The shortcut- El Chalten to the Carretera Austral

We limped into Cochrane yesterday afternoon following our mission shortcut and the first 250km of the Carretera Austral- one broken Bob trailer, one broken pannier carrier, a recently dislocated shoulder, broken forks and front brakes, snapped derailluer cable, punctures, broken spokes and all with our fair share of scratches and bruises..... Our mission began with an awesome 37km ride from El Chalten to Lago Desierto. Great to be riding in lush bush with rivers and waterfalls - could have been in New Zealand. We arrived at the lake in time for a sunset jump off the jetty, beautiful clear water. We camped amongst the trees and Shane did a spot of fishing. Unfortunately there were nasty sandflies that were annoying us. Anna cranked out her super geeky net hat and was gloating about it, until a mosquito got trapped on the inside!! Haha, she got bitten on the eyelid, it swelled up and she couldn´t open her eye. The next morning we sent our bikes off on the ferry and ran the 12km bush track around the lake to meet them at the other end (saving ourselves $80 pesos each). Following a lake-side lunch we set off up a steep, narrow, rutted horse track leading to Lago O´Higgins and the Chilean border. It was completely unrideable to begin with and it was a matter of dragging, pushing and hauling our heavily laden bikes. Progress soon came to a halt when Soph fell and became trapped under her bike on a particularly steep slope (stubbornly refusing Shane`s help!). We were all a bit slow to react thinking she was in fits of giggles....until we heard "Um- I think I´ve dislocated my shoulder". We looked down to see a very deformed looking right shoulder. Thankfully it popped back into place as we disentangled Soph from her bike. We redistributed her load and continued the slog!! Although obviously sore, Sophie (the trooper) made herself a sling and continued pushing her bike. It was pretty tough, hot work, but the terrain gradually improved and we were able to start riding short sections of single-track. We reached a camp-site on an estancia at dusk having crossed the border back into Chile.

The next morning´s start was delayed slightly by Kate´s 64 trips to the toilet and Shane´s passport going missing. The friendly farmer offered Kate a special remedy and kindly turned up his radio (only static) during her frequent toilet visits! As we waited for Kate´s dia-stop to kick in, Shane missioned back up the track to search for his passport- very essential item as we had were actually in "no-man´s land" - having crossed the border but not yet checked into Chilean customs! Luckily the bowels settled and the passport was found. The next stage of riding was around 17km of steep track downhill with loose gravel and big rocks. Kate struggled with no front brakes, meanwhile Cautious Carol totally lost her nerve - lots of walking! We eventually made it to Lago O´Higgins ferry "terminal". We bought delicious pan (bread) from the local estancia, swam off the end of the jetty in the cold glacial lake then chilled out on the two and half hour ferry ride to Villa O´Higgins- stoked to have completed our short-cut mission.

Villa O´Higgins is a sleepy isolated town at the southern end of the Carretera Austral (´southern road´- 1300km gravel road linking parts of southern Chile). The section of road leading into town was only completed in 1999. We ate a bizarre meal of meat mixed with chopped sausage and gherkin (not good) and were all super glad for a hot shower at the camping ground. The next day we set off on the Carretera. It was so good to be out of the wind and in amongst mountains and bush. We were faced with our first real climbs and first real taste of "ripio" (rough gravel roads). It soon started to take its toll on the bikes - One of Matilda´s carrier screws snapped. Anna did a mean wire fix-it job and its holding well so far. Anna had several punctures on both her bike and her trailer. The rest of us were glad with our new fancy tyres for the trip (Schwalbe marathon) - no punctures so far!
The next two days we climbed over passes...descended through dense green gulleys that opened out onto panoramic views of lakes, rivers and glaciers. The weather was so changeable- rain one moment, hot sun-shine the next- but thankfully little wind. The rain makes getting out of the tent in the morning pretty tough! Yesterday was sweet riding with a few climbs and rolling hills. Kate´s climbs were made slightly more difficult as her rear-derailleur cable became caught in her cassette and shredded, so she was stuck in a hard gear. As we cruised toward Cochrane Shane had a bit of a Bob trailer blow out! On a down-hill, over the rough ripio, a welding point on the frame snapped. He managed to splint it back together with a tree branch and wire and we made it into town safely. Well almost- Matilda managed to crash 2km out of town on some loose gravel and crack her helmet! No broken bones though!

We celebrated making it here with a delicious BBQ, cerveza, chips and Matilda made apple crumble and ice-cream! Anna and Sophie over-dosed on cherries from the tree at our camping ground.

Today we are chilling out and fixing our broken bikes. Shane has already managed to get his Bob welded back together and we have found a supermercado that sells everything from food,to baby clothes, to skill saws, bolts and screws. Back on the bikes tomorrow - to Chile Chico....