The Carretera Austral, or southern highway, is among the most famous of all roads for cyclists. Jason and I rode it eleven years ago when it was almost completely unpaved and relatively quiet, at least on the southern end. Now it’s halfway paved and even more popular with cycletourists, hitchhikers, overlanders, and adventurers in rented SUVs. This entry will cover our first three days on the famous highway, which down this far south is actually still a dirt road with barely enough space for two cars to pass each other.

Day 36: Caleta Tortel to Camping Patagon Baucha (56km / 35mi)

We’ve been told that the stairs of Tortel are “character-building” for cyclists, and those folks weren’t wrong. To reach the road from our cabin we needed to traverse 204 steps. We walked up with the girls and all the bags (split between the four of us), and left the girls to guard the bags while we went bag for the bikes. (Guard is likely too strong of a word here as really they just sat next to the bags while reading their Kindles, oblivious to the world around them.) Each tandem required us both, and by the end of it we were tired before pedaling a single stroke!

Leaving town we were shocked to find that the first 2km were paved. I had assumed that there would be zero pavement for the next several weeks, so even a couple kilometers here and there feels like a gift. The road leaving Tortel was pretty indicative of the next 100 kilometers: spectacular scenery on a poor road surface. We were torn between annoyance at the washboard and marvel at the mountains.

You’ll have to forgive the many photos; hard to describe today without them.

We bumped along slowly (8-10km/hr) all day. In the afternoon it got surprisingly hot and we were flagging when something miraculous happened: a food truck appeared! We ate hot dogs, French fries, soda, and coffee. Not exactly the healthiest ‘first dinner’ but exactly what we needed.

We bumped along to our intended destination, a campground run by a small family. The family had an 8-year-old girl that was so sweet and outgoing. She invited our girls to play and they spent well over an hour kicking a soccer ball around and laughing delightedly. Our girls were completely exhausted by the time we called them in for dinner and bed.

Day 37: Camping Patagon Baucha to Wild camp in a field (36km / 22 mi)

Today the Carretera Austral showed its true character: STEEP CLIMBS! We spent the morning riding along a river valley with some steep climbs but about the same amount of descents. The washboard of the gravel was bad. Even on the flats we couldn’t find a decent bit of road and our speed stayed very low. We stopped for lunch at a lovely spot along the river.

In the afternoon we hit our main climb for the day. We had heard it was 7km of climbing, so when it was extremely steep for the first 0.5 kilometer we thought it was going to be wildly difficult. We were glad to find that the road got a little less steep and there were several flats and even downhills in that 7km that were actually only 6km! There was some walking near the end when our legs were too tired to continue, but we made it!

After we finished the climb our plan was to camp at the first spot we found. It was a glorious first stop too! A side track led us to a huge open field nestled against a steep hill. It was raining at this time so we ran to assemble the tent and get the girls snuggled in and warm. Of course, we failed to notice there was no water source! Oh well, I jumped back on the bike and continued on the road to find the nearest water source. We need about 6-7 liters for an overnight camp. I brought back 8 because I hate the thought of running low on water.

No one else joined us in our meadow paradise, except for small horde of goatheads that tried to hitch a ride on our clothes. It was a peaceful night in the drizzle.

Day 38: Wild camp to Cochrane (38km / 24mi)

The rain was gone by the time we woke, and sadly so was its effect on the road dust. We bumped mostly downhill for a while, but a few medium climbs were on the route too – very characteristic of the Carretera Austral. Steep steep ups and downs, over and over again with almost no flat.

It’s almost boring to say that the scenery was spectacular at this point, so I’ll just let you know that at our snack we ate an entire bag of cheddar flavored potato chips. And some cookies.

There was a whole lot of whooping and hollering when we reached pavement 15km from the town of Cochrane. It was actually just a thin layer of blacktop but wow did it feel amazing! It felt so good to race down one hill and power up the next that we didn’t even stop for lunch until we reached town.

Cochrane is one of the biggest towns on the Carretera Austral. It has a large, beautiful central square where the girls first chased and then fed pigeons. We visited several grocery stores for fresh bread, jam, and butter for lunch. It had been very difficult to find a cabin in town, so I had rented one about a mile from the central square. We loaded up supplies for dinner and rode to our cabin.

I regretted not being in town, since Cochrane is fun to walk around, but our cabin was extremely nice. We particularly enjoyed the small herd of sheep wandering around the property. We settled in for a calm evening doing absolutely nothing but reading and video games.