Chile · Carretera Austral Northern Stage

1Hornopirén ferry

Hornopirén is where the road south of Puerto Montt runs out of land and hands the traveller over to the sea. It is a small port on the edge of the Reloncaví region, in front of a fjord that stretches toward Patagonia, and behind it rises the Hornopirén volcano and the dark green forests of the national park. The Carretera Austral, Chile's Route 7, passes here, and the ferry that leaves from the harbour is the only way to continue south along the highway without a long detour.

The Carretera Austral itself is a story of persistence. It was built mainly in the 1970s and 1980s by the Chilean military, who cut and blasted a road through the rain-soaked forest to connect isolated settlements, and it has been improved and extended in the decades since. The road is still a mixture of pavement and gravel, with long stretches that are rough, narrow and slow. The landscape is spectacular, with glaciers, fjords, temperate rainforest and rivers the colour of turquoise, and it draws riders from all over the world who want a proper adventure.

2Pumalín forestkm 137

3Chaitén overnightkm 174

4Futaleufú river roadskm 295

The Futaleufú river is the colour of a swimming pool in a dream, an intense milky turquoise that comes from glacial silt carried down from the Andes, and it is one of the most famous whitewater rivers in the world. Rafters and kayakers come from across the globe to take on its rapids, some of which are rated at the highest level of difficulty. The river runs through a valley on the Chilean side of the border with Argentina, and the town of Futaleufú, a tidy collection of low houses with a village square, sits on its banks.

The roads here are among the least travelled in Chile, and that is what makes them special. A branch of the Carretera Austral leads to the town from the main highway, and gravel and paved sections alternate as the road follows the river through forest and farmland. Mountains rise on all sides, snow-capped in winter, and in early summer the meadows are bright with lupins. Along the way, the road passes lakes of equally improbable blue, and the light on the water in the afternoon is superb. The surfaces vary, so check conditions and keep your speed down on gravel, where loose stones and corners can surprise you.

5Hornopirénkm 529

Hornopirén is where the road gives up and the sea takes over. Here, on the edge of a long fjord, the Carretera Austral reaches a gap that engineers have never filled, and anyone heading south has to take a ferry for several hours through channels and inlets before the road resumes in Pumalín country. For riders coming from Puerto Montt, it is the first real taste of the end of the world: the town is small and weather-beaten, strung along the shore with wooden houses, boatyards and stacks of fishing gear.

Behind the settlement, the volcano Hornopirén rises in a neat cone, and the national park of the same name protects the forests, lakes and fjords around it. The land is wet and green, covered in temperate rainforest with ferns and mosses hanging off every trunk, and rain falls most of the year. Salmon farming dominates the economy here as it does along much of the Chilean coast, and the water is dotted with the floating pens. Mussels and other seafood are cheap and very good, and a plate of curanto, the traditional pit-cooked stew of shellfish, potatoes and meat, is the dish of the region.