Chile - Carretera Austral

Do you meet people every day (Nov-Jan)? Is it safe to camp in the wild? Have you met other woman doing it alone?

Yes to all of those. But Nov and early Dec is early season, and you will meet fewer people then, maybe barely anyone in early Nov. Come January there will be lots.

If you camp and make your own food

If? You will do this by necessity I suggest. In fact lodgings at convenient intervals have increasingly popped up in recent times, so you do hardly need to camp on the main central section these days. But in the far south, this is not true. It will cost you similar if you were doing the same thing in another typical developed country like France or Italy.

How long did you take?

Look at some travelogues at crazyguyonabike to get a variety of experiences. Be aware that if you are looking at older travelogues, more of it has been paved in recent times. You talk about "The" carreterra Austral but are you including the northern and southern extensions, adn there are some options here and there - I'd particularly recommend to go via P Ibanez, ferry to Chile Chico, and then along the lake, which is amazingly scenic, but also hard. So what you want to do?

Is the road in terrible condition?

You need to find someone who rode it yesterday to know that, since they might have might have done some maintenance last week, you never can tell. But you know extended sections are paved now, especially the central section which is all, or nearly all, paved, all the way to VCC and P Ibanez. Some of the far northern sections north of Chaiten can be very rough, but maybe someone has done something about that. But from Villa Cerro Castillo southwards it is typically very rough.

Should I bring a bike or buy one there?

You can now get high quality touring equipment in Santiago - not widely, only at one or two specialists - including the high quality steel luggage racks and panniers that are necessary if you do the really rough sections down in the far south. But it would probably be cheaper/easier/more choice to buy them somewhere else. But don't think you can get something suitable in P Montt.

Iviehoff, thank you for this extremely useful information, especially on the best time to go and run into people. I've heard that they are always paving more of the road which, or course, if both bad and good. What year did you do this trip? Thanks also for the tips on where to detour. If you have more please share!

Gracias,
Denise

You need to be in touch with un_australian but I think she has not been on line much lately (on LP). look for her on athousandturns.net or wishfish.org.

Hi there
I did this ride Dec- Feb 2013/14
I was 62.
First, don't worry - you're going to love it. All of it! The good news is there's still plenty of ripio left, enough for everyone to get the full character and challenge of the ride.
I set off as a solo, Brit male rider and was on my own for just the first few days from where I started at Osorno.
I rode through the Lake District (highly recommend )and spent Christmas in P Varas on the way to the start at P Montt. There are splendid hostels and camp sites all the way to V O'higgins and beyond.
I was never on my own from start to finish in P Natales. I met quite a few solo female cyclists who linked up with other riders along the way. Lots of places to hike along the way. If you have time - do include the 'extension' (from V O'Higgins into Argentina and cycle down to P Natales. Fabulous hiking from El Chalten in the Fitzroy national park.
At P Natales - you should hire camping gear and do the Tores del Paine trek. You can do it all in 2 months - but longer is better.
Maps of the entire ride available at Tourist Information in many places (P Varas etc) info includes campsite locations. Plenty of hostels at intervals. Plenty food stores. Plenty of wine!
There is a fraternity of riders, going in both directions all the way. No problem with information sharing.
If you buy a bike at the beginning (most people take their own) it is possible to sell at the larger towns towards the end. Consider taking your cycle luggage with you (front and rear panniers etc) it's easier than trying to purchase when you get there. Buses go everywhere - to get you started and at the finish in Argentina / or Chile.
I took the Navimag ferry from P Natales back to P Montt. Definitely worth considering!
Have a great ride.

Toeclip, Bingo! This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Now I'm super excited!! I have a couple more questions. Do you remember how much the boat cost and how long it took from P. Natales back to P. Montt? Also, camping and cooking your own food do you remember more or less how much you spent each day? I know this will vary but just trying to get a ball park estimate. Do you have any idea about the conditions of biking from Conception to Osorno? I have about 3 months. One more question...any bike tips after your long haul on "ripio?"

So great that you did this! I'm inspired!!

Hello again lafountaine!
I'm afraid I know nothing about the road / routes from Coception to Osorno. Others might.
I started in Osorno (overnight bus from Santiago). Buses are excellent - full recline and semi recline and they ply between major centres. Make sure you have a bag similar to the 'Chinese laundry bag' for putting your 4+ cycle bags into - thus becoming "one piece of luggage only" for bus transportation. Small charge for bike on buses. If you cycle from Conception try and avoid the Pan Am highway wherever possible.
Ferry from P Nat to P Montt, takes 4 days (3nights) cheapest cabin is less than US300 all meals included. See LP Chile for section on the "Navimag experience". The not so new boat is is much larger than the original. Office in PN for info and booking (not so easy online, if at all possible!).
Free Wi fi available in lots of hostels on way down, particularly in the larger towns and some smaller places.
I didn't pay more than 5000CP for camping anywhere. Fresh food always available + bread etc. you will need to carry some stuff on bike for nibbles and remote parts - but no prob. Prices per day - think a little cheaper than European prices generally.
If you continue beyond V O H (and you should in my opinion) the 22km trek across the border twixt two ferries is memorable!!! Very important to do this with other cyclists in order to help one another on the trickier sections. Don't worry it's just energy sapping,
For top drawer info on all matters relating to adventure cycling I suggest you check out Tom Allen's - tomsbiketrip. A fabulous resource. Also, the Adventure Cycle Touring Handbook by Stephen Lord covers everything. Third edition just out.
Did I say we cyclists share lots of information along the road? Your lesser spotted bus packers go green with envy when they hear and see us supporting each other.
Have a great trip.

Go to http://www.mapasdechile.cl/ and they have some map pages which should indicate which roads are paved (though of course such maps always prove to be not quite right, you may get an alternative opinion on copec.cl), which is important to know as despite all the recent paving there is still a huge amount of ripio, and Chilean ripio is worth avoiding unless there is a substantial scenic benefit you are gaining at the same time. In general the main densely inhabited portions of Chile have had their natural vegetation almost entirely removed, so what you see is a lot of agriculture and in some areas some really really tedious enormous monocultural forestry plantations. There are plainly some worthwhile exceptions as you get towards the Andes, and also a few little "islands" further west like Nahuelbuta, which is a national park. And coastal roads can be very nice too, though the road doesn't often go exactly along the coast. Even the E of R5, there is often is pretty tedious agriculture until you actually get into the mountains, even many of the famous lakes of the lake district have their western parts stuck out into tedious farmland. I did enjoy cycling northwards from Concepcion, which presents a much more Mediterranean landscape of pines and vineyards, though hardly special enough you'd want to fly half way around the world for - but I was cycling for a year and it made a change.

Concepcion wasn't a nice place to stay when I visited it, and since then it has been badly rearranged by a major earthquake. Consider starting somewhere else and heading E of the R5, and cross into the Argentinean lake district for a while also - a lot of the best roads are border crossings - if you want to see landscapes more distinctive than what you can see in Europe.

Toeclip, Thanks a million for this valuable information! I've been absorbing it over the past couple days. Ordered the book and visited Tom's website. So much to read and learn! I'm definitely doing this!

Cheers amigo,

Denise

Thank you for the breakdown of the geography of the region. This helps in determining my starting point. I'm thinking I may start in Valdivia ride down to Ushuia then take the boat back to Puerto Montt from there cross over into Argentina and ride north to Mendoza on Ruta 40 (from there either back to Santiago or perhaps even Buenos Aires). Do you know anything about Ruta 40? Does this sound like a wise plan to you?

Gracias!
Denise