Steve Bate continues his 770 journey through Patagonia, with fellow para-cyclists Karen Darke and Jaco Van Gass, in brutal headwinds and along unforgiving terrain.
We stock up on supplies during a wet morning before leaving Coyhaique and, as we ride out of town, we talk between ourselves about what it will be like to come back here in two weeks’ time to get a flight from Balmaceda back to Puerto Montt and home for Christmas.
We are wrapped in waterproofs as we negotiate our way out of town and back onto a wet RUTA 7. My bike weighs a tonne as it’s loaded with three days of food and we spend most of the day climbing in the rain. By late afternoon the rain has disappeared, however the climbing and head winds are still very much with us. The roads are tarmacked and busy and as this road leads to the airport, buses fly pass tooting their horns with passengers waving and laughing at our craziness.
We meet Steve and Andrea again as they are trying to find a camping spot so we join them and carry on searching. We cycle for far longer than we hope to before camping in a farmer’s field which has the perfect flat, soft ground for the tents. We cook left over steak from the previous night’s feast, just as the rain re-starts, before retiring to the tents for a much earned rest after an elevation gain of 860m with a loaded bike.
The following day we wake and hit the road knowing it will be a tough day as we enter Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo, which holds the highest pass we will cycle over on this trip. Sitting in the clouds at 1100m, it’s not the gradient that gives us difficulty today but the persistent head wind. It feels as if the gusts have their foot on your chest and the harder I drive my pedals the harder it pushes me.
It’s a gruelling day’s riding and progress is so slow, but the views are simply incredible. I have to keep reminding myself to look around and not just at the handle bars and the ground three feet in front of my fat front tyre - this sort of scenery is what we came here for and it’s world class. As we cross the top of the pass surrounded by mountainous peaks on either side we come across a descent worthy of the Tour de France. A lace of road with switch-backs is an invitation to freewheel all the way down to Villa Cerro Castillo, where we set up camp in the blazing sunshine in a dry, dusty field.
We wake to amazing sunshine above the backdrop of snow-capped mountains, pack up the dry tents and hit the road. After three days of riding tarmac, today we kiss that riding surface goodbye for the rest of the trip. From now to Villa O’Higgins we will be at the mercy of the gravel roads and over the day we find just how bad they can get.
After 20 minutes Karen is talking about getting to Cochrane and reassessing her plans for the trip. We push her up the smallest of inclines as the surface is so bad even my fat bike tyres struggle to find traction. The head winds are aggressive and slow our progress to a crawl. I spent most of the day riding in my 22 tooth granny ring.
I fight with the handle bars and the winds, avoiding the potholes on the loose, marble-like surface while getting an all-over body workout.
We find a bus shelter at the side of the road in which we stop for lunch. It feels so good to be out of the wind and dust as we eat two-day old bread rolls with filling of cheese, tomatoes and avocado - which make life a little better - before getting back into the wind. We head over a small climb to find the valley opening up below us and displaying the joining of two rivers - one a fresh water river while the other running from the high mountain glazier which is bluey green in colour.
The two run together but struggle to mix and the colours are something I’ve never seen before. The roads get better as we go on, but we finish what has been our slowest day yet having covered only 46km. We camp road-side as there is nowhere else available, and set up a wind break to try and escape cooking in the wind. We decide to get up early and try and get some gravel under the tyres before the wind picks up, so we will aim to depart by 9am. As I lay in the tent I tell Jaco I have spent all day riding in my tiny 22 tooth granny ring fighting that world famous Patagonian head wind.
We got away by 9am set for a big day which turned out to be our longest on gravel: 75km with the surface always changing from good to bad, then bad to worse and back to good again. After lunch we picked up a tail wind which saw us push on all the way into Puerto Rio Tranquilo.
The views along the way are becoming super-charged as Patagonia is really starting to show off. We ride through lush green farmlands with scattered sheep, with turquoise blue glacier rivers and ice-capped mountainous back-drops - it’s like a picture postcard.
We then ride along the lumpy shore line road of the Lago General Carrera, the second biggest lake in South America. The colour of the water for such a big lake is mind blowing and so is the road. It’s not easy getting into the small town where we will spent a rest day and explore the famous marble caves of Lago General Carrera. It’s been a long day and when we find a cabana for the night, the team all look tired after six and a half hours of saddle time. We get a quick wash before heading out for food - I’m really looking forward to not eating tinned tuna and pasta for the next couple of days, that’s for sure!
