What a perfect campsite last night. Sheltered from the
wind and the sun, not a soul around – A perfect wild camp. Woke up with the sun and by 9.30 am was back
on the narrow track full of corrugations -
Its amazing how quickly you forget how bad they were – Until you start
back on them the next morning ! But as
with yesterday, the amazing scenery more than made up for the bad road. Unfortunately the sun was behind the
mountains that I was trying to photograph, but even so, they outlines against
the blue sky were just so good I had to try and take a few snaps.
Not 20 minutes into the morning, and I find a “railway”
going up a mountain side – It seems they are mining slate or similar right at
the top of the mountain and have built a little rail track to bring all the cut
rock down. You ware in the middle of
nowhere, but keep seeing signs of every day activity ! Just round the corner, a
couple of guanaco dashed across the road in front of me and shot up the cliff
face to my right – Then stood at the top watching me !
The cliffs and mountains were slowly giving way to open
valleys and plains – And then I came across Baker Airport !! With a cattle grid for cars to cross (but not
guanaca), and a “style” over the fence for passengers (?) to access the runway,
and a tattered wind sock, it was a perfect Patagonian airport !! 5 minutes later I came round the corner and
there was the Chilean Border Post. I was
the first one there for the day, so he had to warm up his rubber stamp and
unlock the padlock on the boom gate, but even so, within 5 minutes, I was on my
way. “Once (11) kilometros a Argentina”
he said, and with a cheerful “Bon Viaje” from him, I was off across the
Patagonian steppes in no-man’s land.
Those 11 kilometres were very special – Particularly what
I christened “The Cathedral” – an outline of rocks on the skyline that looked
just like a European cathedral ! In
those 11 kms between the borders, I also encountered a couple – Her from Spain,
he from German Switzerland – walking across the land ! On chatting, they were hoping to hitch, but
hadn’t seen a car heading their way (opposite of mine) since 4 pm yesterday !!
They had been told about 20 cars a day used this road, so they were hoping for
the right one with space for them and their packs. I gave them a coffee sweet from Indonesia,
and carried on my way.
I saw a small lake off to the right with flamingos in it,
but there was no track down to the lake, so I could only watch and snap from
afar. There were other ducks and
birdlife around the lake – Once again, amazing what you find in the middle of
no where. And then I arrived at the
Argentinian border post – These guys were obviously bored so I had 5 of them
trying to work out where I was from, which forms to fill out, and all the other
minor issues that remote border post guards seem to want to know about. For the first time I felt they were not to
happy with my British passport – I had heard there was a lot more nationalism
down south, and it seems to be true. But
since I would have to pay $140 to enter Argentina if I used my Aussie passport,
I had to suffer the gybes silently. It
was however one of the first Argentinian borders I have seen (I have crossed Chile / Argentina about 8
times now) without a “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” sign just to remind you !!
Once into Argentina, and through a narrow steep twisting
path though some hills, the road flattened out and we started to enter and the much flatter plains country. Somewhat boring too, later on. Turning onto a separate (but still dirt and
severely corrugated) track, I passed through a scenic wet lands area that had a
lot of ducks and other birdlife enjoying themselves. Then the land opened up completely, and it
really was flat and dry – It continued like this for the rest of the day until
I stopped for the night at about 6 pm.
There was one more wetlands area I saw, and this also had a couple more
flamingos, and I found a way down to the lake hoping to photograph them a bit
closer up - But unfortunately they saw
me coming and swam off across the lake.
Did you know flamingos swam ??
Maybe they don’t, and were just using their long legs to walk along the
bottom !! Whatever, they didn’t make
photos easy !!
A little later I passed the Lago Ghio, which although it
was hard to see from the road, was quite picturesque when you did. By the time I passed the lake it was 1.40 pm,
I had now been driving for over 4 hours, and had not seen another car
travelling in either direction. The only
people I had seen were the two hitchhikers and the border customs officers at
the two border posts. I challenge you
to find a place where you can drive 4 hours on an official highway anywhere in
the world, and not see a single vehicle.
In central Australia last year we went 2 hours without seeing another
car, and I thought that was remote !! Including my over night stop, it was now
19 hours since I had seen another vehicle !
Yup, get away from the tourist trail, and Patagonia is remote, all right
! I love it.
I stopped for lunch beside a little stream, and not long
afterwards, I saw my first car. The 3rd
car was a VW van from Nevada, Ned and Kat, and the trusty Christine, and we
chatted for a while and swapped tales.
And then, not 10 minutes further up the road, another Troopie approached
!! This one was a French one, with Marc
and , and they had started from
Montevideo and were headed north, and were 4 months into their trip. I gave
them a kangaroo – So they gave me an Eiffel Tower – They use them for the same
reason I use the kangaroos – Border control bribes !! Solid gold too, like my kangaroos !!
So suddenly I had seen 4 or 5 vehicles, and stopped and
spoken at length with two of them !!
Finally, at 3.15 pm, I reached Ruta 40 and the black top – Oh, it was so
SMOOTH !!!! Even Troopie was smiling !! Still this wide open steppes or plains, and
pretty hot and pretty boring scenery wise.
But lots of rhea and guanaco – The rhea really are stupid – They lie on
the road, and when you approach they run away from you along the road, darting
left and right, so you never know where they are going, so you HAVE to stop. But the locals seem to push on
regardless, so it is not surprising that
you see so many rhea feathers in the middle of the road !
Eventually at about 6.15 pm I found a nice little spot beside a river
just off the main highway, so I ducked off the road and found some shade from
the hot sun behind some bushes. The days
are warm down here at the moment, but the nights are cold, so you are
continually changing from long pants into shorts, or putting jackets on or
taking them off ! I met Peter on a
motorbike from London beside the road this afternoon – He was stopped so I
stopped just to make sure he was OK and didn’t need anything. He was OK, but said the winds down south have
been so bad for the last few days that he was actually blown of his motorbike a
few days ago, and injured his shoulder !!
May not be able to put Troopie’s pop top up if they get really bad !
Next stop tomorrow is El Chaiten and a hike into Mount
Fitzroy, and then on south to El Calafate and Perito Moreno Glacier. I am so enjoying this part of the trip (apart
from the dirt roads) – I can’t wait for
tomorrow to come so I can keep going !!
Photos here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0192PasoRoballosToCasaRiella?authkey=Gv1sRgCPn7iYrA2M-s5AE#
No comments:
Post a Comment