The Carretera Austral into Patagonia

Dec 152010

Bariloche, Argentina. Its beautiful, its stunning, its touristy, its expensive. But its one of those places that you have to see.

It is the mountain resort town in Argentina. As far as the town goes, think Vail, or Aspen, and you about have it right.

Very nice.

Ruta 40 is a famous, mixed dirt and pavement road that runs the length of Argentina. I’ve heard some folks refer to it as the Route 66 of Argentina. This is Ruta 40 ripio. In Argentina and Chile, graded gravel roads are called ripio. I like to call it the “100 mph dirt road.” I have heard folks call Ruta 40 challenging, horrible, rough, etc. I’m not sure why, because its a great big wide graded dirt road with some sections of deep gravel, mud, and big ruts from trucks. But for the most part, you can go 100 mph on this road with good suspension and few screws loose in your head. Even Rob was clipping along at 60 mph on Charley the Harley.

The author, waiting for Rob to catch up.

We crossed the border back into Chile, and almost immediately, the scenery got spectacular.

We found a pretty nice campsite for the night just outside of Futaleufú. It was a little rocky but we did manage to find a flat spot on the riverbank.

Everything is always soaked in the morning when you camp on a river, but the soothing sounds of the river at night are worth it.

It was a great camp site nonetheless.

And down the road we went…………

And onto Chile Ruta 7, AKA, the Carretera Austral. The Austral is a spectacular section of dirt road in Chile that starts at Chaiten, and ends at Villa O’Higgins. I would ride most of the Austral, but not all the way to O’Higgins.

The Austral goes through stunning scenery and everything is bright green. It reminds me of the pacific northwest of the US, or southern BC, Canada. Being that we are at around 45 degrees south, and in a maritime climate, that makes sense.

Green everywhere, punctuated by rugged snow capped peaks.

Often times I will take a picture of something really steep, and have to say, “this is way steeper than it looks in the picture.” Well, the Chileans have a sign for that. That one in the middle means that this is way steeper than it looks in the picture, jajaja!

There is a reason for all that green along the Austral. It rains. Almost all the time. If you have good weather on the Austral, just wait a few minutes, and without fail, it will start raining.

At a gas stop along the Austral we met Mick. Mick is a crazy guy from Denmark riding around the world on a Honda 750 VFR. I thought Rob was a little nuts for taking the Harley to South America, but this guy Mick takes the cake. He said that Africa was especially challenging on the sport bike. I can only imagine. But how cool is it to see a proper sport bike complete with 100 mph speed tape holding the fairing together, metal panniers, and covered in dust? I thought it was pretty cool.

A little bit about riding with Rob. He is a good dude, total comedy.

Rob and I have parted ways, but I have really enjoyed riding with him this past couple of weeks. He is a guy that you want to have with you on a big trip.

He was riding that Harley on the gravel like he had been doing it for years. There were stretches when I moved along the ripio way faster than I should have been, yeah, yeah, I know spare me the lectures…. Anyway, after 30 or so miles I would stop and wait for Rob. Thinking that I would be waiting a long while, I would be shocked when way sooner than I expected, I would see his headlight coming!

Also, he is a guy that can roll with anything and its nothing short of amazing how he can just shrug stuff off that would cause most other folks to spontaneously combust right on the spot. In one week he lost more crap than I brought with me for the entire trip, and it didn’t even phase him.

I’m still not sure how he found his way down here. One time I asked him for his map to look at. He looked at me with a funny face and said, “Uh, I don’t have a map.”

Dude is in Patagonia and not once on his trip has he ever had a map. Now you gotta respect that. When I asked him how he did it, he said that its not all that complicated, you just keep going south and ask a few people along the way when you get lost. I have to admit, its really hard to argue with that logic. Folks obsess over maps and route planning for months. Not Rob. He doesn’t even have a map….

Headed back into Argentina, of course, without a map.

Somewhere in Patagonia, without a map. We don’t need no stinkin’ maps!

Rob’s opinion of KTM’s. Careful amigo, she bites back.

This is Rob proudly displaying the JCLS, otherwise known as the Jed Clampett Luggage System. (patent pending)

Al Jesse, eat your heart out man, because this system will be the new standard in adventure motorcycle luggage. All he needs now is a rocking chair for Granny on the top of the pile. For reference, Jed, or I mean Rob, is 6’6″ tall.

The battery on the Harley went bad and a quick call to the Harley dealer in Santiago confirmed that nearest battery that would fit the bike was at least a week or two away. So we had to improvise a little. So I hauled Rob around town in Coyhaique, Chile hunting down a suitable battery and a devising a way to put it on the bike.

6 foot 6 Rob on the back, 5 foot something me driving must have looked pretty hilarious to the locals because everywhere we went there were people pointing at us and laughing.

Rob, riding on the KTM. See amigo, I told you she would get back at you for trying to pee on her.

After running around town, we picked up a car battery with 600 CCA, some cables, hardware, a tool box, and some beer to help us with creativity.

The owner of the place we were staying at helped us drink the beer.

Now Rob’s new battery sits in a tool box that is strapped to the passenger seat of the bike. Somtimes, you just have to make due since you cant always get the parts you need. I call it Baja engineering. We got everything wired up and Rob got back on the road.

Poor Charley the Harley, he cant get a break.