The Sunday drive continued through the Austral highway, heading away from the Magellan Straight and towards the Pacific side of the continent. As we moved up we crossed the only main town between Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales. We stopped here in Villa Tehuelche to photograph two foxes that were crossing the road and to have a quick coffee at the only place that seemed to be inhabited at this time of the day. The little shop sold sandwiches to go, sweats and other snacks, liquor, and what you come to expect from roadside tienditas. One of the highlights of the drive was Morro Chico, a volcanic plug where people have found ancient paintings (pictures rupestres) and that sticks out of the flat Patagonian steep. We stopped for a quick photo and were welcomed by a couple of Llamacos, a new hybrid between Llamas and Guanacos. From there we passed Laguna Arauco, where the Austral road passes less than a kilometre from the Argentina boarder.
After a while we reached Puerto Natales. The town is located in a complex of Fjords that eventually open up to the Pacific. The town cards the entrance to the fjord of Ultima Esperanza, named by an explorer called Ladrilleros. The highest part of the mountains, including Cerro Balmaceda, were covered in cloud. After re-supplying for the camping trip ahead, we continued driving to La Cueva del Milodon. This has been a place that was at the top of my list in Patagonia for many years.
Claudia was an excellent guide to the Cueva as she has been working with archaeologists there before. The weather changed as we arrived to the Cueva and the sky opened to revealed an amazing cobalt blue. Above the Cave a condor circled us. The Cave itself was amazing, and did not disappoint. A massive entrance to a place that has been continually excavated since the first Milodon remains were found in the 1800’s . When the first explorers found Milodon skin and bones they were so well preserved that they were convinced they were from recently killed animals. First confused for mammoths, eventually the magical discovery of giant sloths in this place became known around the world. We searched the paths hoping to see a Milodon hair somewhere. The bronze sculpture of a Milodon standing in its hind legs, looked at us disapprovingly. We may not have found a Milodon skin, but being inside the cave was as exciting as I imagined!
After the Cueva, we headed back to Puerto Natales where I was going to drop off Claudia before continuing my trip to Torres de Paine. After leaving her in downtown, I took the road to Cerro Castillo. This is the northernmost limit of the Carretera Austral. For more than 200km there is no way to drive through this part of Chile until reaching O’Higgins after crossing the Campos de Hielo, a massive expanse of glaciers and wild terrain. I turned left in Cerro Castillo and entered the National Park. Somewhere at the end of this road I was going to run into the Torres del Paine. The cloud cover came back again. The daylight started to dim, but with the last rays of sun I was able to photograph a large guanaco herd that seemed mostly unconcerned of my presence a few meters from where they were eating.
I finally reached one of the guarded entrances to the Park. I checked in and eventually managed to find my campsite at the end of another road, in a strange outpost of civilisation where campsites, geodesic spheres and fancy lodges stood next to each other, right at the base of the Torres. The twilight light made for some amazing outlines of the mountains and the Torres against the dark blue sky. I set up my tent and had a dinner heated up in my camping stove. I was exhausted and excited of having reached the last and most adventurous destination of the whole trip.
