Meanwhile, we had a ride to do today. We started with a descent down to where, if you went left, you’d end up in Argentina. Turn right, and you stay in Chile. We turned right, of course. It was a heck of a climb!
If you zoom in, you can see where we were last night. The far lake is Chelenko. Goodbye Lago Chelenko! The lake in the foreground is Lago Negra. Two lakes down, one to go.
Down to Lago Bertrand. Somewhere along the way there was supposed to be a place where you could see all theee lake at once (Mirador Tres Lagos). We didn’t see it. But, we still saw all three.
We had a nice section along Lago Bertrand, then another big climb. This one was over 4kms, and quite steep. It was made extra fun by all the flies circling around our faces. I wore my buff up over my mouth and nose the whole time (there were also “Dust Bombs” so, good for that too.
Alex making it to the top. Notice she is wearing her head net. Yes, the flies were that bad.
See the road in the distance? We had come down that. Now, that was fun!
The scenery was different today, or maybe I should say the vegetation was different. It almost seemed a little desert like. Lower shrubs, and dry (well, except for the lakes). There was also a lot of washboard (especially pleasant when riding up a steep hill).
Eventually we made it to Puerto Bertrand. It’s kind of weird. Puerto Bertrand is not on Lago Bertrand. It’s on the Rio Baker. We decided to go into the town to find a cafe. They were doing road construction on the “main” road in the town We asked where there was a cafe. Basically, it was close to the Carratera. But, we had a little tour of the town. We found the cafe. They had delicious cookies, brownies, and apple tart. I even had a chocolate caliente with 2 marshmallows!
We had a good break there, and also met a California couple and their two kids.
Puerto Bertrand on the Rio Baker.
We pulled ourselves away from the cafe. Now we were following the Rio Baker. The color of the river was unbelievable (like, if you were going to paint it, people would think you took liberty with the color of the river.
Look! A bike sign!
I’m not sure if the photo does it justice.
See how it’s like turquoise.
We rode along the river, then kind of left it for a bit. We came to a bus stop shelter, and saw two loaded bikes, and a couple in the shelter. They were not the people on the bikes. They were hikers from Belgium. They were hoping to catch a ride, or take the bus, if it came.
They told us about a short walk we could do to the Confluencia de Rio Baker y Rio Neff. We decided to do it. We locked the bikes on the other side of the shelter from the other two bikes, and set off on the trail. On the way, we met the other two cyclists. They were two young women from France, who had started in Puerto Natales, and we’re going to Colombia.
We continued on. Soon we could hear the roar of water.
This reminded me of Huka Falls in New Zealand.
The brownish green of the Rio Neff mixing with the turquoise of the Rio Baker.
Markus!
Me.
The color was changed with the addition of the Rio Neff water.
After admiring the falls and the rivers, we hiked back to the bikes. We decided to eat some lunch in the bus shelter (shade and no wind). We had a nice conversation with the Belgium couple (they were still waiting for the bus or a ride when we left, but got a ride, and passed us later down the road).
Tonight we are wild camping along the Rio Baker. We took a little side road to get down to the river. We ended up riding across a small stream to get to a somewhat protected campsite. It’s very nice here.
My tent.
The view from my tent.
The wind has been strong (a tailwind when we were on the road). Everything that is lightweight has to be weighted down, or put in the tents. I opted not to cook. I was going to have a quesadilla. Instead, I had a “raw” quesadilla. It was fine.
Tomorrow we have, I think, less than 30 kms to Cochrane, but some more substantial climbing. Christmas is coming!
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