Day 1,653

Coyhaique

Tom and I rarely pause on our journey, usually we stop for a day, maybe two, and our ‘rest’ time is a whirl of activity. Bikes to clean and service, kit to clean and repair, blog posts to be written, and if there is a film due, then maybe an extra day or two whilst Tom sits at a desk, howls at the moon when the WiFi is slow, and using his 4 year old computer, which after years of being bounced about in his pannier bags is slowly dying, creating another masterpiece. Hopefully it will last the rest of the trip, there's no money in the kitty for a new one. Then there's planning for the next few weeks, route options to research and create, supplies to be bought, then we are off again. 

During our last mini-break we planned the rest of our time in South America. We'd had a rough idea for a while. The Carretera road literally ends in the small town of Villa O'Higgins. Cyclists though have an option not available to motorised vehicles. They can head off into the forest and hike with their bike, ride some very rough dirt tracks and take two expensive local ferries until they rejoin the roads in Argentina. It's just the way cyclists traditionally go. 

However there is another option, to retrace our route to Yunguy and take a car ferry through the fjords. This appealed to me. Carrying our bikes is really really difficult, we've fallen out of love with Argentina, more ripio and headwind do not appeal. So, the decision was made, we tried to book our place on the ferry. Most ferries, we can just turn up and wheel our bikes on, but this ferry is for 41 hours so passengers need to reserve a seat. Unfortunately apart from the New Year's eve sailing it was sold out until January 30th. So we had a choice, continue cycling and hike a bike, or take our time, stay longer in areas and explore off our route. At the time we knew we'd have to wait for some tyres to be delivered, Tom had two films to create, Christmas was coming, so we booked the January 30th ferry and an Airbnb in Coyhaique for a week. 

Tom was soon on the computer and had some days out planned. We had a fantastic hike on Christmas day and yesterday it was a bike ride to the Coyhaique National Reserve. Created in 1948, covering an area of 2,150 hectares, with several lagoons to visit, with, so the website says, gentle hills rising up to the mountains. 

Mountains all around

Now I must admit I hadn't paid much attention to this route. I knew we went downhill from the town then had to climb back up to the entrance to the park. I had watched a couple of videos of others cycling there and though the road surfaces were gravel it looked OK and flat. Oh boy, how wrong can you be? 

In just over 14 miles we climbed and descended nearly 3,000 feet. The route was really just  hills, with average gradients varying between 8 and 10%, and that gravel? Well it was rough and loose. We were surrounded by a stunning forest, occasionally we passed the lagoons but I was just too focused on staying upright on the bike. Going downhill wasn't any better, that loose gravel would have been great fun on a mountain bike, but on our rigid tourers with brand new tyres? Not so much! 

Still we did it, apart from a few sections where my tyres couldn't find any traction I rode it all. Tom as usual did even better. The mist and clouds that have been obscuring the views since we arrived here had dispersed and the views of the surrounding mountains were simply breathtaking. Tom has several more days out planned. I'm just hoping they are not quite so hilly!