26th Feb 2015
Wind, sun, and a glacier !
Today I had a few chores to do, but at a leisurely
pace. So after breakfast and a chat with
a few of the other campers around the warm stove, I set off into town to
collect my spare wheel, hopefully now with the puncture fixed. All done – It had been about a 2 inch nail
that had gone straight in through them main part of the tyre, so it could be
plugged no problem. These two spare
tyres still have some tread on them, but they have really been chopped up by
all the dirt roads, so are really only good as spares. But the tyres on the car now are good, and
will be fine for the rest of the trip. I
might need to check on the price of these tyres in UK, and compare them with
Argentine prices – Might be better to get some here before I ship the car !
While in town I also got enough money changed into
Argentine pesos to enable me to pay for fuel for the next few weeks. The (unofficial) exchange rates here in
Ushuaia are quite good, so it is best to change money while you can get a good
rate. Then picked up my tyre – He had
done a good job, but when replacing the tyre me managed to break off one of the
little toggles that are fitted to my car to attach the rear camping awning to
the car. Not a big deal, just annoying,
because now I have to find someone with a drill, two small pop rivets, and a
pop rivet gun to help me put on a new one !
That’s the trouble over here – They fix one thing, but often manage to
break something else !!
I then spotted a new Panaderia in town, and since it was
almost lunch time, I stopped in and got a few hot empenadas ! Mmmmmm.
Then I set off to find a road up behind town that takes you up to the
Glacier Martial. I thought I could drive
all the way up the mountain, get some great views back over the city and the
Straits of Magellan, see the
glacier, and then drive down again. Driving up was great, and I passed a couple
of big hotels / resorts that are more for the skiing in the winter than the for
the summer tourists. But then the road
stopped in a big car park – You have to walk an hour or more up to the Glacier
and any view points over the city.
Bother – more exercise !! here is
a chair lift, but it wasn’t running due to the winds, so I donned my hiking
boots and walking gear, and se off up the mountain. It was about 8 deg C, but the wind made it
bitterly cold when it blew, so I was well rugged up when I set off.
It wasn’t a difficult walk – Just fairly steep uphill all
the way. Half way up, the path forked,
one side leading up to the glacier (“1 hour, difficult”), and the other leading
to “City Views” (“45 minutes, medium”)
That sounded much more like what I wanted today, so I followed the
medium one – The trouble was the “medium” bit didn’t take into account the wind
strength, which was trying its
hardest to blow me off the mountain ! The wind is funny here – While it may blow
all the time, every so often it gusts down the mountains like a hurricane, just
for a few minutes, and when it does that, you stop walking and try to find some
shelter, or at least make yourself smaller so you don’t “set sail” yourself
! You can see from the pics how narrow
the trail was, so one doesn’t have much o hang on to or to hide behind ! But once I got to the top, the views over
Ushuaia and the Straits of Magellan were magnificent. There is an almost permanent rainbow over the
straits not because it is raining, but because of the spray whipped up off the
water by the wind, creating a moisture filled atmosphere.
You can see all the way down to the bay, and the cruise
ship visible tied up there today was the Holland America Zaandam – I think we
saw that same ship a couple of months ago in Skagway Alaska ! Or maybe Juneau !! I met
a couple of Canadians off it who were climbing up to the glacier too, and they
had come out of Montevideo, then the Falklands, Ushuaia, and then round the
fjords of Chile and up to Santiago. This
is almost the last cruise ship of the season, apparently, and people are
getting ready to shut up for the winter here within the next 2-3 weeks.
On the way down the mountain, I noticed the green moss
type of bush which we also saw in the Arctic – It only grows above the
treeline, and is called Llareta, or Balsam Bog. Amazing stuff, and incredibly
dense – I reckon you could stand on it, no problem.
Back down the mountain, I went into town to pick up my
tablet – Unfortunately they couldn’t do anything – They reckon it is the
programme, not
the tablet. So I will try
once more to delete the programme and load it again, and see what happens. I have mentioned the wind a few times, but
short of taking a video don’t know how else I can show you how strong it
is. Then, when I parked my car in town,
there was a very big Argentinian flag flying,
and it was sticking absolutely straight out from the pole – And those
really big flags don’t often do that because they are so heavy. Additionally, the ends of the flag are really
tattered from flapping in the strong wind all the time – I thought maybe a
photo of that might just give you an inkling of how strong the wind is !
Then it was back to the camp site, cook up some vicuna
sausages and veggies for supper, and try a couple of local dark beers I had
found – All were excellent. Now it is
off to bed. Tomorrow I plan to sort out
the last few bits and pieces I need to do, and then on Saturday start heading
north up the east coast of Argentina – And hopefully some slightly warmer
weather !!
the tablet. So I will try
once more to delete the programme and load it again, and see what happens. I have mentioned the wind a few times, but
short of taking a video don’t know how else I can show you how strong it
is. Then, when I parked my car in town,
there was a very big Argentinian flag flying,
and it was sticking absolutely straight out from the pole – And those
really big flags don’t often do that because they are so heavy. Additionally, the ends of the flag are really
tattered from flapping in the strong wind all the time – I thought maybe a
photo of that might just give you an inkling of how strong the wind is !
Great stuff Giles. J.
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