In Chile, they have a saying: Only those who hurry through Patagonia waste time. For any enthusiast of the great outdoors, it is one of the world’s truly great wildernesses—and somewhere to explore at a slow pace. The very word “Patagonia” stirs up images of grand mountains, thick forests, shimmering lakes and icy glaciers interspersed with a sparse population and lonely roads. The Carretera Austral is the iconic road running through Chilean Patagonia and has earned something of a lofty reputation for road-trippers of all means of transport. National Geographic Traveller dubbed it “the perfect road trip” with similar praise coming from Conde Nest Traveller. In the two-volume account of his around-the-world cycle, British adventurer Alistair Humphreys dubbed the Carretera Austral as “the most beautiful road I have cycled”. There’s…