Chile - Carretera Austral ???

Can anyone shed light on the required fuel range?

Also, is there much (cheap) accommodation on the road? Or, is it popular to just camp?

we're hoping to do it late Jan, on CG125s.

@Turborob,

How did you get on?

I'm planning now and it looks like things have changed with the ferries now departing at least once daily all year round.

From my maps it looks like there is loads of fuel available on RTA7 it's just Argentina that's the problem.

depends on which way you go, I went from Uyuni over through Chile, couple of days in Santiago and Mendoza (down through the Carretera Austral) over to Ruta 40 and down to Ushuaia. Stopped at a few places to do the tourist bit but it seems I travelled pretty constantly. Took from 24 Nov to 22 Dec to ride through the gates at Ushuaia. I found this pace was tiring because of rain, cold and high high winds. Your heading down to 0 and -1 degree C weather right now, this tires you as well.

As for fuel, the worst place on the whole trip was southern Bolivia, Chile and Argentina were no problem finding gas anytime (I found) but then below Santiago I never passed a gas station without stopping LOL

Hope this helps Slowphil

From my previous post on CA...

The construction when I was there in January is VERY varied, challenging.

Smooth apple-size rocks out of the river, sharper from the cliff face.
Slushy semi deep gravel, sometimes camouflaged with mud after rain.
Longer sections of packed 'ripio' like you remember. (Yawn...)
Fine beige construction sand, different technique required! Or go slow (me).

And outwitting the construction blocades that sometimes don't obey their own 1-5 pm closing: Close in the am too. Fun! Suggest stay at the last town before the construction, leave in the morning to beat the 1PM closing. But be aware further on they may close even though you entered the 1-5 no go zone well before 1. Blasting with explosives, various reasons. etc. Respectful, but don't overlook the opportunity to just ride through if it's "in the flow". You'll know.

Everything else I read here sounds right on. As for going South and crossing from Chile Chico, you can either go around the lake- long and gravel- or take a ferry once/day from General (I forget, one of them). 2 hour crossing, in case you want to skip the long ripio around.

You can find all infos about carretera Austral here:

http://3ptravel.com/2015/01/30/3p-info-part-carretera-austral/

As some people stated already:
There are many changes to the construction. There are regularly some landslides and the construction of the CA is coninously going on. But the info is pretty new and only little will have changed.


Hope this helps...

Amazing write up of the route. I've left a comment.

Now I have to go back and read the rest of your blog.

How did the F650 Dakar handle it? I got rid of mine and will be riding 2-up on an xCountry

The 650 did really well. We had no issues at all.
It is a great bike with a great engine... so you are safe with the Xchallange (great travel bike by the way...).

Actually we met a lot of local riders on choppers...

Thanks for the comment. There are some more info parts on the blog (e.g. Bolivia). Have fun reading... I hope you enjoy it....