Carretera Austral is a legendary dirt road of Chilean Patagonia, that runs between fjords, glaciers and untouched nature: the dream of every adventurer! Wanted by the dictator Augusto Pinochet for military reasons, it was built between 1976 and 1996, and extends for 1.240 km between Puerto Montt and Villa O’Higgins, connecting regions otherwise not reachable if not by sea.
Before embarking for this journey we had never cycled for more than 2/3 days, and therefore we left for Chile totally unprepared for such a long bike adventure: we were not fit enough, bikes were overloaded, poor mechanical skills, no maps or GPS… But we had the best time ever, and we totally fall in love with this slow way of travelling.
Our journey began in Puerto Montt aboard a cargo boat. After 27 hours we arrived in Puerto Chacabuco, where we started cycling: two days of pavement and then just a long dirt road. In Villa O’Higgins, where the Carretera Austral ends and the other vehicles have to turn back, we continued by boat first, and then entered Argentina through a challenging single trek that crosses a mountain pass. We ended our journey in El Chaltén.
In total we cycled for about 750km and camped in the wilderness for most nights.
