THE MOST STUNNING ROAD IN THE WORLD - CHILEAN PATAGONIA

From Punta Arenas we caught the 4 hour ferry to Porvenir, arrival on Tierra del Fuego (land of fire). After that a bloody cold ride to look at the king penguins (only ones on mainland South America). In the arvo we had an easy border crossing back to Argentina and then camped in the sleepy lake town Tolhuin. The following day we arrived in Ushuaia, did I mention it’s bloody cold here??!! An expensive city but the fuel remained cheap, that’s important! Down here the weather forecast for the next few weeks read “8 degrees, with a real feel of -3... wind, drizzle and overcast” awesome... After a visit to the mediocre national park (full of buses and lots of dust) we chilled out and prepared for our journey North again. Ushuaia is the furthest South you can get in Argentina. Fin del mundo = end of the world.

Ferries always make things feel more adventurous.

10 seconds before the wind threw my bike over again!

King penguins that seem to have chosen a strange nesting place!

The young ones were 200 m away by the river...

Sleeping in a teepee?

Trying to warm up in the common room/kitchen.

Dads new bike... do we have room for it back home mum?

Arriving in Ushuaia - with a sneaky bit of propaganda on the right claiming the Falklands belong to Argentina.

Hiking in the snow to see the glacier above Ushuaia.

The view of Ushuaia from the glacier. Yep the glacier is pretty dry...

Alaska - 17,848 km away... here I come!

Viewpoint above the "end of the world".

The actual end?

Heading North again on fire land I did my good deed for the day by giving petrol to two ZA/UK blokes on rental bikes that were stranded 50 km out from the next town. Another ferry to get off this cold island and we encountered a national park known for its volcanic landscape with an amazing gravel road... interesting how much a roads condition can impact your mood! Nandus and guanacos everywhere before we found our campsite near a volcanic crater. Still cold but slightly warmer here! Around midnight the park ranger woke us up “hola, hola, hola” just to remind us to pay the $2 fee on exit... OK mate.

Lets get off this godforsaken freezing island!

Naturally another ferry is required...

Silky, sexy gravel... mmmmmmm!

Camping next to the crater.

Today we transitioned from cold to warm, and it was amazing! However I have never sworn so much at a natural element in my life. The wind was absolutely horrendous. Neck aching it dangerously smashed us towards the curb with each passing truck like an uppercut to the chin. The bike was suffering – I was suffering and it even broke part of my helmet. That night we camped near a beach with signs everywhere warning to beware of PUMAS... glad we didn’t see one to be honest.

Guano - bird poo... used to be a huge industry, now they are left here in peace!

Everyone always mentions the wildlife in Australia... I'm far more concerned about large cats than I am of something small back home!

Beers by the seaside to distract us from the shitty campground here.

The campground I just mentioned... would've been far nicer right on the beach.

A visitor in the morning, quite the poser!

Leaving the next morning we were dreading the long slog against the wind, instead we were rewarded with a dreamy highway cruise with some serious warmth again... yes I’m going to keep writing about the warmth! Another beautiful wild camp near a turquoise lake with many wild horses roaming around us. Absolutely what this whole trip is about.

Looks like Bolivia... but it's Argentina!

Lets try this road for a campsite...

Found a camp! I'm impressed by the presents the horses here keep leaving us.

Goodbye beautiful lake, now please don't rain on us!

A desolate border crossing and scenery that looked like it came straight out of a fairy tale. I don’t hate Mondays! Rattle, rattle, rattle along a terribly corrugated road before arriving at a nice Cabana for the night. Side note: Oil and filter change completed by yours truly at 52,000 km that evening.

Holy moly, was I really here... it doesn't ever sink in.

The pace slows to a crawl when everything is so amazing.

Lunch time, yum.

Ok lets keep going, almost at the border!

Aaaaaand we're back in Chile! This time we ate our bananas before the crossing.

Take me back to these roads!

Don't think it's big enough in the photo... but there was so much wild life chilling by this river!

Maintenance is just another fun part of the trip.

North on the Carretera Austral was insane, blue being the word of the day. The lakes, rivers and sky had shades of blue that cannot be described... nor could they be captured in pictures. Seriously please come see this place!

The people that settled here really paid attention to whoever said "location, location, location."

Hard packed dirt road and a view like that... nice!

The occasional bridge to mix it up a bit... how is the water that blue!?

What is that? A power line!

Do I even need to write anything here?

Seriously is someone just throwing blue paint into this river?

More sexiness, if landscapes are your kind of thing!

Scenery... is it getting old yet?

Ok time to find a campsite, this looks interesting!

Found one just behind us, hidden from the wind but still next to the river!

Removing some dead branches above our camp.

South American bugs...

Campfire food is some of the best.

Jungle, construction sites and rain... we skipped a few beautiful hikes because it would have just been horrible hunkered down in our tents in this weather. Dad got a flat tire an hour out from our camp that night. Hiked up to 1490 m overlooking the valley.

First thing in the morning, yes please!

Let the dust storm begin, luckily only for an hour or so.

With a flogged rear tire it was easy to get flats!

