We managed the return trip to Puerto Montt on the mainland and booked our tickets for the midnight crossing to Chaiten for the start of the Carretera Austral. As you can see the ship was my kind of ship. The crossing was smooth and rainy but Annette had her first case of Deli Bellie that night, thank goodness it was dark and everyone was asleep.
We landed to a fine sunny day and an interview with Chile TV on what we were doing and where we were going.
Chaiten was damaged by a volcano that exploded earlier in the year and was flooded when the nearby river was blocked with ash etc. No body died as a Dunkirk type evacuation took place to take all 4000 residents offshore. The volcano is still active and is being watched very closely for any sign of danger. Locals that have moved back are fighting the government to stay as the government has deamed the town dead.
We have moved through the Austral and the photos do not do the place justice. Think Fiordland on steriods.
The road is like the Molesworth but is covered in potholes in places and corragations on the hills. Nothing we have not ridden in NZ. Our first night was spent in a German settled town of Puyuhuapi.
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