Day 27 - Camp to Camp - High Maintenance - 6 Week Carretera Austral - 2024

February 15, 2024

Day 27 - Camp to Camp

We went from one campsite to another campsite. The reason being is that to go all the way to Villa O’Higgins was going to be a long ride. The elevation was quite high and it was easier just to make a quick stop outside of Villa O’Higgins. This is also another day, where the road was gonna be quite bad with washboard ripio. After a while, you just laugh about it but after 30 minutes of bouncing up and down, you kind of just grimace with pain, and say, well, the scenery is nice. We found out about this place from a young Belgium couple at the campsite we stayed at last night. They commented that it had great Wi-Fi clean and fairly new.

Nice building to cook and eat in! He sold vegetables, eggs like a mini what they are called Supermercado.

Getting ready for the ride. I’m getting quicker packing up, David still beats me.

The culprit tube! Stubborn Peter will take it to the next stop to see where the hole is ! We didn’t waste time on the road to check

Pedro, we figured would go all the way to Villa O’Higgins since it was only roughly 70 km from the campsite. That is where the youth factor comes in. When you are old enough to be a fellow rider’s father, you figure they can at least do twice the distance that you do.

We were pleasantly surprised with the new campground. We ride with sore butts, covered with dust, and just looking for a place to have a nice, hot shower sit down and have some dinner.

David and I brought 4 dehydrated meals with us and it was about time that we try one of them. I’ve been carrying them in a panier since we started this trip in the middle of January and it was about time to eat it. To my surprise they are actually quite good.

The campsite was quite eco-friendly. The owner had the building set up where the kitchen was a big bunkhouse to showers to what I call banjos They’re really called banos. He was in the middle of building his own house. He fell trees, and it was actually making his own planks to build. The house is quite well done. David found out later that he was a retired professor and this was his retirement plan.

The three Spaniards were there, and we decided to all sleep in the bunkhouse, which had eight bunkbeds. This proved to be an error in judgement since the one Spaniard had quite the cough and the other Spaniard snored so needless to say we didn’t sleep very well. David actually went outside at 1 AM to set up his tent and sleep out there. I woke up at 5 AM and went into the washrooms to just read on my cell phone and get caught up on the news, since trying to fall asleep again with all the snoring was impossible.

Main building, a really good setup. Only a year old and knows how to cater to cyclists.

Sleeps 8, however better be comfortable with people who snore or cough ! Tenting outside may be a better option.

Great area for preparing food and you can buy fresh bread.

Again, the plus is with some of these cabanas hostels you can get breakfast. Of course you have to pay for it but it’s quite good. Everything was homemade the jam, the bread, which we watched the owners make. The word preservative does not exist in food preparation.

It is a two day drive to get supplies, so all the locals get together and figure out who is going, and bring supplies for everybody.

It becomes a ritual when you get to a camp site. First you get settled as in getting your bikes unpacked, if you have cell service or Wi-Fi quick call back home to let everybody know you’re safe, definitely a hot shower to get cleaned up, and then something to eat. If you are tenting and not using a cabana, looking for level ground to set up a tent is huge! That was always my problem, it would be like “David hey, can you help me find a level spot“.

Random dig picture. This time mom, dad and the puppy. Had to spend time getting my dog fix in.

A nice change from the previous day scenery riding.

We are now seeing more rivers as we ride. Always tempting to jump in and cool off or get cleansed from the dust.

Not the best picture of ripio, as I’ve said before I’ll never complain about roads back home again.

Hard to capture the waterfalls from the mountain runoff.

David took a slash across the road to get the dust off his face !

I should start calling the scenery ripio suppressant. When your butt get sore, just look around.

Getting closer to Villa O’Higgins. This will be the last stop.

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 145 km (90 miles)

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