We have just been to Villa O’Higgins, which is as far south as it is possible to get in Chile, without crossing over into Argentina. A couple of hundred kms south of Cochrane on a narrow, windy unsealed road, with a 7km ferry trip across a fjord about halfway down. There’s an interesting village, Tortel, on the northern side of Routa 7 which is vehicle-free – it’s accessible only by steps and boardwalks. We went there today as we headed north.

So it was all going without a hitch until we met a bus on a narrow bit of the road, plus there was also a rock on either side of that particular bit, making it impossible for the 2 vehicles to pass without some manoeuvering. We backed the van down the road and to the side to let the bus pass, and couldn’t get out of the very soft edge of the road. In fact, the rear wheel was pretty much spinning in the air, and the front wheel had fortunately got wedged on a rock that held it in place and stopped the van from tumbling over the edge. This was the downside of the slope, which just went down the mountain into a river. So we stayed put and hoped that someone with a hefty 4WD and a rope might come along and help us out. We grabbed our passposts, some cash and a couple of credit cards out of the van ( and afterwards we remembered all the other things we should have grabbed, like the van’s original registration papers and the extensive record of all the border crossings it had done with us). One car stopped and the driver spoke English, so he was able to organise other people who also stopped to help. One guy got out his brand new snatch strap (I hope it’s the only time he ever has to use it), a guy with a 4WD Nissan ute offered to help pull the van out, and 3 guys got behind the van and pushed. Success! I hooted and hollered like a mad woman, someone praised God en espanol, we were profuse in our thanks to everyone, told them how much we loved their country, and we were all good to go our separate ways. I guess it’s some kind of measure of how serious it all was that we didn’t even think to take a photo until we were some way down the road. We stopped on the way back today and got some.

We headed straight for the free army-run ferry across to O’Higgins. It runs 3 times a day at this time of the year, with the last one for the day going south at 6pm. We joined a long line of cars, more than one ferry-load, but we found out that if there is more than one ferry-load, the guys will take another trip. So we got across to the other side with the second load just before 9pm. The possible camping spots near the ferry dock were taken, and we headed further south. Found one possibility, but after our recent near-disaster, Greg was reluctant to drive on soft ground, so we went another couple of kms and found a great spot in a dry creek bed. We would never, ever, ever have even considered such a place in Australia, but what can I say? We were tired, it was getting late and anyway, what were the chances that it would flood?

Well, er, excellent, as it turned out. It rained all night and I woke just before 8am to Greg yelling ‘F@^K! Wake up! We have to get the car out of the water!’ He never swears, so this was serious! He had got up for a wee just before 6.30am and it was all fine, but later on the sound of water where it shouldn’t have been made him look out the window, to see a raging torrent of water in the previously dry river bed. It was around a foot deep when he moved the car … and The One Time we needed the car to start, it did!

Dumb, dumb, dumb, but we were so lucky that we managed to get out when we did. We lost some stuff that we’d left outside overnight .. 20L container of fuel, our Ice Box cooler with food in it, and the previous night’s washing-up – some plates, cups, cutlery and cooking pot that were on loan from Wicked Campers. Greg waded in freezing thigh-deep water to rescue our shadecloth/groundsheet thing and our folding sink, which had caught on bushes at the side of the water, but the rest would have floated a long way down.

Anyway, we drove to Villa O’Higgins. The surrounding mountains had white stripes of waterfalls rushing down to join all the other floodwater. Rivers and lakes were full and flowing fast, and the lakes had lines where their usual blue water had been joined by tannin-brown flood water. And it kept on raining. V. O’Higgins was awash, and there were some very bedraggled-looking hitchikers walking along the road, trying to get a lift anywhere! We went to the only shop that was open, walked through the cloud of tiny insects hovering around the boxes of rotting fruit and found a cooking pot to replace the one we’d lost. It’s the same brand, but a bit bigger.

Headed 8kms south to the end of the Carretera Austral Southern Highway, then turned around and drove north. Caught the last ferry of the day, at around 7pm, and pulled off the road several kms north of the dock, on a nice, solid, not-too-windy viewpoint by the side of the road. No vehicles passed us until around 9am this morning.

It’s incredible! At times Greg had trouble keeping the van on the right side of the road, the customs officer at the Chilean border warned us that the ferry from Tierra del Fuego to ‘the mainland’ was cancelled and a couple of times when we were out walking, it felt like the wind was going to pick us up. No one could tell us how long it would last, so we made our way slowly towards the ferry. Slowly because of the wind, and also because the service station near the Argentinian border post had run out of fuel. Sound familiar? This time we had a spare 10L in a jerry can, so it wasn’t quite so bad, but pouring it from the jerry can into the car’s fuel tank in gale force wind would be tricky, so if we could avoid doing that, we would. Er, I really should say  …. Greg would. I’d just be standing watching, or supervising, or something.

There’s a colony of King Penguins on the western side of Tierra del Fuego, so we took a bit of a detour to have a look at them. Several dozen adults quite close to the viewing area, including one mother with a little baby on her feet, and a few penguins with bulges near their feet – smaller babies needing more warmth maybe?

We nearly got to the next servo without having to fill up, but didn’t quite make it. We’ve brought a couple of lightweight tarps with us, and some really strong magnets that we use to hang lights from the roof of the van, and to keep things in place. This was Greg’s idea: we anchored the tarp to the roof of the van, and to the ground with rocks and water containers. Funnel made out of a cut-off soft drink bottle, with a few skewers to keep the fuel tank valve open. I stood and held one end of the tarp closed while Greg poured the fuel. Not a drop was spilt!

By the time we reached the ferry at around 8pm, it was running again and the queue on our side didn’t seem too long. 2 ferries were working hard, bringing cars, trucks and buses to and from the island. We had to wait for a couple of ferries, then got across to the other side where the queue was enormous! Over 4kms long! We did some back-of-the-envelope sums and worked out that it would take until at least 4am to clear that lot, and more vehicles were arriving all the time.

We headed about 30kms west and free-camped on a beach. We have been using ioverlander.com for information about campsites and it’s an excellent resource – all the sites we’ve used that we’ve found via the site have been great.

Now we’re in Puerto Natales, and Greg organised a cabana cabin as it’s my birthday tomorrow. Bless hm, I’d go to the end of the world for him … or with him … or ….  oh, wait, I just did!