Heading Down the Carretera Austral
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2004
1
56
165
Trip End
Ongoing
Coyhaique,
Chile
Monday, February 28, 2005
The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) was a pet project of President Pinochet's in the 1980s, designed to open up the southernmost quarter of Chile to trade and tourists
01 Heading off down the Carretera Austral
. It was a political dream, but a civil engineering nightmare! Although the 1,200 km route takes in some of Chile's most stunning natural beauty, the harsh climate and rugged terrain have defied the road-building crews for well over twenty years....and still they are clearing road slides, blasting rocks, building new bridges and viaducts, widening from one lane to two, and continually grading the washboard and potholes to keep the road open. The financial investment was apparently some US$300 million for the initial construction during the first ten years, but undoubtedly hundreds of millions more must have been spent on subsequent upgrading and ongoing maintenance. The entire length of the road is only open from December to February, as ferry services connecting several sections are limited to the good weather of the summer months. Most sensible people just take the four-day NaviMag ferry trip from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales!For the first day we marvelled at the continuing parade of snow capped peaks, glaciers, ultramarine lakes, dense forest, and massive rugged mountains contrasting with pastoral scenes along the glacial rivers. We decided to spend our first night camping on the shores of Lake Yelcho and then hike in to see the hanging Yelcho Glacier. The walk through the lush temperate rain forest was a treat in itself, with a full array of mosses, ferns and lichen encrusted rocks. We were accompanied by friendly little Chucaos - small red-breasted robin-like birds, but with the typical perky tail of a wren - darting around in the bush at our feet and flitting in the branches overhead. The whole area is full of massive Nalca plants - imagine giant rhubarb stems at least eight to ten feet high with leaves six feet across, and you'll get the picture! The very young stems can be peeled and used in much the same way as our familiar garden rhubarb
02 Glaciar or Ventisquero?
.Our first sight of the glacier was quite impressive. A huge mass of cracked and convoluted ice forcing its way imperceptibly through the mountain pass. As we got closer we could see the massive mounds of rock debris or moraine that had been deposited in the valley over the centuries. Like most glaciers, this one has been retreating for several decades as the amount of snow accumulation in the winter months has been less than the losses to evaporation and melting. We trekked through the giant rock field for another hour and eventually reached the ablation area where a river gushes from the base of the glacier, and is quite a sight to behold. Above it the ice looms like some gigantic and surrealistic ice-sculpture contest. In parts the ice is quite grubby due to the ingrained dirt and gravel scoured off the mountain rock, while in other parts incredibly pristine and strikingly blue. Why blue? Apparently, in the compressed ice only the shorter wavelengths of light are transmitted, and it appears to us as deeper and deeper blue as the ice becomes denser (well, at least that's what it says in our "Glaciology 101"!). In Spanish, glaciers can be either "glaciares" or "ventisqueros" - something to do with the relative amounts of snow and ice, but we haven't exactly figured that one out yet!
The next day we headed on to Parque Nacional Queulat, and the road got steadily worse until we thought the whole van would literally shake itself to pieces
03 Pastoral scene, glacial stream
. In places the construction teams were widening the road with huge bulldozers and backhoes, blasting monster boulders and carving great chunks out of the adjacent mountainsides. Some of the detours really required high clearance and four-wheel drive. Later in the afternoon we noticed an ominous clunking from underneath the van.....sure enough, the new shock absorbers we had fitted in Lima, Peru were being beaten to death! Camping in the park that evening we were treated to a supernatural "Sound and Light" show of unparalleled proportions. As the sun set, we watched a "regular" stunning show of crimson and gold that finally was transformed into an apocalyptic fiery maelstrom. Meanwhile, huge chunks of ice were calving from Ventisquero Colgante behind us and crashing hundreds of feet into the lake below with ear-splitting percussive thunder. The evening's extravaganza was topped off by the full moon rising over the mountains!
The next day's noises brought us much more "down to earth", as the rubber bushings on the rear shocks gradually disintegrated. Luckily, the road was in much better condition and we managed to limp into Coyhaique still in one piece. After the remoteness of three days on the Carretera Austral, it seemed strange to arrive in another more-or-less normal city, albeit with a somewhat pioneer atmosphere. Hopefully, we'll be able to find a good mechanic to fix up the damage and get us back on the road!
