Arroyo Sucio

After 3 days of « the boat will sail tomorrow » and with the weather forecast getting worse we make a change of plan and choose option C - the crazy option. At least it will be an adventure. We are told it is possible to cross into Argentina further North on a route that is not feasible for vehicles but can be done on foot and (just) by bike. Luckily we don’t fully understand what we are opting for.

It starts at the chilean border station where we check out of Chile and are given a form that we need to hand in on the Argentinian side (20 km away through no mans land). The border official has a small lamb baaing at his feet and the border station is fantastically in the middle of nowhere (just the landing strip). I think I might change career.

After some waiting and once our papers are checked, we are invited into the station. There are 6 officials most of them watching the world cup…plus us. The match is Poland vs Argentina. Alain asks who they are supporting… Poland of course. Would we like a coffee? Indeed we would. And it comes with bread, jam and chilean condensed milk toffee spread. «For energy » the guard says. This is the best border crossing in the world Alain announces.

We ask for a bit of advice re the route but its a little limited as we have no language overlap. Follow the edge of the mountain and the maps.me app paths are more or less right. He points to the river below which we can ford. Seems a bit bizarre but who are we to argue.

The fording is not a problem and we find the track marked on the map and happily climb it. But here the problems start. The track is barred. We explore and eventually strip the bikes of luggage and Alain lifts them over. 2 more fences later, they are getting higher and are barbed and there are fences everywhere. It does not bode well. We have covered 500m in an hour. Alice does a recce and finds a likely path at the expense of some wet and very dirty feet from the swampy areas below. Alain puts the bungy cord to good use to lower the barbs- one more big fence and some scrambling through the woods and we are on a path. Yeah. But soon it descends and there is a muddy stream to cross (we build a temporary bridge for the bikes from some handy large planks) and again the route is unclear. Its late so we pitch the tent, saving the next stream and swamp for tomorrow and hoping the cows will not be too curious about the tent.

Tomorrow we are up early and ford the next stream and swamp but struggle to find the next path. At last we find something on drier land but there are loads of tiny tracks that are not really wide enough for the bikes because of the prickly bushes. I wonder whether we will end up retracing our steps back to Chile. Its slow and we have 2 km to battle to reach the next key objective- the pedestrian bridge over the river. We mostly push the bikes and are super relieved when at last the bridge is in sight.

It turns out to be a long rickety and very narrow suspension bridge. It takes 6 trips with paniers and then the bikes with handlebars turned sideways. It seems wise to keep a hand around the bridge cable in case the creaking boards give way.

The whole no mans areas turns out to be a relatively flat area traversed by a huge river with wide gravel beds and many tributaries and large tracts of swamp. There are mountains on all sides. The deal seems to be to follow the slightly higher ground just beside the wet flat parts and hope to emerge on the other side. Its wonderfully empty and beautiful and we are alone (especially when Alice loses Alain for a short while).

Now we find the next track. Its made of melon sized boulders in the dry part of the river bed. We push/bump the bikes along until it improves. The GPS is a godsend and helps us find the tiny tracks across the expanses beside the wide river. We can slowly pedal mainly now. We ford another river and wind onwards. Soon we we are in old woods, its getting clearer and easier. Another ford and its a real track. And at long last (6 hours for 20km) we find the Argentinian border station and are checked in. We are official again.

I ask how many people they have seen this week. Four. And how many bikes? They had 4 last week. Guess we were the highlight of the day.Read more