Route 40 down to El Calafarte in April
 

Hi, I will be riding from Puerto Montt to El Calafarte in early April (starting April 8th). Can anyone give me some feedback on if this is do-able or not.

The rental company I am using is strongly advising me against it, telling me that I will be in big trouble if I try to take that road so late in the season and it starts to rain. They are even telling me that 4x4 cant drive the clay sections when it rains, and that most places along that road will be closed now. Is that true? It jsut doesn't sound right.

I know that the season ends in March, but it can't be that bad. I feel as if they are trying to scare me into staying I have been riding (including offroad and cold weather) for years and feel I can comfortably handle wet and cold conditions.

Thanks in advance for all the help!

Send a message to Henning Wedege at
www.oneworldonejourney.com

he's on that road this week so will tell you what its like now. If you can't message him on his blog send me your email and I'll pass it on.

I know its cold down there now but 40 was gravel and tar almost entirely. There weren't any clay sections we did in the Land Rover in the south at least.

I'm sure more will also come along to help. Even if they drive around in a cage.....

Tell the rental company that they should stop saying that. I live in Rio Gallegos (300km from El Calafate) and it's very rideable, but it's cold though

Thanks guys. I figured they were bs-ing me atleast a little bit as they are probably more concerned about the bike then anything else. I am planning to ride down Route 7 to atleast Villa O'Higgins and, depending upon the weather and advice of locals, decide what to do when I get there.

Villa O'higgins is a dead end.

The river was and is too high to cross. If you arrive at the Chile side they will not even let you go to the river. If you get to the Argentinian side then they will let you go to the river (maybe but its a long slog on a bike) but will tell you not to bother. Unless its been snowing and freezing the river will still be too high. The sheep bridge across is too narrow for any motorbike unless you can lift it above your head for 15 mins required to manoover it across and missing all the wires and crap. Even a peddle cycle would have trouble. When we went there a few months ago we went to the river in an Army Unimog and they wouldn't even take that through the third river branch. The first two I crossed on foot with a log to support me against the flow maybe 3-4 feet in sections. The third is at least 6 foot deep and 40Kph flow.

People we met went to the Chile side and we not even allowed to go past the gate. They said "no permission". According to their discussions with the Chile side they river is only passable 3 months a year in full winter when the water is lower.

Go to O'Higgins and then backtrack to the next border north to get out of Chile. Make sure you get all the stamps as we have heard of missing stamps at smaller borders. This causes major issues at the next border.

There is a ferry from O'Higgins across the lake to Argentina. I have been told different things about this ferry by different Chilenos. I know it takes passengers, but not sure if it takes bikes or cars.

This info below refers to the boat from, El Chalten and the "Desierto Lake ferry"

No bikes or cars. Foot passengers only. Maybe paddle cycles.

As I said its a dead end.

We did hear of some cyclists that tried to use it but no idea how they got on wth it. Certainly lots of Motorbikes have tried and failed. There was a nice army car transport boat at the end of the lake but not for public use!

I know someone who succeeded on that route on a DRZ400 in late summer (Feb or March) 2010. He said he was told that he was the first to have made it on a "moto grande," and he said it was very difficult. I don't know any more details, but he's a trustworthy guy.

Lots of people, relatively speaking, do it on pushbikes.

Exactly! and you have to walk 17km

Im living in Brazil and in April the winter starts and cold weather arrives. I can imagine that in April in the south of chile or Argentina the weather is much worst, rains, snow and windy! Good luck!