Photo Album: Austral Rt 7 Tortel - Coyhaique
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We finally put the hiccups happened on the way from El Chalten of Argentina behind us, first with the fuel-less situation at Bajo Caracoles, then losing one of the front wheels caused a by herd of Guanacos on our way to the Chilean border, and had a good restful night at Cochrane, Chile.
Make no mistake, we were still in wild Patagonia, for the 700 Km between Cochrane and El Chalten, we traveled mainly through sparsely populated area which gravel terrains in the main. I consider this the equivalent of the outbacks of Australia with Guanacos instead of Kangaroos.
There are still much to explore, if we had the time, and perhaps with a 4x4. We could easily spend another couple of weeks here, to visit some of the ranches, do a bit of horsing riding, hiking and a variety of physical activities.
For the next few days, we planned to travel along the talked about Austral Rt 7 ( or Carretera Austral ) of Chile, a highway which stretches from O'Higgins ( about 250Km south of Cochrane ) to Puerto Montt, running the lenght of Chilean Patagonia.
Going forward, before heading north, I was interested to go south to Tortel, a fishing village about 125 km south, halfway to O'Higgins, leaving O'Higgins for a future trip.
It is worth pointing out, at the end of Austral Rt 7 at O'Higgins, also means that all cars must cross over to Argentina in order to get to the Cuernos ( Horns ) of Torres del Paine National Park, where we were, only just a few days ago.
Again, we had a late morning start, breakfast and then some shopping at the local supermarket, and for a small walk around the town square for a 10 minute tour.
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| The business strip of Cochrane |
It was 11:00 before we able to set off towards Tortel, it wasn't meant to be a long day, otherwise, we would have tried to get to O'Higgins, the extreme southern end of Austral Rt 7, but our motivation was a little low, a typical mid-trip syndrome, I guess.
Soon down the road we were waved down by a young couple with backpacks, seeing that it is a wilderness area, we were happy to see if any help was needed. They were hitch hikers, a pair of Chilean University students, barely 20, why not. So we shuffled a few things around, and packed them into the back seat.
The road was gravel, and a lot of winding steep switch-backs, but the slowness was made up by the beautiful scenery. And there were quite a few bicycle travelers, hardworking and brave souls, my hat is off for their endurance and motivations.
The song, "The Long And Winding Road" came to mind.
The Chilean students, from Chile Chico, a small town north of Cochrane by the border of Argentina, studying in Santiago, were on their summer holidays, and they were ultimately going to O'Higgins over the next day or two, We have a reasonable conversation despite the language difficulties, and they were happy to practice their English.
Finally, after 4 hours of driving, sometime following slow cyclists up steep and narrow hills, we arrived at Tortel, and the two young passengers had to look for another car to take them to O'Higgins.
Tortel is on the western coast of the Chilean mainland, a sleepy fishing village, but is also the base for many outdoor adventures into the surrounding archipelagos which sit between it and the Pacific Ocean. This would be the closest we were to the Pacific Ocean on this trip, still a good 50-60 Kms by distance anyway. If we had more time, we could spend a couple of days here, to take a boat surveying the waters between here and the Pacific, there would be plenty of wild lives especially birds and other sea mammals, not to mention, not to mention a couple glaciers within reach by boat.
In the short time we had for, we can certainly walk the famous network of boardwalks that are the "streets" of the entire village, built on some fairy steep slops, to get a feel of the lay of the land !
And the humming birds, this was my poor attempt in capturing one, through lens !
After an hour or two of walking up and down the web of boardwalks, some are quite steep. it was time to head back to Cochrane.
It would be another 3 hours to get back to Cochrane, on the way, we saw quite a few cyclists had setup tents in grasslands not far from the road, looks like they all needed a long rest.
We very seldom back track on the same road like this time, but it did offer quite a different scenery, as the perspective was very different. So we saw the same road twice, but different scenery. Like this glacier was not in the view at all earlier in the day.
