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Rain on R7 from Tortel to Chaitén

Rain on R7 from Tortel to Chaitén

After the Paso Roballos, I was hoping for a good Chilean road. Too bad. The road through the Patagonia National Park (Chile) is pretty battered.

Gravel road, corrugated iron road, road washed out by the Rio Chacabuco, a single up and down. It only gets better from the park center onward and is almost good at the end. The park itself is huge, 260,000 hectares, and has some excellent hiking trails. If the dry Estepa in Argentinian Patagonia is characterized by little rainfall, dry winds and sandy soils, a different flora and fauna has developed on the western side of the Andean ridges.  

The first thing I noticed were the forests. After reading up a bit, I knew that they mainly consist of three types of southern beech. The high rainfall also leads to dense forests in which many animals live.  So far I hadn't seen much apart from guanacos, nandus and an armadillo. Not to mention huemul deer, pumas or the Andean condor.

At the confluence of the Rio Baker and Rio Chacabuco, I came across the R7, the Carretera Austral. 

Pinochet commissioned the Carretera Austral from the military in 1976. Most likely they are still working on it, because building a road here is damn difficult and takes time. The mountains and ice fields severely limit the possibilities. In the past, people used to get to these remote places by ship or plane. Building a continuous asphalt road seems impossible, because many sections are gravel roads, some of them very bad. Because of the many fjords, glaciers and mountain ranges, the fjords still have to be crossed by ferry. But more on that later.

I had to go to Cochrane to do some shopping. The R7 to Cochrane is in a similar “condition” to the RN40. Only when it became a gravel road was it more pleasant to drive. Oncoming traffic could be recognized by the large plumes of dust arching over the road. 

Oh yes, there is no real alternative to the R7. All other roads to the south are dead ends.

Cochrane has about 4'000 inhabitants and looked a bit like El Chalten to me. At the gas station in town, I had to wait 15 minutes at the only intact pump. The supermarket I chose was 5 x 5 m, the alternative was 7 x 7 m. “Efficiently sorted” and expensive! The only packet of 250 g ground coffee cost €11, or alternatively the stuff from Nescafe. The empanadas were OK for that.

At this point I had been on the road for 5 hours and just wanted to chill out on a pitch. Most of the pitches on IOverlander are occupied by cyclists. Near the R7, behind a rock or trees, enough space for a tent. I had to cycle another 50 km before I found what I was looking for.

They say that the RN40 and the R7 are the dream roads of Chile and Argentina! You meet so many cyclists, bikers and campers on the R7. But why actually? Coming from Cochrane, you ride through forests and see little of the landscape, grandiose or not.Look at the video and develop your own opinion.

Only when you cross the Los Pipes bridge after about 45 km and see the Cordon los Nadis in front of you does it get better. In the valley of the Rio de los Nadis, if the weather is good, you can really get a longer view of snow-covered mountains and glacier edges for the first time before heading back into dense forests. This section closer to Tortel is much more interesting.  

As I didn't want to spend the night in Tortel, I looked for pitches along the Carretera Austral. As it had probably rained a lot, the 2 best places were swampy and unusable for me (2WD), many of the campsites were closed or rather BnBs for cyclists. 

But first I had a look at Tortel. Tortel is a Chilean village (approx. 600 inhabitants) at the mouth of the Rio Baker into the Pacific and is probably the most remote place in southern Chile. 

Tortel is not actually a fishing town, but a logging town with a kilometer-long system of logging roads. When I was there, these wooden walkways and wooden houses were being repaired or completely replaced in every nook and cranny. Without the wooden walkways, it would hardly be possible to get from A to B with the dense vegetation and steep hills around the bay.  The jetty system and the boat tours are the tourist attraction. 

I was amazed at how many cyclists and tourists were out and about at this end of the R7. But no comparison to the attractions on the other side of the border/Andean. 

Puerto Yungay with its 5 houses and the ferry is only visited if you want to take the ferry to Villa O'Higgins. For a camper van it is a dead end, because cyclists and pedestrians can only get to Argentina, i.e. El Chalten, by boat.

I headed north again with fried empanadas, tested pitches and ended up in Valle la Tranquera, right by the river and with a view of the Cordon los Nadis. Bingo

Until now, the R7 Carretera Austral was not my dream road! That changed a few days later north of Cochrane. The course of the Rio Baker with its rapids and no dense forest then offers much more. Puerto Bertrand is the only nice little town before you get to Lago Gral Carrera. But it's perfect for a few photos of the turquoise blue water.

I was lucky, it was over 20 degrees and the sky was bright blue as I drove along Lago Gral Carrera towards Puerto Río Tranquilo or Puerto Mármol. Google Maps had estimated 1:15 h for 60 km. With stops and because of the modest R7, it took me about 4 hours to Puerto Mármol. In this weather, you can stop at every mirador and take photos of the blue lake.

I drove to Puerto Mármol because I wanted to see the Cavernas de Marmol. The caves are not directly accessible on foot or by car, but only by boat. I did the tour in a small boat for 10 people. I couldn't get excited about the kayaks. 

The azure waters of the lake are reflected in the smooth walls of the 6,000-year-old marble caves. Depending on the water level <plus minus 1 m between summer and winter>, you can enter these caves. It looks good. The 5-10 other larger boats from Puerto Río Tranquilo don't bother you. The stretch of coast is about 3 km long.

