It was a great little camp site by the river in
Hornopiren – “Camping Bosque Nativo”.
After a good hot shower (but why do they put the taps down just 6 inches
off the floor ???), set off to catch my “long” ferry from Hornopiren to
Leptepu. As I left the camp site I saw a
couple more of “my” eagles in a field, although I thought they looked a bit
bigger than the ones on my car yesterday, and when I put them onto the computer
I could see their beaks were also quite different – Hmm – Adults and babies ? Or a different bird ? It was trying very hard to rain, and in
fact, by the time I got to the ferry at 10.15 and joined the queue, it was
bucketing down. Thank goodness it held
off while I was packing up camp.
I sat in the queue and read in the rain, and then at
about 11 am they started boarding. Well,
it was chaotic – Some drivers did their usual thing and immediately tried to go
up the outside lane to jump the queue, and then there were a couple of cars
whose occupants had disappeared so people had to drive round them. And of course, everyone had tickets, so it
didn’t really matter – In fact, it turned out that all the people who pushed to
the front were worse off than if they had waited ! We all had to turn around on the deck of the
ferry and reverse into our parking positions, so the first people on were
actually going to be the last off !! Ha
ha. I was in the middle so was neither
laughing or crying !
It took an hour to load everyone, and the second to last
vehicle on was a big 40 seater bus. Since the booking office in both Quellon and
Puerto Montt had been so adamant that the ferrys were fully booked, I was very
interested to see if there were going to be any spaces left on the ferry ! After the bus, I small camper the Argentine
plates also revered on – No, there were no spare spaces ! It was still raining off and on – Only things
enjoying it were some cormorants that were having a lovely time playing around
the boat.
On the dot of 12 o’clock, right on schedule, we left the
ramp and set off on our 4 hour ferry ride to Leptepu. Although it was overcast,
the clouds hanging around the mountains and the light blue of the water in the
narrow channel that we followed between an isthmus and the mainland was quite
dramatic. Steep heavily forested hills
on either side were very dramatic, but after 15 minutes, they all seem a bit
the same. So I moved inside where one
actually has an allocated seat number, and got myself a coffee and an empanada. The empanada was OK, but the coffee was
horrible – Coffee is just not their thing down here, and I really should
remember not to buy it ! Just stick with
the maté !! Eventually the clouds
cleared, and I spent most of the time up on deck, where I spotted a few
dolphins, but that was about it as far as wild life went. I also went to check on the number plates of
the camper that was last on as it just looked “foreign”. As I was doing this, the owners of the
vehicle came up to me and asked where Iw as from – They turned out to be Dutch
– Piet and Rika – and had hired the camper for a from Bariloche. It turned out that they HADN’T booked in
advance for the ferry, and had just snuck on at the last minute. Consequently they were going to get off first
!! But had a great chat with them on the
ferry – Great couple. (I will forgive
them for not booking !!) Finally, right
on 4 pm, we arrived at the little unloading ramp in Leptepu, and that is really
about all there is there ! Getting off
the ferry was almost as chaotic as getting on – This time because 2 cars had
flat batteries and had to be jumped – and of course one of those was right in
front of me !! So I was in fact 4th
from last off the ferry. The relevance
of this you will see shortly.
It is only about a 10 minute drive on the dirt road
through the forest from Lemtepu to Fiordo Largo, where we were to catch another
ferry, and the only ones who had a dust free ride were Piet and Rika who had
got off the ferry first (because they were last on !). I was 4th from the back, so had a
slow and dusty drive to the next ferry.
And when we reached the next ferry, it was much smaller and only took
about 20 cars ! So while Piet and Rika
were once again at the head of the queue and on the first ferry, it was an hour
and a half later before I got on the third trip – There was only one ferry, so
it had to keep going there and back.
Finally I got off in Caleta Gonzalo at about 6.30, and there was a
restaurant right there by the ramp – And there were Piet and Rika sitting there
in the sunshine enjoying a large glass of vino !! Sometimes I guess it pays to not book, and
just roll up, and today that was certainly the case for these two !! So I joined them for a vino, and they had
reserved a table in this little restaurant for dinner, and invited me to join
them – Which I did with alacrity ! Piet
is a pilot with Lufthansa Cargo, so visits many places around the world, and
they are just having a 3 week holiday over here to escape some of the cold and
wet of a European winter !! The food was
interesting (chicken lasagne ??), the wine was excellent, and the conversation
and company was superb – A very pleasant evening – Thank you guys. In the time they had already been on the
mainland (ie before I got there) they had checked out a campsite that was only
12 or so kms up the road, so after we finished our dinner, we drove along the
dirt road to the camp site, but which time it was getting dark and was trying
to rain, so we just set up our respective vehicle and went to bed straight
away. An interesting day on the ferries
of Chile !!
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