It was another 3 hours before we reached our hostel in Cochrane.
Before we left and head north on Rt 7 next morning, it was a good idea to replenish our low stock of Chilean Pesos, although fuel was taken care of by credit card, but other eventualities may need cash along this unfamiliar stretch of remote terrains. But the only bank's ATM did not work, and we had to wait for it to open at 11 for the cashier.
So we went for a drive around the eastern side of Cochrane first, to have a look at the immense Lago Cochrane, which straddles across the border with Argentina ( Lago Pueyrredon).
We had to go up a hill with some steep gravel roads, and came across quite a few local farmers on horse backs, some horses were carrying goods. All very interesting to see, but also having a peep into the way of farming life around this remote area.
After waited in a long queue at the bank and stocked up on Chilean Pesos, and fueled up, we headed back north along Rio Baker, back tracked the 18 Km to pass the junction where we came from Argentina a couple of days ago, and continued north on Rt 7.
It was gravel road mostly, and some sections were more corrugated or narrower than others, but we were mainly slowed down by the pristine scenery.
Gradually, Rio Baker empties itself into Lago Bertrand, and there are a fair bit of white waters around, we could see this place be perfect for some adventurous kayaking, and indeed, when we got to Puerto Bertrand, quite a few kayakers were around.
The surrounding scenery was getting better and better, and distant snow capped mountains everywhere we looked.
This junction offers to go towards Argentina along the southeastern rim of the grand lake, Lago General Carrera, but we took to the direction of Coyhaique, along the western edges of the lake.
And crossed this single lane bridge, over the narrow channel which connects Lago Bertrand and Lago General Carrera, on our way north.
All this time in Chile, including the days in Puenta Arenas and Torres del Paine National Park, we had not encountered one single police check point. Different country, different mentality.
The views along the vast Lago General Carrera, was indescribable, on a picture perfect mild autumn day.
The downside, of it, we won't make it to Coyhaique with the start stop driving at every turn, marveling at the majesty and the peace.
As the afternoon drawn on, the clouds were slowly gathering, when we get to Bahia Murta, it had decided to rain. Such was the changeability of Nature, more so in wild Patagonia.
Cerro Castillo was in the distance, we started to think about getting lodging locally or get to Coyhaique, 150 Km away.
After climbing some steep gravel road, we ran pass this sign. With the limited Spanish I picked up since arriving on this Continent, I recognised the words, "Agua Caliente", which means "Hot Water", presumably, for showers.
We went in and inquired. It was a small farm with a house.
Sure, it had a good sized and comfortable room available, with a private and working hot shower, and cash only. Yes, we had cash, and it was nice to stay one night and checkout the little farm with some curious Alpacas staring at strangers.
There was another family with a camper, camping on the grassland for the night as well.
The little Los Nires Farm at Cerro Castilo has quite a few sheep and alpacas, it would be a fun little playground for a family with kids.
We left just before 10 the next morning, because of the heavy mist. The drive down a steep gravel road was taken slowly, and we stopped to admire the views of the flood plain below.
The narrow road started to widen up once we crossed River Ibanez, and became a sealed road, but with plenty of pot holes, from hereonin to Coyhaique, about 110 Km away. The weather could not be more different from the picture perfect mild autumn day yesterday, to a cold and misty morning.
Once arrived at Coyhaique, the first town after El Chalten where we lost one piece of our luggage, 1300 Km earlier, a decent shopping center existed.
After securing our accommodation in a family run B&B, we spent the rest of the day shopping for some essential clothing and sundries etc. Though not exactly the quality we would like to have, at least we could have some clean underwear etc.
The next most important thing was being able to locate a computer shop, to buy a backup external disk drive that was lost, lest if the computer failed, all photos taken would have gone.
After 22 days, we had covered 6,500 Km in the little Chevy Spark. The new wheel seems to have worked fine, despite being slightly wider than the others. But I decided to change back to the original one, and kept the new wheel in the trunk.
