pretty mountain villages.
The road was mainly dirt and mud as it wound through the mountain passes, but section by section, the road was being upgraded. Some sections would have wide gravel ready for surfacing with tarmac. Some parts were already tarmacked, and over half the 1000km was still single dirt track. But there were huge areas of muddy road works and road closures. Whilst beautiful, it wasn’t always easy driving.
We took our hats off to the many cyclists we saw, as they pedalled their way through torrential rain, driving winds, mud, dust, gravel, steep hills with hairpin bends and huge lorries groaning their way around them. We were so so so very impressed by these hardy cyclists. We’ll certainly buy a pint for Jude Zebedee from our village of Culmstock who cycled the whole of it alone 3 years ago. What a woman!!!
Dolphins (not yet)
We decided to take a detour at La Junta off to the coast along a single dirt track to a tiny port called Puente Raul Marin Balmacea. Since we were short of time to get the last ferry over the river, Neil skimmed the camper over the 80km of sand and dirt to reach the ferry crossing. We made it and as we stopped, millions of mosquitoes invaded the van. There was one other van waiting for the tiny ferry with 3 PHD students who were conducting their research there, two American and one NZ. Given they were so isolated, they weren’t overly chatty, so we made our way to the beach at the end of the river to set up camp.
Having killed most of the mozzies in the van, we were relieved to find very few at the coast and due to recent rain, the sand was firm enough for us to drive right on to the beach. We were totally alone.
I’m stuck for words to describe how wonderful we felt. As the sun began to set over the horizon, casting golden glows across the sky, birds skimmed across the water in formation the Red Arrows would be proud of. As we watched for dolphins which didn’t come, the occasional seal would pop it’s head up and disappear quickly. A white rabbit hopped nearby and immediately disappeared into the reeds. The wind was just a whisper and the sea tranquil.
We were getting the one-pot cooking down to a fine art, we had plenty of gin and tonic. This was truly fine dining! And after toasting how lucky we were, we went to bed and slept like logs.
17th Jan 2017: Dolphins and the Carreterra Austral
Day 31
I was woken by a very excited Neil shouting DOLPHINS! There they were gliding in curves through the morning waters. They seemed to travel in pairs and some came up really close to Neil as he clanged the metal breakfast dishes while washing up. We never got them on camera despite Neil’s best efforts at making rather amusing dolphin noises to lure them in.
Back we returned along the track through lush vegetation followed by green pretty farm land with Gauchos riding horseback along the road, and back on the the Carreterra Austral.
The rain returned which was such a shame as we knew from reading our guides of the spectacular views we were missing with the highmountains shrouded in cloud. It was quite challenging driving at times.
We took a lunch break in a little German town called Puyuhyapi. Much of this part of Patagonia was settled by German, Swiss and Italian immigrants and many of the farms looked like pretty Alpine farms.
We read a rather amusing account of some German settlers from the Sudetenland who arrived here in the mid 30s. Being far removed from the reality of the war, they became patriotic Nazis, but in name only. A British ship was searching out Germans during WW2 and found this settlement. Convinced they were spies and treating them rather badly whilst finding no evidence of anti British behaviour, the British asked around about what they did. The locals said they spent a long time in the mountains, so the Brits decided they must have a transmitter up there. They forced to Germans up the mountains to search for evidence and finally reached the conclusion that they didn’t have a clue what was going on in the war. Feeling rather guilty about all this, the English officer invited them to dine with him on his ship. He was subsequently stripped of his rank!
I took over the driving after lunch. The torrential rain continued with rivers of mud gushing down the single track roads. And I loved it. This was real driving, negotiating steep hairpin bends in the mud, dodging cars, lorries motorbikes and cyclists coming the other way on the narrow roads. I felt so lucky it was my turn to take the wheel. And we both admired every cyclist, head down pumping their way through these obstacles.
We came upon one road closure which was closed for four hours. Those poor cyclists had to wait with the rest of us. We were lucky as we arrived just 30 minutes before it was due to open again, but once the flood gates were open it was like a free for all. Everyone was battling the oncoming traffic to get through. Tempers raised as stand offs occurred between drivers. We drove through the most precarious areas where the new road was being blasted out of rock. We noticed very unstable rocks lurching above us and deep potholes in the mud below. Since there was no detour available, they kept the road open under very dangerous conditions.
As we headed south, the weather cleared enough for us to gasp at the scenery surrounding us. How much had we missed? But we were lucky to have these breaks in the weather to appreciate the beauty of the road.
Finally the sun returned and we could once again enjoy the countryside of hills and farmland. We consulted IOVERLANDER and found a quiet wild camp near a river just off the road.
We had yet another perfect sunset evening. Occasionally an old truck with farm ands would drive past. We’d wave so they’d toot and wave back. It was good fun and we were perfectly safe.
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