Some small creek crossings... as a warm up.

This one was quite a bit deeper!

About half a meter deep and an uneven surface.

But it was a dead end... oh look a wood pecker!

Back through the river we go.

Now that is a mountain road!

Nice shelters at most of the campsites down here.

Up we go!

It really was quite steep...

Beers are always good for re-hydrating after a big climb.

In the next large city we spent hours searching for a new rear tire but there wasn’t a single one there with the correct size. While getting the puncture repaired our new mechanic friend spent most of the time showing off sexy pictures of his girlfriend (typical). Mechanical note: I replaced my rear brake pads at 52,300 (ish). Beautiful camp by a river near Puerto Aysen.

The do it all tire guy..

A view of Coyhaique... it's got a nice backdrop that's for sure.

Dad showing us the 6-pack about to go in to our refrigerator (the river).

Made some damper in the morning. (It's just self raising flour, salt and water in a pot, on the fire for an hour)

Stocked up on internet time in the local plaza and replenished our beer stores. Rain, rain, rain all day... then more rain. Coolest free camp ever! The following day started off with more bad weather, so we pushed on until Chaiten (a town that was destroyed by the local volcano in 2008). 2 nights here to stretch our legs a little.

Living the dream! I think.

Get us out of the rain, seriously the best free camp ever.

Explosions, they are moving mountains to improve this road.

Wild horses roaming through Chaiten, hilarious watching some locals try to chase them away.

Electrical issues and missing bolts... luckily mechanical engineers know a bit about both.

"Now this is a leaf!"

Big bumble bees, like the size of my thumb.

Admiring the fuming volcano that erupted in 2008.

National park camping... lots of hiking, the pictures tell the story better than I ever could.

The road to our campsite, oooh trees!

Short hikes, long hikes... anything you want.

Sunset over our campsite, nice!

Hiking up another volcano we look back at the one from yesterday giving out a small puff!

Some pretty nice trails here!

Breakfast at the campsite...

Up we go again, glacier volcano!

24 km round trip to see this beauty up close! Took us about 6.5 hours.

Whilst waiting for the ferry we met Andreas (Chilean biker) and on the ferry Joe with his daughter Emily. Late arrival in Hornopien.

It was a ripper of a day, and everything still so blue!

5 hours of this view... that's alright isn't it!

Andreas and I unpacking our stuff at the other end.

Great night with this awesome bunch!

Another day, another flat tire... and another ferry. But we finally picked up a new tire in Puerto Montt before heading on to Volcano Osorno.

Ok enough flat tires now...

Who needs a welding mask!

The last ferry for a while...

Volcano Osorno, quite a sexy formation of rock!

Half way up the volcano we found this beauty of a snow mobile!

But that nights we had to cook in the rain... luckily it was tortellini's with bacon! 

Alrighty then time to fit the new tire, fingers crossed no more punctures!

Another nice lake.

Could not believe how amazing this camp was by Lago Ranco. Writing a portion of this blog after a swim in the massive fresh water lake. Unreal! Alright back to the BBQ, beers and chocolate... (Update: I regretted those thoughts!).

My new friend! A curious little fella that's for sure.

Paradise?

Too good to be true... we were enjoying life just a bit too much so a bit of a balance was struck I suppose. Our serene seaside camp became a party ground for the family set up next to us. Chanting, loud music and the occasional screaming match kept us up the entire night, yes the ENTIRE night! By the time we’d packed up and were leaving around 10 am they were just getting started on a fresh round of beers (I guess at least their stamina was impressive). I compare this night to the one I had in Bolivia at 4500 m feeling nauseous due to not acclimatizing properly... but somehow this was worse!

A day of none stop dead ends... we were trying to take an offroad scenic route into Huilo Huilo national park. Unfortunately even though all the roads were on our maps, they didn’t actually leads anywhere in reality. Bloody amazing wild camp that night though!

Taking the scenic route or aka the road less traveled.

Getting a bit intense, not sure what my clutch did to me that day... but I gave it a flogging.

Lets see where this leads, it was actually quite exciting!

Typical, you try do something different and it ends in a dead end.

Luckily since the road is basically un-used, this magical spot just wanted us to stay!

Fresh water lakes are pretty fantastic!

Look at this colourful dude.

Oh hey man!

More damper for breakfast, so delicious!

Bumper to bumper traffic greeted us on our way into Pucon, the scenery still stunning but now we were in an area easily accessible by everyone from the big cities. And it showed! Packed to the brim this holiday destination kind of showed us that all good things must come to an end... a few days here with some hiking and then we powered up the freeway to Santiago! Back where it all started 2 months earlier.

Some small craters out the side of this volcano.

If you can only do 1 road trip in your life. Do the 1000 km from Puerto Montt to Cochrane!

Santiago, pretty cool for a city I guess. But damn it's smoggy.

Tomorrow I say goodbye to my dad as he boards his flight home to Australia, it has been absolutely unreal travelling with him for the last 10,000 km. Could not have been better, have a safe flight mate! Next up I’m heading back into Argentina, then North... Chile's deserts again, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia.