After an adventurous borderpassing between Argentina and Chili, there was the Carretera Austral! We had heard and read a lot about it. According to some it was even more beautiful than according to others. And about the difficulty of the route we heard many horror stories. Tyres, rims and racks would have a rough time. And then there was the rain. We heard it rains there almost every day. Some people told us they had had rain on the Carretera Austral for up to 3 weeks. There was the wind on the Argentinian side and the rain on the Chilean side, we heard over and over.

At the campground in Villa O’Higgins, the broken rims and ruptured tyres were hanging on the walls as relics. It really might get nasty out there…

Indeed, the whole route was pretty hard. There were hills we couldn’t get up cycling. So we had to push! The road was very bad in many places. So bad that we got to the same speed going uphill and downhill, around 4 to 10 km/h (2,5 to 6 mph)… This was a whole new experience for us and we didn’t like it much…!

We got bumped off our bikes on many places because of all the holes, bumps, and many loose stones the size of apples and loose gravel on which we seem te be floating. Of the app. 1000 kms (600 miles) of this route we cycled, 250 kms (150 miles) is paved (heaven!) and a max of 150 kms (90 miles) is good gravel. The rest is nothing more than very bad.

At home, we’re used to cycling around 100 kms (60 miles) a day. In our country we cover that distance in an afternoon. Over here, we didn’t get much further than 50 to 60 kms (30 to 36 miles) a day with an average speed of sometimes not even 10 km/h (6 mph). Because you have to watch the road all the time to make sure you don’t fall or bump into a hole, you can’t pay much attention to the scenery and you probably miss some of that scenery. Unfortunately.

We didn’t see much of the promised (and feared) rain. On the whole route, we just had 1,5 days of rain. But instead we got the heat; between 30 and 40 degrees C (high) 90’s almost every day with a burning sun for which no sunscreen was a match. The roads became very dusty and dry so everytime we got passed by a bus or car, we got dusted over.

We also didn’t have any flat tyres. The only damage we had was that of Linda’s both back panniers, the backplate is ruptured. One is ruptured at one of the attachments to the pannier itself, so it’s hanging loose in a way. We managed to fix it by tying a strap around it so we could at least go on, but it’s not ideal. The other backplate also has a tear in it, but not as bad; a tear in the middle which we were able to glue and tape together.

We found the part between Villa O’Higgins and Puerto Rio Tranquilo (the southern part) to be the most beautiful part, but also the most challenging. Going up and down constantly, and most hills had a gradient of around 10%, but there were also hills with a gradient of around 15%. But a very beautiful world; snowy mountains, beautiful and bright blue lakes, gorges and valleys. Sometimes we rounded a corner and the scenery would be totally different from right before. After Rio Tranquilo the scenery got a bit more normal and boring, but the road got less steep from there. Less and less steep hills and even a flat or downhill part so now and then. Long, dusty roads through forest. But also some nice scenery in between.

Maybe we’re a bit spoiled by all the beautiful scenery we’ve seen already on previous trips, so we don’t notice all the beauty anymore. We thought parts of the route were similar to Norway, Sweden and/or New Zealand.

What we also really liked about the whole route is that there are many places where you can camp in the wild. There are a lot of beautiful places to pitch the tent. Also there was water everywhere because of the many lakes, rivers and streams. You can drink this water without filtering it, so it was ideal for our hot circumstances. It’s also very nice to cool off in.

If you ride the Carretera Austral from south to north, just like we did, and you don’t have a lot of time to cycle the whole rout, you could consider cycling to Coyhaique and from there to Puerto Aisen or Puerto Cisnes to take the ferry to Chiloe or Puerto Montt.

All in all, the Carretera Austral was indeed beautiful but a bit ‘overhyped’.