An Unscheduled Zero Day

We woke up bright and early to dash to the supermercado for lunch supplies and make the 10am ferry, which was to be 6 hours total in transit. However an email alerted us that due to extremely low tides, our departure time had been moved to 2pm. Thereafter another notice, that the time was delayed to 6pm. Finally setting sail at 7:30pm, we watched a nice sunset over the water and disembarked into the jungle at midnight along with our equally fatigued fellow bikepackers.

But the fun didn’t end there. We were all planning to pitch a tent upon exiting the ferry as a big 13km climb on rough dirt road lied ahead. However we were immediately greeted by several park rangers who told us wild camping was not allowed before the climb annd would need to use their expensive campground area. Now approaching 1am, a heated argument ensued between the local Chilien riders and the rangers and after about 10 minutes, most of the disgusted group pushed ahead. Five of us decided we were too tired to proceed and hauled our bikes across a narrow suspension bridge to the campground.

The next morning with Angus and our new British friends, we set out for our first real sample of dirt riding and climbing. Along the way, we stopped for some short hikes to discover local Chahuen trees, a Larche species that are over 1000 years old and can live for 3000 years.

Next stop was a 2 hour hike to visit cascades deep in the wild. With over 400m of climbing, the ladders were very steep, you definitely earned the views!

We proceeded on the gravel with its steep pitches and were very glad to hit asphalt once again, finally making our way to camping at the playa of Santa Barbara.

After a casual but very late morning start, we say goodby to our British friends as they are taking a rest and we depart to our next destination on Lago Yelcho!