Puyuhuapi to Puerto Raul Marin Balmaceda

Waking to steady rain with the weather having packed a sad it had rained pretty much all night.

“Take Two” to go north, the word on the ground was the road was open and the major landslide cleared.

I squeezed out one ride report while we had wifi, Ellen packed our food case etc then we packed down completely, rugged up with almost dry wet gear and set off.

It was very wet with steady rain, the road a boggy wash and Maya doing a moon dance across the road at times ....kinda like this guy but without the style , I was very grateful to have a new tire on the front given the sloppy conditions.

Making it back up to the slip area as we approached we watched more rocks bowling down onto the road, I slowed down, let a few go rolling past (noting around 200 - 300 mm diameter) then we made a break for it, I looked up the slip when we were mid way across and it certainly was no place to sit and park, as we made it through the zone more rocks and mud tumbled down behind us...... another change of nappies needed.

With the constant steady rain it looked like it was lining up to come down again so we were pleased to be on the north side and on our way with fingers crossed we did not get caught in more land slides cos this time we would be in the middle with no towns.

For the next 20 odd km it was apparent there were many slips reducing the road to one skinny lane making it difficult for buses and of course these sections of the road were just a bog and a slurry of runny concrete like stone, binder and water, our rear disk pads wearing out WITHOUT even touching the pedal , you could audibly hear the shit grinding around.

We had rinsed this off only one km before at a creek, then had to wait for road works so I took the pic

P1240568 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

A lot of the new road building was turning into road rebuild and repairs as the rain water washed away the road base in many places.

We had no reprieve from the rain at all, reaching La Junta we turned out towards the sea, the forecast said clearing …..nup, heavy rain all the way out to Puerto Raul Marin Balmaceda seeing us very wet again from water induction around collars and sleeves, does not matter how waterproof your gear is you can not stop water coming in through openings when drenched for hours on end.

This was the only photo that came out, the rest were as good as looking through a tupperware container from fogging, to be honest the wet starting to get to us.

P1240544 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Finding a local restaurant with a room we turned their lounge/restaurant into a drying room with their log fire being the dynamite for drying things again.

No more words needed

P1240529 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

And yes that IS sun coming across the fire place for about 10 minutes

IMG_7869 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Wouldn’t mind some fine weather again, getting wet day in day out makes the work a lot more for riding and drying out and no camping so less fun.

We have now made a decision to opt out of the Carreterra Austral and head out east through Futaleufa heading up in Argentina which looks to be drier.

Not many photos unfortunately as our camera was fogged up with the damp environment.