Back in Chile to do the Carretera Austral (Carretera 7)

The Carretera Austral is the name of a road in Chile, which unsurprisingly runs north / south. Until the 1970s, the bottom third of Chile was unconnected by road, with boats or horses as the only means of communication. In the early 70's, fearing war with Argentina, the Pinochet regime decided to build a road to the southern lands. It cost a fortune in both money and lives to build. The road passes through remote mountains and forests, past massive lakes and over rivers. Today about 50% is paved the rest 'ripio' and of course it is the bits through the mountains that are windy, narrow, steep and ripio! The town Puyuhuapi on the Carretera was finally connected by road in 1982.

However, the scenery makes up for any discomfort as it is spectacular and our photos don't do it justice. The lakes were an amazing milky turquoise colour from the glaciers that feed them. The roads were lined with yellow and purple Lupins. We camped two nights along the route, once by a massive lake and the other on a farm with Alpacas wandering around. We were not alone in our journey as cyclists, hitchhikers and motor homes struggle along the road, which is mentioned in all the guide books as something not to be missed. We met the same group of Swiss motor homes several times and on occasions looked with envy through their windows at them sitting cosy in soft reclining seats cooking and reading.

The only thing the guide books do fail to mention is the endless rain. And it does rain (Gerty is looking quite spotless again). It has been almost continuous since we got back into Chile. The locals have told us this is normal. Dry and dusty Argentina is not looking so bad now!

We continued driving north. The road, now lined with Foxgloves and Fushia plants runs along the side of the Andes through beautiful forested valleys. Some stretches of the road are even paved, which quite excited Peter. It didn't last long and then giant potholes reappeared. We camped another couple of nights in National Parks (Rio Simpson and Queulat) and did some walking, which included a two hour walk to see a spectacular hanging glacier. Peter relaxed for an hour in an outdoor thermal bath looking out over a fjord.

We headed to Futaleufu for Peter to do some white water rafting but believe it or not there had been so much rain that the river level was too high and flowing too fast.