Biking and bike-trekking: The Careterra Austral Part 1
Monday, February 12th, 2007
Sorry this is such a long post but there is so much to tell…. like how I’m soooo sick of eating fresh trout …. not!
The Careterra Austral is a road (very loosely termed) that was built in Chile during the reign of General Pinochet to try to connect about 1200kms of small fishing and farming communities in the south of Chile to the populated areas to the north. It passes through the wettest area in the world outside of the tropìcs, through thickly forested, steep and mountanous terrain, around startling blue lakes and clear running rivers flush with trout and salmon. We have now completed 600kms of the road, from a little known Arg-Chile border crossing in the south involving 2 lake crossings and a thin hiking trail, to what seems like the thriving mertropolis of Coyhaique (a small town by any other standards but the biggest one we have seen in a while). Adventures along the way include…
- Getting stranded in the middle of no-mans-land between the Chilean and Argentine border for 4 days after missing an infrequent ferry.
- Fresh trout roasted on the fire for dinner with wildberry sauce- much better than the usual pasta!
- Getting a ride on a seriously dodgy south-asian style fishing boat for a 3.5 hour trip through the maze of fjords in southern Chile in the pitch dark.
- Refining the Patagonian howling monkey shower technique.
- Mick playing hairdresser by hacking into my hair with his leatherman
Mel