We left Puerto Río Tranquilo on a sunny morning and headed back onto the gravel road on Ruta 7 following along Lake General Carrera. The total distance for the day was “only” 120 km but it was all ripio and it had its usual surprises in stall for us as well as amazing views of the lake, snow-covered mountains and a winding river. Every time you come across a corner and the jaw drops from the amazing views and you think it can’t get any better than that and then you come around the next corner and it is even more stunning than the previous views. The road climbed higher after leaving the lake General Carrera behind and the gravel got deeper and we found a straight stretch of road where we were able to make it over the piled up gravel that the grader left behind to a spot on the side of the road for a lunch stop. I tried to take pictures of the gravel and the camber but it does not show how lose snd deep tge gravel was and how big the individual rocks were. We had avocado on bread and some trail nut mix for some energy before continuing to battle the gravel road. We quickly encountered more “road works” with one way traffic but none of the workers indicated on which side of the road to go on – so I chose the left side of the road which was still hard packed and did not have that layer of deep lose dirt on top of it, while Andrew was on the right side. All was good until I saw a work vehicle followed by the grader heading towards me and there was a huge pile of gravel on my right that I had to get over to get onto the right side of the road and avoid the oncoming grader who made no attempt to slow down or stop. I almost got the bike stuck but managed to get over to the right side wheels spinning and gravel spraying everywhere and got out of their way just in time, phew 😅- there are always some surprises in store on this road 😂. We eventually came to a bridge over rio Ibáñez where we stopped for a rest on the first bit of concrete in >80km and took some pictures. We continued into Villa Cerro Castillo where the roads were paved and found the dirt track to the camping El Nortino. The owner, Felipe, came and showed us around the wonderful place he had built and we set up our tent under a tarp that was already set up over the camp site. Each site had a hammock provided and with the backdrop of snow covered peaks it was the perfect place to stay for two nights to relax. We had a nice dinner with some Malbec red wine from Argentina which we had brought with us over the border without being confiscated at Chile Chico 😉

The next day we slept in – we both get the best night sleeps in our cozy tent 🥰🏕️ had a late breakfast and I tried to catch up on the blogs but the internet which only worked in the common area was not fast enough and after hours of battling technology, we went into town – my finger was not getting better and I was finally prepared to go to the local medical centre – we passed the fire station (if you wonder why we post pictures of fire stations and trucks – it is for my sister and brother in law who are very involved with the volunteer firefighter station in their village in Austria). When we arrived at the medical station, it had just closed 15 minutes before we got there – not to worry – our next stop will be a bigger town and my finger would not fall off until then 😂😉 So we found a nice coffee place for Jause – coffee and cake – the best way for an Austrian to treat any illness 😂😉.

Back at the campsite, we met other campers who were cycling or hitchhiking- young people from the US and Canada and we shared travel stories and how bad the road condition was – one of the girls told us that she saw a motorcycle crash behind her on the deep lose gravel section and we were all glad to have successfully conquered that section of the road. We enjoyed another delicious camp dinner and a spectacular sunset before another restful sleep without having to wake up and keep the fire going.

There are no videos from this section of the road as we had go pro issues but you can re-watch some of the previous footage, if you have not seen enough rattling footage over corrugated roads 😂🏍🏍