Distance: 62.30 km
Ride time: 4:27:17
Average: 14.03 km/h
Total: 22229 km
Someone had told us that it always rains in the mornings on Carretera Austral. This seems to be true, at least so far. This morning it didn’t matter much though as we were staying inside in the waiting room for the ferry. Since the ferry would not leave before 11 am we had a good excuse to sleep in.
The free ferry crossing to Puerto Yungay took 40 minutes. As the ferry arrived a Swiss couple took off with their two kids in tow. For me it feels hard enough to cycle the Carretera Austral by myself, I can’t really imagine doing it with kids.
On the other side of the lake we were met by a very steep climb that lasted for almost 10 km. It was so steep that I had a hard time getting any grip from my tires on the loose dirt. We then met a Brazilian guy who was walking the length of Carretera Austral. Yes, someone is crazier than cyclists.
After 60 km we saw some smoke from a somewhat hidden spot from the road. We thought it might be cyclists so we went over to say hi. It was indeed two Spanish cyclists that we had met on the ferry from Argentina. They had found a nice camp spot by the river, so we decided to set up camp as well.
This was when Michael realized that he had lost his tent. It must have fallen off his bike on the very bad road at some point during the day. He cycled back trying to look for it but with no success. Losing a tent is a cyclists’ nightmare. Luckily my new tent easily sleeps two persons, so at least he would have a roof over his head for the night.
We enjoyed the beautiful camp spot with a nice fire together with the Spanish cyclists before going to bed early.
