“Tomorrow we continue with the Carretera Austral up to Futaleufu for the night.”…or that was the plan anyway!
The view from where we spent the night in Coyhaique
The Austral from Coyhaique started alright, although it continues with magnificent views, but soon deteriorated into a mess of roadwork’s, rocks, loose pebbles and the occasional well hard packed stretch. The manner with which we ride is I go in front and Enrico rides about 1 km behind because of dust. I can always see his light and when I cant, I stop for a short period until I can so there should never be more than a few kilometres between us, except on this occasion he didnt appear. This naturally causes a little bit of panic so went rushing back about 5km to find Enrico on the side of the road with the Fat one on its centre stand…the tyre had given up its ghost about 80km from our destination for the night and near the “hamlet” (not sure this is a small enough description) of Villa Saint Lucia!
A multitude of beautiful and amazing vistas along the Austral. It really is a once in a lifetime privilege to ride this road.
Some old guys on the side of the road assured us that we would find new tyres at Chaiten, 100km north along the Austral from where we were. Our original plan had been to get off the Austral at Villa Saint Lucia and make our way up to Esquel and Bariloche in Argentina and we never intended to ride the length of this famous road but it seems that fate through a new twist my way.
Fortunately we found some Cabanas in Villa Saint Lucia where Enrico checked into and I rode on to Chaiten a further 100km along the Austral. When I got to Chaiten, there was nothing but a couple of houses and shops. No tyre or bike shops as we had been assured so this had turned out to be a pointless exercise. What’s more, the accommodation in Chaiten was limited and what was available was super basic although warm and comfortable enough.
What should have been our ride (in blue)…what ended up being my ride (in red).
Chaiten is an interesting place though because “the town was evacuated in May 2008 when the Chaiten Volcano erupted for the first time in more than 9,000 years. The eruption, which commenced May 2, became more violent on May 5 throwing up a high plume of ash and sulphurous steam that rose to 31 km, from which ashfall drifted across Patagonia, and over the Atlantic Ocean. The town was completely flooded on May 12, 2008 after a mudflow caused the banks of the Blanco River to overflow about 200 m on each side. Over the subsequent weeks, the river excavated a new course through Chaitén, completely destroying a significant part of it by July 2008. The future of the town has become a matter of political controversy in Chile.”
Chaiten during the eruption of the nearby volcano…
I have spent much of the evening looking at alternatives of where to find tyres for the BMW and it seems that the most probable location is Puerto Montt, which happens to also be the end/start point of the Austral! It requires 3 ferries and about 200km of dirt riding but the next best option is Bariloche (maybe) some 600km from Chaiten so tomorrow I head for Puerto Montt!
