After breakfast we loaded up our truck and handed the key back to the woman in the shop. Though it wasn't yet 11am, there was a guide apparently hosting a beer tasting in the shop.

Just up the road we visited the Petrohue Falls. We came here on the last day of our honeymoon in 2002. It was a bit chaotic. We’d booked a last minute holiday that Joannie had seen advertised in the Guardian for a Volcanoes, lakes and glaciars tour. (Our original plan, not planned, was a trip to Argentina but the economy had just collapsed.) The one thing about the holiday was that the organisers had missed out the lakes and volcanoes bit. After several frantic phone calls to Voyages Jules Verne, they acknowledged that they had messed up and organised a day trip to Lago Todos Los Santos on our very last day. The weather was bad, the volcanoes (Osorno, Calbuco, Puntaguido, Tronador) were shrouded in cloud but nevertheless we had a pleasant boat trip across the lake and lunch at a hotel in Puella. What we didn’t know was that the bad weather had meant the dirt road we had taken to reach the lake had been washed away and our tour guide waiting for us to return from the lake wasn’t convinced that she could get us back to the airport on time. When we disembarked there were diggers everywhere trying to clear the road. Of course, we did get back but it was a bumpy ride.

Returning now, thirteen years later, the dirt track is a wide metalled road and at the Petrohue Falls there is a brand new visitor centre. There are walkways above the falls to view them but the main one is being repaired. As we had a potentially long journey ahead of us today, we didn’t stay long but Joan bought another apron for her burgeoning collection.

Turning south towards Ralun, we were in Patagonia proper now. The road runs down the 100 km Estero de Reloncavi, Chile’s northernmost fjord. The road has only just been completed and Joan’s map shows it with unbuilt sections, but we had checked out that it was fully open before we came, or else it was a 200 km plus diversion via Puerto Montt.

The road was metalled for the first 30 km but then became narrow and uneven and it was difficult to relax whilst driving. Some of the wooden bridges weren't in the best state of repair! The scenery was stunning – Volcan Yates at the end of the estuary, improbably blue water and steep, wooded hillsides. There’s even a bus route along part of it and very new bus shelters to celebrate the new found accessibility. In the river there were fish farms and the area is famous for its salmon. The Chileans name each of their bridges, often after the stream it crosses but they must have run out of names as one was named: Puente Sin Nombre. Deconstruct that if you care!

Finally we reached Puelche where a ferry links the main part of Chile to the south. Here we joined the Carretera Austral, Pinochet’s grand plan for a continuous road to link the whole of Chile together. We’ve driven some of it before when we visited Glaciar Perito Moreno and famously had a puncture on Christmas Day in 2009 which we had to leave the country to find a spare, the next major town having been buried by volcanic ash.

http://joannieandkevin.blogspot.cl/2009 /12/friday-25th-december.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carretera _Austral

As we left Puelche the road became a gravel track, but much wider and easier to drive than the new road along the fjord.

Hornopiren is a small town and provides the ferry link to the next section of the Carretera Austral. It’s perfectly conical volcano sits behind the town though it is currently dormant. We found our cabins easily and went for a walk down to the dock and around the town. It feels quite an affluent place, with a big plaza currently being installed.

In the new Holy Family Church, we looked at the stations of the cross which were themed on social injustice, with each one dealing with a topic such as homelessness, slavery, global warming and rights for women. Very leftista!

Back at the cabanas, the family in the house next door were gathering to celebrate New Year’s Eve. We didn’t want to take a picture or invade their privacy, but watched as they took the biggest kebab in the world to their barbeque (Asado) barn to roast. We ate a dinner of aubergine gratin with pesto gnocchi and watched the volcano turn pink at sunset.