Puerto Río Tranquil was a bit unusual for me. The place is small, but I couldn't find a parking space after refueling. Full of tourists. It's the only place between Puerto Guadal and Villa Cerro Castillo, 180 km of dirt road.

So after 2 parking attempts I turned off onto the X728 and drove towards Puerto Grosse. Because the next week I wanted to go to Laguna San Rafael and the glacier.

So the drive to Puerto Grosse and the visit to the Laguna San Rafael will be a separate post. Too many good pictures.

5 days later we continued on the R7 towards Villa Cerro Castillo. Not that the village of 400 inhabitants is anything special, although it is often mentioned on TripAdvisor $& Co. But it is the first real town after Puerto Río Tranquil on the R7. The 120 km of gravel road on a rainy day are not exactly the best. At first you drive along the lake, but from Murta Viejo onwards you drive through the forest.

You can see the Rio Murta from time to time and later the Río Ibáñez, but that's about it.

This changes after about 345 km. Until shortly before Villa Cerro Castillo it was a modest gravel and corrugated iron road, but from here on it is paved or concreted. I can't tell you how great I thought it was not to be constantly jolted and shaken, no more slaloming around potholes. 

As I said, doesn't offer much, but it is the starting point for some longer hikes. If it hadn't been raining, I would have tackled it too. But I went to see the Paredón de las Manos. What can I say, after it was so highly recommended, I was disappointed. It's about 40 meters of painted rock face. I was so impressed that I didn't even take out my camera.

On the paved R7, I then took the serpentine road up the mountains towards Coyhaique, my first major town (approx. 54,000 inhabitants) with a large supermarket in Patagonia. 

Between Villa Cerro Castillo and Coyhaique, there are not many parking spaces that I would like. Coyhaique and the surrounding area seem to be underdeveloped in this respect.  I solved the problem by spending the night in El Blanco, then shopping in Coyhaique and visiting the town.

However the country side changed drastically. It saw well developed farm land and quite a few national parks

The Unimarc in Coyhaique was huge, I got everything I needed for the next 2 weeks. Only have to buy bread, fruit and milk from time to time. I even found a pair of jogging pants for very little money in the city. In bad weather, most cities are not the best and Coyhaique is the biggest city, but still a small town.

After 2 hours I drove on. To be honest, there's not much else to say. I can't say much about the panorama as the clouds were low and you couldn't see much.

It was similar on the R240. I tried to capture the landscape in pictures from time to time, but I wouldn't say I succeeded. It's farmland, lots of fields, farms and cows. On the X50 towards Villa Mañihuales, the valley of the Rio Mañihuales was initially more rugged, but then didn't look much different to the valley of the Rio Simson on the R240.

Villa Mañihuales was also the first town after Coyhaique. Hostels, campsites, cabanas, supermarkets and restaurants. Everything a cyclist needs on the way to Villa O'Higgins. I end the day a few kilometers further along the Rio Mañihuales.

Rain again the next day. The rain was starting to get on my nerves. We continued on the R7 towards PN Queulat and Puyuhuapi. The highlight was the hairpin bends after the Cuesta Queulat. Behind 3 trucks at 20 km/h, we went down the mountain to Lago Puyuhuapi. 

Had a chat with 2 cyclists from KN who were riding up the pass in the rain, while I couldn't do anything. Riding up or down the pass in this weather on a narrow, slippery and muddy track between all the other vehicles is pretty damn tough. Especially when you know that you won't reach a village again for another 40 kilometers in the rain. Even in Chile, I wasn't sure whether many of the so-called campsites were really open!

Puyuhuapi was a dreamy little place on a lake that day. No rain for 3 hours and the sun came out. We took a break at the lake. Soaked up the sun and continued to my intended pitch on the X12, before Port Raul. 

Brilliant spot, wasn't alone this time. Lorena and Sandro shared the pitch with me. It was a bit cramped, see the video, but what can you do! 

 I took a shower in my Evershower, cleaned the car and relaxed in the sun. In the evening I had a GT with Lorena and Sandro and had a good chat. The weather got really good on the 2nd day and the sun even shone, but only until about 16:00. It rained the whole 200 km to Chaiten.

I decided to take the ferry to Isla Grande de Chiloé in Chaiten. The weather should improve there and I only needed a small ferry to the mainland. Alternatively, I would have had to take 2 or 3 more ferries on the R7. The ferry to Quellón wasn't exactly cheap, €288 for the 5-hour crossing.

I ended up standing in the pouring rain 500 meters from the ferry port directly on the R7. It was by far the worst place so far. On Monday I drove to the port at 5:45 in the dark of night. It was dark too. Only a few lights were on. It was 6:15 and still nothing. I looked around, came back and looked at my ticket. And that's when I discovered my mistake. My crossing wasn't until Tuesday. Shit happens!

I looked for a few options on IOverlander and finally landed in Santa Bárbara, Chaitén at around 7:30 am. Right on the beach!!!! What a place. Tomorrow was also a day to take the ferry!

Next day, 6:00 in the morning. This time the harbor was lit up and there were also 2 cars there.

We set off at 8:00 a.m. and after a pleasantly quiet 4-hour drive I was in Quellón.

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