Carretera Austral Drive
Dragoman Day 6 - 10
December 29th - January 02nd 2012
Day 300 - Day 304

After Pucon we had quite a few long drive days in a row. We left Pucon to drive to Puerto Montt to catch a ferry. However our ferry was cancelled and we ended up camping in a local national park - Park Alerce. We spent the next day doing some hiking in the park before catching the overnight ferry to Chaiten.

We spent the next few days driving and camping through the stunning landscape of the Carretera Austral area.

We did a lots of stops enroute going to Quelat national park to see my first ever glacier! It was pretty cool, it's known as the Colgant (hanging) glacier, as it sits high up on a mountain with waterfalls running in to the lake below. We even managed to see a huge chunk of ice fall off, the sound was deafening, loud and booming.

That day was new years eve and that evening we did a special dragoman wine tasting evening which led to a copious amount of alcohol being consumed. I revealed my true side (my red face), we learnt to say cheers in several languages, play jenga, eat milka chocolate. Whilst Chris and some of the other guys were sitting by the fire a new bond was formed which led to the formation of the gay wolf pack (gwp).

New years day was a bit of a blur, we spent the day nursing our heads, sleeping in the truck, waking every so often to admire the views around. We ended up camping by a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains.

The next day (02nd Jan) was a bit of an adventure. Jimmy (tour leader) swerved to miss an oncoming car and the truck slipped in to a ditch in one corner. Once everyone was out and had observed the damage we realised it wasn't as simple as driving the truck back out. As our other tour leader left to find help we started collecting huge rocks and logs to place under and around the truck to stabilise it. The thought of a tumbling truck crushing us all did cross my mind. Lots of passing cars stopped to take photos of us and the truck, even the police did the same thing!!

Eventually Clare returned with a digger type machine! It was amazing it pulled out the truck as if it was pulling a toy car! With the truck saved we could continue our journey.

We crossed the border at chile chico and continued driving in Argentina down route 40 before bush camping that evening with the most spectacular sunset.

Xx