November 26, Day 39: Chillán to Linares
Two problems this morning. The first was the accommodation in Parral. I'd originally planned to ride to Parral today, and last night I'd WhatsApp'd the one OK place in Parral to ask about a room. This morning they texted back to say they had no availability.
So that's a problem. Stay somewhere else in Parral? Or ride somewhere else? The only other Parral option is a homestay on booking.com that's 37,000 CLP per night which probably means it was 25,000 originally. I don't want to be a part of that shakedown, and can't find another way to contact the homestay, so that's out.
Cauquenes is north, it makes the route slightly longer, but it doesn't look like a nice place to go. Linares is another few hours up the road, has lots of options, let's go there! Komoot happily sets up a route for the extra distance. I idly check the second river crossing and find there's no bridge, and no ferry: it's trying to take me through a river.
From left to right: river crossing looks innocent enough in map view. But in satellite view it’s clear it’s going to be a swim. Remember the dots from yesterday? They were wrong by 15m so they got erased and repainted. Farmland. This bulldozer was creating long lines of stones perpendicular to the river flow, not sure if it was deliberate or an accidental side-effect of dredging.
This is when things start getting complicated. There is another bridge over that river, but it's not close, and it adds 40 minutes to the ride. I'll take it. But there's other rivers, and they're not so easy.
The context is that today's route basically follows the Ruta 5, the big four-lane motorway that's the transportation spine running north-south along Chile. It's always busy and no place for bikes, so I’ve been consistently avoiding it. And today was supposed to be a short 5-hour ride, so I didn't set the alarm early, and I'm having to do all this planning with time I don't really have…
Unfortunately, two rivers will be difficult: once I've taken out Komoot's suggestions to swim across, it looks like the Ruta 5 is the only actual way to get across. Maybe it's time to walk back my rule to never go on the Ruta 5?
From left to right: some nice canals. Roadside shrine; there’s been lots. A neat little one-lane bridge. Dam with a lot of flow. Parked the bike inside the bank to use the ATM.
Google Streetview has the answers: on those bridges, the Ruta 5 has a nice big space at the edges which is probably a fog lane or something, but it means there's a place to ride that's a safe distance from the traffic. So I think I can take those bridges with a clean conscience.
Setting up the route in Komoot is complicated. Komoot thinks that the Ruta 5 is no place for bikes and doesn't want to run a route 50m over the bridge that I now think is safe: instead it sets out a 50 kilometre loop out west. There's an option to make it route like the crow flies, but it's clumsy and needs some fiddling to make it stop Crow Mode where you want it to. Like on the other side of the bridge.
As a result I got to breakfast somewhat late. All the popular Chilean breakfast options are finished, but I'm happy with milk and cereal - which today means oats. Got some time pressure now, so I finish fast, liberate a green apple, pack the bags, load up, visit a nearby pasteleria for an empanada, and get on the bike. It's 10am, not too bad! The estimate is 8.5 hours so I should get to Linares at 1830. Assuming I haven't missed any bad river crossings.
The first part of the ride is a massive detour out east to the non-Ruta 5 bridge. There's good space on the road shoulder, traffic is light and the sun is out. There's a surprising amount of climbing. There's two river crossings on this section, I've checked both. If there's another I've missed it's going to get interesting.
But it's all OK. I thread between farms, have a long run through a quiet forest, zigzag up a sandy gravel climb, and get to Parral roughly on time. I do need to visit an ATM, and there wasn't one nearby when I left Chillán, so I find one in Parral. I park the bike inside the bank while I use the ATM, because I'm worried about theft.
From left to right: nice railway bridge. River crossing on a flat concrete path. Nice railway bridge, beside the first Ruta 5 bridge. Distant Andes. The second bridge even had a separate bike line.
The rest of the ride closely tracks the Ruta 5. It's largely on roads just beside the Ruta 5, are these the older road? There's no space for bikes but there's almost no traffic so I'm happy.
The first river has a devious way across: there's a flat concrete path that the water flows over, but it's never deeper than a few inches. It's getting a lot of use too, two bikes and two walkers use it while I was there. I keep slow so the water doesn't spray too much, but somehow one shoe gets fully wet. No problem, it dries fast in this heat.
The first Ruta 5 bridge comes up, and I realize there's a railway line between me and the highway. Going back means riding beside the Ruta 5 for a kilometer or two, so I figure I'll press on just in case there's a way across. There is a walkway over the rails, which leads directly to the start of the bridge: which is great news, it means there's support for what I'm trying to do - cross the rivers with the minimum time on the Ruta 5! And indeed, on the far side is a semi-official gravel path down the embankment, just for people like me.
The second Ruta 5 bridge doesn't have such a good approach. I have to cycle a few hundred meters before the bridge, but I can't see any better options. But the shoulder is big and means there's a good gap between me and the traffic so it’s OK.
After that it's a short ride to the hostel. There was a bit of drama on WhatsApp this morning, because I wasn't able to pay the 50% deposit to reserve the room - none of my cards worked with the payment webpage. They held it for me anyway, which was kind of them.
A very successful day! Lots of ways it could have gone wrong, but thanks to the careful route checking and perhaps a bit of luck, there were no problems and I even arrived on time.
