Carreterra Austral Day 11 Villa O’Higgins To Lagos Pasadas

Having planned to go to the glacier we packed camp down early and we had organised to leave our gear at the tourist office at 10.00am when they opened.

10.00am rolled around, 10.15, 10.25 …no sign of anyone…WTF ….no tourists on this day please !!!

Needlessly consuming our time we shot around to the Police station and talked with them, one guy an experienced climber and said to Ellen we had been misinformed about the time, distance and degree of difficulty.

Also by this stage of the game the changeable weather making its presence felt with a bitterly cold winds laden with chainsaws cutting straight through our clothing.

All in all an epic fail of tourist office people not turning up and Policeman saying don’t go we disappointingly had to can it, as there was no Plan B we had to rethink a new plan of attack.

It was decided to make a break and head out so we did, still enjoying our time in Villa O’Higgins and very worthwhile going there.

Beautiful road to follow

P1230858 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The wind was nasty cold and had bits of cold water in it making for a cooler ride.

P1230867 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

As we progressed to the ferry it started to brighten which was welcoming.

The ferry came in right on time and Claire from Australia (who we had met a few days earlier) rolled off the boat so we had a quick chat with her before she headed south and we boarded the boat.

P1230874 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Reaching the land again on the other side was dry and a small breeze but still very cold, all rugged up we decided to make the most of our day, back up to Cochrane then over Passo Raballo to Argentina, the southern most pass on the Carreterra Austral.

Passo Raballo was beautiful and a neat ride, the border crossings very simple and quick, we had ended up doing way more miles than we thought and the winds was howling, next town 64 km away down a very secondary road that had suffered bad rain damage and was soggy in places.

P1230963 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

A nice dry section

P1230970 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

We were both tired, cold and hungry now, so leaving the pass we had a quick munch, drink then hits it to Lagos Pasadas.

Heading down east into Argentina

P1230984 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The wind giving us a push or two sideways and the soggy sodden ground breaking our traction in between the dusty parts so we had a real mix of everything.

The wind whipping the shallow muddy waters from the rain

P1230990 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The previous rain had made some fairly big channels across the road around 400 wide x 400 deep kinda thing which kept up on our toes, a couple of them hidden in the diminishing light and almost catching us out.

Finally reaching Lagos Pasadas after about 470 km of gravel roads, ferry crossing and border crossing we were spent, the wind by this stage enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, the only sheltered camp site was a paid place with a proper room not a lot more.

Given the ferocity of the wind, cold and lateness we got the cheapest place we could find, good timing too for charging everything back up....and they had a heater

Next up.....the southward leg towards Ushuaia