The Carretera Austral

Southern Chile is huge and beautiful and rugged and difficult with a small number of remote communities scattered in the steep mountains and forest and fjords.

Construction of the Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) was started in 1976 under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet to try and connect this complex part of the country without the need to go over to Argentina and back again. Starting at Puerto Montt and running 800 miles south, the road wasn’t completed until the final section to Villa O’Higgins in 2000 and, even now, only connects about 100,000 people. This area is almost uninhabited.

We got a chance to ride a small part of the road as we dropped into Puyuhuapi and then down to Cerro Castillo close to Lake General Carrera. The ride through the mountains and glacial valleys and along the fjords is truly spectacular with the road switching from impeccable sweeping tarmac to crushed rock with potholes – dust was not a problem in this wet and cold season but the rain clouds robbed us of some of the most spectacular views.