As well as tour guides Felix and Naomi, we were joined by BMW off-road instructor and GS Trophy winner, Jaime, and Jose in the support vehicle. We left the hotel on our BMW 1250GS hire bike intending to take Ruta 7 south to the ferry terminal at La Arena for the 30-minute crossing to Puelche, then continue south on Ruta 7 (Carretera Austral. or Southern Way) to Puerto Pichicolo, where a ferry had been chartered for the 4-hour crossing to Caleta Gonzalo. However, we encountered a traffic accident and the Police had closed the road.
We were able to U-turn and pick an alternate route to the first ferry using a toll road and much use of the 'skip next waypoint' button on the GPS, reaching the second ferry departure point in good time, only to find the ferry running two hours late! Once off the ferry at Caleta Gonzalo we encountered a 20km stretch of gravel, which gave us a taste of what was to come over the next two weeks. We were running late but made a fast transit on beautiful sweeping roads to our hotel at Yelcho, arriving at around 10pm, just beating the darkness.
This story is from the September 2024 edition of Motorcycle Sport & Leisure.
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This story is from the September 2024 edition of Motorcycle Sport & Leisure.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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