Tuesday, Sep 27
It begins today, I am writing about a bike ride. Up until now it has felt like a plan, one getting closer and closer, but still a plan with steps before it became reality. However today I woke up on Chiloé Island, where I last was three and a half years ago, where I first came to three years before that, and from where I will start a long ride south.
The idea is to load up my bike and start down the Carretera Austral, Chile’s southern road that links Puerto Montt with Villa O’Higgins. This 1,200km road ends with a lake and a short hike into Argentina. Another 1,000km lies between El Chaltén and Ushuaia, the end of the road at 55° South (mirrored with the northern hemisphere this would be like riding from Valencia to Newcastle).
The inspiration for this ride came as a flash in a rear view mirror six years ago. I was behind the wheel of a rented beige sedan, a couple of days in to a week long road-trip that would scratch the surface of Patagonia along the first 250km of the Carretera Austral. I was rattling along the washboard gravel roads, enviously looking up at each 4×4 that cruised past when I saw a man with two less wheels. As I overtook and glanced back I saw a face that was slowly going down the road to nowhere, and thoroughly enjoying the ride. In the years since, through the many adventures that I’ve had, the inspired dream of travelling down the Austral road remained constant. Finally this year, once the world opened up again, circumstances lined up together to present me with a perfect opportunity to return.
How far I get is to be seen, the longest ride I’ve done so far is 500km in two weeks, and that was in the warmth of the Midi-Pyrenees and in good company. Here I am going alone, and there was frost on the ground this morning. I received some sage advice yesterday to only go as far as it continues to be fun. I will bear this in mind and keep fun and exploration as my primary intentions, but there is curiosity about the challenges also. How will I deal with sleepless nights in a tent, a week of rain, mechanical issues, a 40mph side-wind? The advice was given by a veteran of Patagonian travel so he probably included these in his definition.
I’ve spent the week here catching up with old friends at their home of Chil-hue, just outside of Ancud. After getting the bike back together after the journey from New Zealand, I took a day ride ride out to Puñihuil beach and prepared to get moving, watching the rain projections moving in closer from the Pacific.
Austral Spring 