CHILEAN RUTA 7
3000-year-old trees and hanging glaciers
The Chilean Ruta 7, better known to overlanders as the Carretera Austral, is a motorway that was built in 1972 in previously undeveloped areas of Chilean Patagonia.
It is around 1350 kilometers long and is still being worked on today. Parts of the northern section have already been tarmacked, while the southern section is a gravel road.
Ruta 7 leads through an incomparably beautiful landscape with predominantly cold rainforest. We also experienced the rain, as you can easily see from the pictures. At the beginning we crossed the Pumalin National Park with its Alerces trees, which are up to 3000 years old.
Due to the weather, we only did short hikes, which changed in Queulat National Park when we visited the Ventisquero Colgante, the ‘hanging glacier’. The wall of ice, up to 200 meters high, and the 600-metre waterfall bring tears to the eyes. Unbelievable!
They were catered for in small towns, which often also had municipal campsites, some of which were equipped with hot showers. So, everything was quite luxurious, considering that we were travelling through absolute wilderness. Even the rainy weather was fine here.
FRANK KLAUS
Adresse :
Hugenottenallee 171 aNeu-Isenburg,
63263 Hessen
Germany