November 2, Day 25: Chaitén-Hornopirén
Today is a complicated day, the route to Hornopirén includes two ferries. The first one leaves at 1230, but the departure point is 55km up the road from Chaitén.
Komoot thinks it'll take 4h45m to get there so I plan to leave at 0700, that allows for 45 minutes of delay. Still a bit of a gamble: if the gravel is too rugged or the headwind too strong, I'm going to miss the ferry. There's a second one is at 2000, but that means a long day’s wait, and it gets in to Hornopirén close to midnight.
And then there's the second ferry. The first one is a short 45min jaunt across the water to Fiordo Largo, then 10km more gravel to Leptepu, where the next ferry departs from. 10km of gravel usually takes most of an hour. The ferry timing is planned for cars: looks like there's 45 minutes to get from one to the other. If I'm late, I'm sure the ferry won't wait. So it's a bit of a stretch, with no room for error. Or time for photos.
6am starts aren't much fun but missing the ferry and being stranded for seven hours is quite the motivation; and I was up and breakfasted and packed and on the road by 7am. No wind this early; and the first part of the road is asphalt so I could make some good time. Still some serious hills, but I'd rather climb those on asphalt than gravel!
From left to right: a roadside shrine that looks like it's been cleaned up - probably done yesterday, it was the Day of the Dead. Early morning views. The gravel road, surface is OK but could be better. Scene view, without and with me.
My maps thought the asphalt was only for the first ten kilometers and then it switched to gravel. After 10km the asphalt continues, which is fine with me. I'm sure it won't go all the way but the more kilometers and climbs I can do on asphalt the better. This section is quite hilly; lots of climbs, lots of downhills and asphalt is so much better than gravel.
After 20km it does change to gravel. Not smooth, but fairly rough, with potholes so it wasn't easy going. The climbs continue, the road is either going steeply up or steeply down. Cars and even a truck are starting to appear; most are going my way. I was expecting a rush as it got closer to ferry departure and everyone aimed to arrive just in time: these vehicles are very early.
The ferry departure meant I kept pushing and I ended up arriving ahead of the estimate, a bit after 11. Which was a relief, but it also meant I had 90 minutes before the ferry left. There's a cafe and an information/museum building; figured I'd try the cafe first. They were open, served hot drinks, and didn't refuse me entry because I smelled bad, so I found a quiet table and warmed up with a hot chocolate.
A bit after 12 I was feeling normal so I thought I'd check out the museum; but on the way out found two cyclists who were also going north. They're engineers from Santiago, also riding the Carretera Austral. We ended up talking until we needed to get on the ferry. We wheeled our bikes down the ramp - and find out that we weren't able to cycle the 10km connection I was worried about, we needed to take a bus. We loaded our bikes on the back of a pickup truck (still not 100% sure if it was an official vehicle or just a random one) and headed inside - because there's an inside area on the ferry, out of the wind!
From left to right: embarking on the first ferry. Day is a bit colder than it looks. Ferry views. The bikes and panniers packed for transport. More views.
So the 10km connection ended up being a lot simpler than expected. It looked like the road was asphalt not gravel, and not too hilly, so I'm pretty sure we could have got there in time on the bikes if we'd had the opportunity...
The second ferry trip was basically the same as the first except this one had some hot drinks and some food. (Boat food: average and overpriced, as always.)
So the trip to Hornopirén ended up being much less difficult than expected. Unfortunately the rain has arrived: tomorrow is going to have showers and headwinds all day, so it's not the sunny wine country that I was hoping for.
