Malalcahuello to Los Angeles - Chile

After a great sleep in the National park headquarters building in our tent we awoke to find our own friendly dog guarding us.

There had been quite a cuffuffle (sp?) in the night which was him protecting us from other dogs. We left early and climbed steadily all morning until we reached the base of volcano lonquimay.

 We locked the bikes to a sign just off the road and set off to scale the volcano. It was a great feeling to be trekking again...and out of lycra and mtb shoes for a while. It was a tough climb with no real tracks and steep scree slopes.the landscape was totally barren...a complete contrast to the day before when we were in the monkey puzzle and beech trees, but it had its own beauty.

The view of the crater and the surrounding Andes made us gasp and made the efforts of the climb well worth it. We felt as though we were on top of the world.
we had lunch at the top, taking in the views and watched a condor below us( until now we'd always looked up at them)
we only saw two other walkers the whole 5 hours...oh to be travelling outside of peak season.

Back into our Lycra and onto our patiently waiting Ogres we cruised down a smooth pumice road to the lookout to Crater Navidad. It errupted in 1988. The lava flow was quite amazing...it went for miles and had even travelled up a valley to where we stood. It was incredible to see the power of nature.

From here on in, things got progressively worse for us and our day got tougher. The road condition deteriorated from smooth to rocky rutted bumpy trails to our worst road yet- deep soft volcanic ash. It was hideous. Dust everywhere...in our ears, nostrils, shoes and socks but worst of all in our gears and chain. our poor bikes hated it, they squeaked and groaned with sickening noises of metal on metal and progress was slow. It was even a challenge to stay upright as we fishtailed and bounced from rock to rock hidden under the ash. At one point a truck laden with firewood squeezed past us leaving us covered from head to toe in dust. We don't know who was more surprised to see the others us or them. They couldn't believe their eyes that two kiwi girls would be riding here and we couldn't believe any vehicle could navigate these roads.

At 7.45 pm we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere with no sign of either a river or any form of accommodation.We decided just to pull off the road and set up camp through an unlocked gate. It wasn't ideal but it was our only choice. By the time we had put up the tent (which we're pretty quick at now) it was pitch black. We then set about cooking dinner with as little water as possible. We were filthy dirty and all the water we could spare for a wash was the leftover water from cooking the pasta and vegetables - mmmm

Once we had settled down and eaten dinner we were able to appreciate the beauty of our campsite - no rain, no wind,no dogs, no cars and a beautiful star filled moon lit sky. Bliss
We were able to thank the farmer in the morning when he stopped his truck and greeted us with a Buenos Dias...no fuego (fire)!

We thought we weren't far off Ralco and imagined we would be soaking in hot pools by midday but...big day, big adventure! Luckily for us our bikes seemed to have stopped complaining after a hot water wash to the bottom bracket and a good lube...( yes, hot water for our bikes but not enough for us...priorities!!)

A day of extremely steep climbs, a 10km oopsy where our road wasn't signposted, narrow rutty farm tracks and more volcanic dust. However, we enjoyed talking to an old man walking on the road who set us in the right direction. We enjoyed crisp juicy apples from trees on the side of the road, and in the challenges the day threw at us. It was a day of Real backcountry adventure.

At one point we thought we must be totally lost as our GPS showed our road stopping a couple of kms ahead. We were at the top of a massive climb that had nearly blown our legs and lungs and just couldn't come to terms that we may have to backtrack. We knew we hadn't seen any other roads so trusted our gut and pushed on down the other side where we sniffed out a small farm track that seemed to go in the right direction . To our great joy the farm track took us to a walking track that took us over a bridge into a town the whoop whoops of joy must have been heard across the valley as we saw a village and a real gravel road. We were so thankful it wasn't cold or rainy, or it could have been a very different day.
We were even more elated when we found out the village was the one we were aiming for...we love you Chenquenco.
Who knows what the locals thought as we entered town (one supermarket) covered dust and who know what we smelled like. We stocked up on another days food and headed off for the thermal hot pools we'd read about. We knew it was only about 25kms away but it was already after 3 and we have long ago learned that terrain, weather and roads conditions can make a huge difference in the progress you can make! Luck was on our side though, we had no wind, no rain, smoothish gravel and the hills were steep but nothing like what we'd experienced earlier in the day. Night was approaching and we were determined not to spend another grubby night on the side of the road. Thank goodness our last 6 kms were all downhill and we rolled into the Thermal pools with camping just on dark.

At 9:30 we were warm, clean, well fed and content in our tent. It was an amazing day but it was good to be safe, clean and out of the depths of the mountains.
We struck tarseal the next morning and rolled into Ralco midmorning. It was amazing to think back to when we were standing at the top of Volcano Lonquimay looking down at a lake thinking we'd be there that night. 2 massive days later we had made it. Time for an icecream!

The rest of our journey to Santa Barbara and on to Los Angeles was pretty uneventful. There's not much to say about long flat sealed roads and towns or cities. Bring on the next leg of our adventure. San Pedro de Atacama to La Paz. Deserts and salt lakes here we come.