“We’ll have to cycle through at least one swamp” announced Tim, suddenly self-satisfied. The three of us frowned whilst we mulled over the prospect of the impending challenge. We had only scraps of information about the remote Patagonian border crossing between Chile and Argentina, most was rumour and hearsay gleaned from other cyclists who had braved the passage before us and whom we all suspected had toyed with the truth by weaving exaggerated tales of hardship. But in amongst the hyperbole, two details prevailed. Making the crossing by bike would be both a gruelling a slog and a real adventure.
These days Patagonia is brimming with bikers. In the few weeks I had been pedalling north through Argentina I had brushed panniers with the full spectrum, from the ponderous meanderers to the Lycra-clad speedsters, from those on two week breaks from work to the few on epic trans-continental expeditions, branded nutters by the rest. My next target was biker-central, The Carretera Austral, a pebble-strewn rollercoaster of a road which connects up the southern settlements in Chilean Patagonia and as it does so swings and dives relentlessly through thick forests and past fjords, glaciers and steep mountains.
For cycle tourers it’s easy to see the appeal of the Carretera, and once it would have been easy as well to make the crossing from Argentina into Chile in order to latch on to it’s southern end, but things have changed. Twelve years ago the Carretera was extended one hundred kilometres further to the South and now reaches down to the small Chilean village of Villa O’Higgins. No roads link the village with neighbouring Argentinean settlements, but a crossing does exist. Intrepid bikers must rely on boats to traverse two lakes, Lago Desierto and Lago O’Higgins, but the real snag comes with crossing the chunk of land separating the two. A small track winds through forest and swamp, a place which has entered cycle-lore by virtue of the fact that bicycles do not belong here, perhaps ironically the reason why bikers have taken to the crossing with such enthusiasm. Coming from Argentina, this is the most expeditious way to get to the Carretera and the only way to ensure you avoid doubling back and lengthy detours. There is one more perk, after experiencing firsthand the various tests and trials of the pass, you can spin wild tales and poke fun at cyclists coming the opposite direction who have it all ahead.