The Carretera Austral is ranking as one of the world’s ultimate road trips. It runs for about 1240 km, mostly unpaved through the mountains and forest of Northern Patagonia. It was a prestigious project of Chile’s former dictator Pinochet, who started building this road in 1976 (only to be finished in 1996), more for symbolic reasons than common sense as he wanted to have a road that tied the whole country together. The road cost a fortune to build due to the remoteness and harsh climate and 11 workers lost their lives in these 20 years. We planned to do about 750 km of this road as we couldn’t get to the northern end as the limited ferry service was booked full. We also missed the southern end as at the border crossing to Argentina, only Chile has built a road. This meant that after crossing the border we had to cross a river without bridge and some rough terrain, which I was up for, but which hasn’t been done a lot before and after enquiring in Coyhaique and several calls to police in Villa O’Higgins we were told that due to the hot water and melting glaciers, the river was too high to cross by 4WDs, only trucks can go through. So here’s our report of the middle section of the Carretera Austral we drove.

We started the Carretera Austral at 7am on my birthday, the 18^th of January. That’s when the ferry finally allowed us to disembark in Chaiten. Our plan was to look for nice accommodation here and take it easy for a day (as we didn’t have a bed on the ferry), but there was nothing that struck our fancy. Chaiten was devastated by the eruption of a volcano in 2008 and that was still obvious. So we had a very cold breakfast of porridge and coffee on the side of the road and I got my birthday card from Julia, which was a nice start of the day.

After such an early start we were making good kilometres on the Carretera Austral, which to our surprise was paved for the first half hour. Then it changed to the rough gravel we were expecting. Some stretches are decent, but then without warning it can change suddenly to corregation and large holes. About midday we arrived at an expensive fishing lodge which had a beautiful campsite on the lake. It was about 37 degrees, so we decided to call it quits for the day and enjoy it. We stayed two nights and did a bit of swimming and hiked up to a beautiful glaciar.

The next few days we kept on driving south enjoying the beautiful scenery. Snow capped mountains, lakes, fast flowing rivers and forest, we finally felt that Chile was showing us its good side. The going was slow though and sometimes were were not able to cover more than about 35km in an hour, but that was fine, we knew it was going to be a challenge. It was also a challenge for the many hitchhikers we saw, some of them were stuck for quite a while as there is not a lot of traffic and the cars that do pass are mostly full with people and gear. On top of that it was the hottest week of summer, which made it unpleasant on the side of the road, especially with the massive dust clouds each vehicle throws up. Our routine was to have breakfast and then break up camp and be on the road by about 11am and drive till late afternoon/early evening. In that way we were in the air-conditioned car during the hottest hours of the day when it was 35+ degrees and we avoided most of the tabanos, the black flies that sting you even through your clothes.

At Rio Simpson we found a new campsite run by Nacho, a Spaniard who is very enthusiastic about his new business. He spent all night with his guests, showing us organic eco farming, offered us home made bread, took us swimming, gave tips etc. We met a 66 year old Irish cyclist who had cycled from Santiago and was now going down the Carretera, he was a funny character. He really hated the ‘suck my dick white pickups’ which never slowed down when passing and sprayed him in stones and dust and loved talking about his ‘toilet habits’. Cycling makes him very regular, which means every day at 6am he wakes up and the big event is happening. During breakfast he also showed us his cup which he takes in his tent, so he doesn’t have to get out of his tent during the night to pee. In cold areas he uses a bottle which he pees in and then puts in his sleeping bag to keep him warm. Each to his own.

In the one big town on the Carretara, Coyhaique we decided on camping by a hostel where we could use the facilities, but we got quickly reminded again of the often poor standard of accommodation in Chile. The campsite was full of dog shit, the kitchen absolutely reeked and we had to ask the caretakers, a young Chilean couple, to take the rubbish out. Then we tried to use the filthy stove, but there was no gas bottle and we were directed to their private kitchen, where every surface was filled with dirty dishes and general rubbish (and where they would prepare breakfast for guests). Strange thing was that they only had had one guest on average per day and they did nothing else than watching tv in the middle of the day. It’s basically pure laziness and not caring, we’ve seen that a bit. This time we asked for our money back, got most of it and left to camp in the forest outside of Coyhaique.

All in all, the Carretara Austral was beautiful and we enjoyed driving down it! Camping is definitely the way to go as the towns are best to be avoided, they are not very appealing to say the least. Scenery was beautiful, with especially the part between Chaiten and Coyhaique being very dramatic.