Yes, we arrived in Villa O’Higgins. 1500km after our start in Osorno. What seemed like a very long distance out of a sudden became an almost normal bike ride, if I can say that. Of course there was a bit of rain and a bit of wind from time to time and we even experienced some moments where we were not sure anymore if our idea to cycle Patagonia was such a great idea. But with increasing sun hours in the south and the end of the Carretera Austral in sigh the trip rather felt too short. Thinking back: 4 to 5 weeks is a short time. But neither were we great cyclists before nor did we actually thought of cycling more than a day before our trip to South America.
On the last kilometres of the Carretera Austral we decided to make a little stop in Tortel after a beautiful 2-day-ride from Cochrane to one of the most inaccessible towns of Chile after Villa O’Higgins. We started late, still taking it easy after our relaxing day. The road was quite a challenge for my taste: gravel, hills and some wind from everywhere but it was above all very beautiful. We could not decide where to stay for the night and wanted to push for a camp site 10km off the Carretera Austral which somebody recommended to us. At some point I could not shift my gears anymore. David did an amazing job on it and after an hour of repair, maybe more, it was even better than before. Eventually we arrived at a camp site close to the Cordon los Nadis. I was too tired to push any further and actually, the place looked nice. As usual, the camp site was for us only and as if this was not already enough luxury the landlady asked us if we wanted to stay for the same cheap price in the refuge. Happily we enjoyed an amazing view of the mountains around us, cooked our lentil curry on the wood stove and fell asleep on a tiny but comfortable bed. And the biggest luxury of all: no need to disassemble and dry the tent at freezing temperatures in the morning.
The following day promised to become easy, even though we had an 80km ride ahead of us. And certainly it was an easy and beautiful one not counting in the last 25km detour to Tortel. Some strong head winds and an absolutely horrible road made the distance feel like at least twice as much. And even half way through we wondered if it was worth going there. Eventually we arrived in Tortel and found a cheap and well situated hostel at the top of the town. The village was only accessible by boat until the road was built to connect Tortel with the Carretera Austral in 2004 I believe. Late anyway. So most of the town is only accessible by wooden stairs and bridges and it’s a bit difficult to find a hostel with easy access for cyclists. Also the short walking trail of 2 or 3 hours is just beautiful and took us into a world of little islands and fjords. I assume it had rained quite a bit the days before because the trail was fairly wet and muddy but absolutely worth my dirty shoes.
I left Tortel with mixed feelings: Of course I was looking forward to arriving in Villa O’Higgins and we were so close to it. But same time it meant to take this horrible road back to where we came from two days ago. So I learnt one more thing during that trip: sometimes it’s better not to think about what’s coming but simply to go for it and accept a short moment of discomfort. The day might keep some surprises and great moments for you. And it exactly turned out that way.
David already wrote a full blog post about this day. For me it was surprising how fast we could leave that nasty part of the road behind us. A bit of tail wind helped of course. The 400m climb straight afterwards was quickly done and out of the sudden we even saw a chance to get the earlier ferry to set over to Rio Bravo. David sprinted ahead to delay the ferry. He did a fantastic job and convinced the captain to wait another minute and another minute. Eventually I arrived at the top of the little town Puerto Yungay where I could not believe what I saw. The 45-minute-sprint felt like an eternity and I actually did not believed anymore that we would get the boat. But there it was and proudly I rolled on the ferry with applause from random passengers. I almost burst into tears when I parked my bicycle: too much emotions, too much exhaustion. What a lovely reward finally. Also taking the early ferry helped us make a couple of more kilometres than actually planned that day in order to arrive more relaxed in Villa O’Higgins.
On the ferry we met 2 more cyclists: Robert from the United States who cycled from Alaska to Ushuaia and Michel a French who came down the Carretera Austral like us. Together we started the the last part of the Carretera Austral.
This part, from Rio Bravo to Villa O’Higgins was one of my favourite parts of the trip. As the ferry only sets over twice a day and as Villa O’Higgins is a dead end for cars we were, apart from few moments, the only people on the road. This silence and loneliness in the wilderness felt above all very peaceful. The road was easy to cycle, the weather rather good. Well, it was not raining and the direction of the wind was in our favour. And finally we found a great spot for camping. After an exhausting 80km ride on gravel road, we put up our tent and started cooking when Michel joined us for dinner. A lovely evening really.
A late start next morning was the reward for 2 long cycling days. We just had 60km ahead of us before arriving at Villa O’Higgins, with few climbs only. Seriously, I was so motivated to arrive and to have a day off cycling that I could easily raise my energy to make me almost fly to the town at the end of the Carretera Austral. We passed by lovely mountains, lakes and forests.
And there it was: the wooden sign stating: Villa O’Higgins. What a victory and more than 2/3 of our trip completed.
