Transiting Chile - Day 1

The last night we got ourselves some beds in the last refugio before the border crossing. This was the most expensive and at the same time most run down, and hellishly cold place I stayed in during my time in bolivia...but at least it hat walls to protect us from the wind.

To cross from Bolivia to Chile along this route, you need to pass 3 control points staggered over 12km.

After sleeping in we left the refugio and passed Nr. 1, the bolivian border control, a few meters down the road.

Next up was the Chilean border control, 6km down the road. The road between those posts was once again terrible. Washboarded crumbles of old roads long gone and steep uphills.

Another 6km of sheer endless steep uphill we finally reached the Chilean customs. The processing was fast and contrary to our fears we got to keep all of our food for the days ahead, whupwhup!

Entering Chile felt like entering a new world again. Toilets that flush, wifi in the middle of no-where, a modern customs building...and most importantly: Tarmac roads!!! Matt fell straight to his knees to kiss the first propper tarmac in 10 days!

The plan was to cycle the bigger part of the 130 km to the Argentinian Border and camp somewhere in the desert on the way.
Once again we underestimated the power of the wind, which increased in strength over the day.
Did it blow from behind? Great, fast uphills! From the side? Dangerous on downhills! From the front? Brutal everywhere!

But the views...
Having just spent 7 days cycling on the Lagunas route I thought I had seen my fair share of stunning scenery, but what we passed through today topped everything previously experienced. To put it short, I felt like on a different planet. The colours, the shapes, the sheer endlessness of the landscapes...

After 80km, almost 1000m of climbing, and a final speedy descent with the most magnificent view of the trip so far, we called it a day and tried to find shelter behind a small stone wall of a Laguna Mirador. By the time we had cooked our food, the wind had picked up so much that it became almost impossible to stand up straight or walk against the wind.
Starting to get cold we pitched our tents behind a stone wall of the Mirador, hoping to hide from the storm.

But not long after having put up tents the wind changed direction, blowing directly onto the side of my tent.
While winds in the deserts around here usually calm down after nightfall, this evening it grew on to a proper storm with tremendous gusts, raging until midnight.
I had tried securing the tent pegs with stones and hoped putting out the guy lines would give the tent enough extra stability...

But after an hour of continuous strong winds, 3 out of 4 pegs were gone and my tent was close to flywing away around 9pm, with me "stuck" in it trying to keep it from reaching Argentina without me.
Luckily Matt heard my despair and looked out of his tent. Seeing me barely being able to keep the tent on ground he ran out to get more and bigger stones and hammer the pegs back into the ground, and managed to stabilize it enough to survive the night.
I don't even want to think what a night without tent would have looked like in a 9-10 bft storm at -4C degrees 🧊

Unnecessary to say, this was not a good night, and sleep came only very late.

🚴‍♀️Distance cycled: 80km
🛃 Borders crossed: 1
⛺️ Tents blown away: 0.5
💤 Hours slept: 3
⏲️ spent holding down tent and hoping for the best: half an eternityRead more