1/1/24-The New Year Starts With a Change of Plans

Not an overall change of plans, just for today. 

First, since I did t take a to. Of photos today, here’s a few from our walk along the boardwalks of Tortel. 

Because it’s a fjord, it’s tidal. 

There’s even a “playground” of sorts. 



Our Tortel perro. He was quite friendly. 

I will say, walking on these boards…not easy. 

The library. 

All the sectors of Tortel. 

Bernardo “Bernie” O’Higgins. 

This was our only food option at this restaurant. Basically, French fries, sliced hotdog, and fried eggs. I’d say it’s the most unique New Year’s Eve dinner I’ve had. But, it was filling. 

So, now, onto today. Our plan was to cycle the 22kms back to the Carratera, then do another 10kms on the Carretera to a wild camp spot about 10kms from Puerto Yungay. We would then get up a little earlier to make it to the 10::00am ferry at Pte. Yungay to Rio Bravo tomorrow. 

Redoing the bumpy road back to the Carretera was not fun, but at least we had a tailwind off and on. The steep steep climb at the end, back to the Carretera was a heart thumper for sure! I had a little self-talk mantra of “You got this, you got this, yougotthisyougotthis!” until I made it to the top. 

Markus said, at one point, while his brain was rattling, he had this thought that we could go all the way to Yungay, then take the ferry tomorrow morning. Buuut, then he had this thought that maybe the ferry ran every 2 hours with the last one being at 6:00. That means there would be one at 4:00. 

Then, we got to continue climbing for another 4.8kms. It was very steep in places, but I managed to ride all of it. It helped that, since it’s New Year’s Day, there was very little traffic. 

Once we finished the climb, it wasn’t really a long downhill. It was more of a little bit down, then more up. Finally we got some good downhill, for a bit. Every time I would think it must be the last climb before the downhill to the ferry, there would be another up. 

Of course, the climbs eventually ended, and we arrived at Puerto Yungay. 

The boat. 

While waiting for the ferry, we met Caroline from Switzerland. She is cycling too, but when she gets to Villa O’Higgins, she will then start hiking.  

The ferry goes on the Rio Año Nuevo to the Rio Bravo. 

Four bikes and only two cars. 

The ferry crossing was less than an hour. When we were waiting for the ferry, there was a poster saying there was a campground 14kms from the ferry. But we weren’t really sure as it wasn’t on iOverlander. We decided to head toward it, but if we saw something better (wild camp), we would stop. At 11.4kms, we came to a great spot by the Rio Bravo. 

Tonight we are four, as Caroline has ridden with us from the ferry. 

Rio Bravo. 

Also, not far before we got to this camp spot, we officially left Ruta 7. 

Ruta 7 goes right. The way to Villa O’Higgins, and the end of the Carratera Austral is on X-91. 

I’m not sure why this isn’t Ruta 7, but it is still considered the Caraterra Austral. 

Anyway, we have a nice camp spot, and now just two medium length days to Villa O’Higgins. Caroline is going to continue riding with us. We are getting excited to reach the end of the Caraterra.