Carretera Austral Vol. 5 - "Drone Shepherd & 80km/h Winds"

Border Officer: "Documents please. Including the one showing the registration proof of the rental car in the Chilean system"

The Crew: "Surely officer, please give us a few minutes....."

Border ahead - Papers ready?

Oh Border Crossings. Those fun activities that can make or break a trip. Will we make it, will we not? Have we double-checked all those needed papers, signed off by the notary as required? What about that ill-tempered officer we heard about?

Let´s start with the outcome: we all made it into Argentina, including vehicles! But not without breaking a sweat and having to make a few calls to

get key documents sent via email. Lesson learned.

With that hurdle passed, the astonishing flatlands of Argentina (the Argentinian Pampa!) were greeting us. And so did the winds of 80km/h, joyfully changing direction ever so often.

Against the Wind

It must have been around that time, while meticulously focusing on stabilizing our loyal bikes, that we lost track of our intended route. Resulting in us heading 45 minutes at full throttle towards the Atlantic Ocean (oh hello there!) instead of North along the famous Ruta 40. With this navigation error detected, a few bursting laughs & a calculation if our fuel will get us to the next town, we set off again back to the missed junction. Progress!?

The next bump in the road wasn´t a long time coming, when we realized that one bike has lost a couple screws along those rides on rocky roads and deep potholes the size of gully covers. This discovery needed some extra attention (& band-aid fixing until the next town) and the downtime was used to set up camp in a picturesque valley, filled with little water streams and vocal sheep. The drone came in handy once more, this time as the ultimate shepherd.

The last two days saw us slowly making our way back towards civilization. Crossing back into Chile (with our wooden fishing rod not making the cut - rules are rules!) we found ourselves on the closing stretch of this venture.

And after all, back to where it all started. We rolled into Puerto Montt (yet, unlike in the movies, without a crowd celebrating our arrival...). A little tired, a couple showers short, but packed with lasting memories. And one overarching thought: This trip was only the beginning. There was clearly more to come...