Distance: 62.40 km
Ride time: 5:07:03
Average: 12.18 km/h
Total: 22292 km
Today’s goal was to reach Cochrane, the first small town we would meet on Carretera Austral. It is only located 220 km from Vila O’Higgins, but with the climbs and dirt road it had taken us four days to cycle. Progress is slow around here, but with the amazing views it is worth it.
The road continued to be bad throughout the day, and Michael was having a hard time with his thin tires. My new mountain bike seems to be doing great. The front suspension is very heavy, around 3 kg, but on a day like this I’m truly glad to have it.
Much to our surprise the temperature was rising steadily throughout the day. In the afternoon it must have been more than 20 degrees. For the first time in South America I had the feeling of summer, something I had been looking forward to experience for a long long time.
I was a bit in front of Michael when I looked back and saw him cycling like this – obviously more of a Viking than I am (I hadn’t changed to my shorts yet).
After a couple of hard climbs we could finally see Cochrane at the bottom of a valley. It had been quite an adventure get get there. We reached town, went to a supermarket to buy some food, and then to the local camp ground to settle down for a few days.
