We left Hostel Mapu Pieke with warm wishes from the owner and departed Cholila southwest, quickly encountering our first ripio road since Circuito Chico. Thick patches of loose gravel made it tough going in the growing heat, though we were relieved to find it generally more compacted and with better grip up and downhill. As the terrain became less arid and greener, we were pleasantly surprised to spot a group of flamingoes wading in a distant lake.
Unfortunately Hannah was still reeling from the grass pollen of Cholila and exhausted by the hay fever tablets to counter it, which combined with the heat made her life fairly miserable. Some steep climbs up towards Los Alerces national park and occasional cars churning up clouds of dust from the road did nothing to help, and the growing presence of very hungry horseflies was the final straw.
As we rolled in to the national park entrance after 28 km at 2pm, we parked up in the adjacent lakeside camping area and Hannah promptly fell asleep in her folding chair midway through lunch. The shady woodland area looked good for camping anyway and tent was duly erected just in time for Amy Winehouse’s biggest fan to pull up next door and treat us to a car speaker album for an hour. Robbie went off for a lake swim whilst Hannah crashed out.
After a couple of hours napping, Hannah was ready for dinner and we tested out our platypus water filter, very kindly leant to us by friends Louisa and Will, for the first time in earnest to help in the production of the usual tuna tomato pasta. The semi wild camping area also had a little grocery shop which provided a well earned can of beer – not up to usual Patagonian standards but we couldn’t care less.
The following day dawned even hotter than previously and we moved on as quickly as possible. Just at the camp entrance we met Sally and Tim, an English couple from London on bikes who were also following bicycle patagonia. They were early birds and sensibly had already come from Cholila by 9.30 am. We set off whilst they registered and then passed one another a few times at rest stops through the morning.
Two big climbs on some fairly poor ripio in 30 degree heat and unbroken intense sun made our first experience of Los Alerces very tough indeed. Despite this, Hannah now fully recovered from hay fever and rested after her 14 hours of sleep the previous day was positively bouncing along. This was fortunate as at every rest stop we were by now being mobbed by horse flies. Our approach to dealing with them quickly evolved from swatting at them calmly early in the day, through hitting any that landed, to full on extermination attempts in mid air after an hour. Robbie killed at least 50 during the morning (or so he claimed).
The only positive thing about the flies was the motivation to minimise rest time and keep going. We had soon cycled the length of Lago Rivadavia and made it to Lago Verde. The park is named after the giant Alerce trees, which can grow to millennia in age but sadly most of which were felled for timber. It is also known for its high mountains with tree clad slopes plunging down to dark blue and green lakes, which are staggered in elevation and connected by fast flowing rivers.
On a hill at the top end of Lago Verde we stopped for lunch and more horsefly annihilation before a gentle walk up to a spectacular Mirador viewpoint over the lake. The river entry to the lake had created a sand bar with colours from yellow to green to turquoise and the rest of the lake was itself the deepest green either of us could remember seeing.
The sight of this water in the heat was too much to look at for long and we quickly returned to our bikes to continue south in search of a camping ground and swim. We made it as far as Playa el Frances free site and decided to stop after 29km. The site was quite busy and rocky but we found a spot very near the beach and erected the tent. There were several no camping signs dotted around and when two park rangers appeared we assumed we would be told to move on. Instead the signs were more related to the risk of falling tree branches and as we were staying for one night only with little wind, they were happy for us to stay. Very gladly we plunged into the lake to cool off.
That evening we spent star gazing (Orion, Taurus and Venus all very obvious) before bed. There were some teenage parties going on in the trees some way away but our neighbours looked sedate enough and we quickly fell asleep. At 1am, we both awoke to the sound of Spanish guitar playing and singing 10 feet from the tent. It was the best Spanish guitar either of us had ever heard and would have been amazing at 9pm over dinner. By 2am, it was causing a range of mixed emotions and fortunately came to an end soon after.
We had a bit of a lie in on Thursday morning and with no toilets on site, tested our trowel for the first time. Just as we’d finished packing up we met Brigite, an English girl who’d been teaching English in Brazil and then cycled south on her bicycle named Prince, which she’d bought for a couple of dollars and turned into a basic but functional tourer with items she’d cobbled together on the way. Cycling from Brazil solo on such a simple bike was very impressive and she was now torn over whether to continue onto the Carretera given the worsening road and weather conditions. Her Dad had come out to join her on the route from Bariloche but was off fishing for the morning. 15 minutes later another solo cyclist arrived, Tristan from France, who had been heading south for a while on an impressive custom built bike after working in a bike shop. He knew our bike make inside out and commented wisely on the cable brake types and gear sizes.
After a good chat, we finally set off on the gravel at about noon on another hot day. After Wednesday’s exhausting ride we were soon hungry and eyeing up lunch spots. At 1.30 we saw a sign for a confeteria and camping and turned off the main road towards the lake to investigate. 500m later we were rewarded with a beautiful grassy camping ground sloping down to the water with a shop at one end. We bought eggs and a fresh loaf of bread and cooked up boiled eggs on a table outside. After half an hour the site looked too lovely to resist staying and we saw on our park map a short waterfall path marked nearby. We easily decide to stay, pitched tent and wandered off to find the waterfall. It was a 100m climb through meadows and trees, but well worth it to see a double waterfall with views back to the lake.
That evening, Robbie flew the drone whilst Hannah hand washed some of her clothes, we cooked tuna pasta and then with a perfect collection of wood by our fire pit, set about making the first fire of the trip. Without paper this was easier said than done but with bark, grass and about 40 matches Hannah finally succeeded and we sat by a crackling fire for an hour before bed. No Spanish serenades this time, we both slept like logs.
Pedalling_Patagonia 