4th March 2015
Flamingos, a Petrified Forest, and incredible scenery.
Some pics of sunset over the camp site last night, and
then Brian came over with some hot water for my cup of tea this morning, saving
me the trouble of boiling my kettle, but wearing a T shirt that said “Alaska to
Tierra del Fuego” along with a map just like the one on my doors ! Hey, that’s my logo !! I knew I should have patented it ! We got a few pics of his bike and T shirt in
front of Troopie with my “Australia to Tierra del Fuego,…..via Alaska” writing
on the front, as we are probably the only two who have done the trip all the
way like this !! Then Brian set off to BA – He is flying back to the US with
his bike in about 2 weeks so needs to keep moving north. I left shortly afterwards.
Driving out of town I find a few more flamingos right
beside the road – Still inside the city limits ! Starting to become common now !! Then it was of north up Ruta 3 – straight,
flat, and not much to see scenery wise for the next 2 ½ hours ! However there were a LOT of large flocks /
herds of rhea and guanaco all the way, and most of them were either on or very
close to the road, so had to slow down quite a lot when passing them to make
sure they didn’t run in front of me. You
can usually tell which direction they are going to go, but there will always be
one that breaks the rules and suddenly darts the wrong way !!
After almost 3 hours since I left the camp site, (I
stopped for a quick vegemite bread roll at about noon !), I saw a sign
indicating the Petrified Forest National Park was off to the left. I remembered that Joshua and Shannon had told me
it was supposed to be good, so I suddenly decided to go – It was only 50 kms
west on some dirt road – And headed off across the plains. Within the next 30 minutes the scenery went
from flat and quite uninteresting to canyons and multi-hued colours and quite
fascinating. This was turning out to be
a great little ‘splore – And I hadn’t even got to the Petrified Forest yet !
The dirt rod was in pretty good shape, and by about 3 pm
I was in the park headquarters signing in and being told I must not take any
“souvenirs” from the park ! Claro. They have a great wooden sign near the office
which has the park logo on the left side, and then a big rectangular hole on
the right side with “Volcan Madre e Hija” written underneath. From the side I
just thought the sign was falling apart and the picture of the Volcan had been
taken down, but when I got directly in front of the sign I realised that the
hole actually frames the real Volcano, and you cleverly see it through the hole
! And translated it means “Volcano of
the Mother and daughter”, so named because there is a large piece of it
and small piece side by side. Very clever !
I then went off round a 2 km path through the “forest”,
and it really is very humbling when you realise these trees were growing over
150 million years ago, and here I am touching them, and I am only going to be
on this planet for about 90 (hopefully !) years. Puts everything in perspective – We really
need to make the most of our time on this earth because we only pass this way
once !
Some of the “trees” are enormous – One I photographed was
about 7 ft in diameter one way, and 9 ft the other – Big tree. And it is amazing how the volcanic soil has
been able to penetrate it entirely, and petrify it – And some of the colours of
the “wood” are just magnificent. Nature
is just very very special. And all
around the “forest” are vast plains stretching out to hills and cliffs that
make it all look like a vast moon-scape – Just an amazing place way out in the
middle of nowhere.
After the walk and chatting to the GuardaParque (Ranger)
for a while, I hit the road, but rather than going the 50 kms back to the black
top of Ruta 3, the way I had come in, I decided to keep heading west until I
met Ruta 12, and then take that north, until I eventually met up with Ruta 3
again. I don’t like backtracking unless
I absolutely have to, and the guardaparque said the road was good, so off I
went. And I was so pleased that I
did. Lots more guanaco and rhea, this
time all over the road, so quite a lot of care was required. The rhea are funny – to me when they run they
look like humans trying to run with their hands stuck in their pockets – All
off balance and wobbling ! Some ran in
front of me for a while, and I was laughing while I followed them up the road
trying to take some pics !!
Drove quite close under the Madre e Hija Volcano, and the
rock formations below it looked like rows of apartment windows from a distance
! The rock here has the same horizontal layering that I saw on the cliffs
outside San Julian yesterday, and with the different densities of the rock
layers this makes for some fascinating
patterns of erosion. In this case you
end up with pillars with hollows between them that look like rows of windows.
On down the road, and eventually reached Ruta 12 and
turned north. This (I thought) was
supposed to be more main highway, but
after a while it got narrower and narrower, and we started to have grass
growing down the middle ! Not a lot of
traffic out here it would seem – Indeed, in the hour or so since I left the
park, I had not seen a single vehicle !
You get these interesting grass tufts beside the road – Yellow on the
top but green underneath – and always angled away for the ever present wind. Presumable the guanaco eat it. I carried on through this seemingly never
ending moonscape for another 2 hours – And by 6.30 pm I was still 40 kms from
the highway, so I started to look for a place to stop for the night.
Eventually found a nice sheltered spot down below a
bridge over a dry river bed, and snuggled down there out of the wind and cooked
my supper. Now 10.30 pm, the wind has
suddenly changed direction 180 degrees and is blowing quite strongly – I thought
the wind lessened at night ?? So I have
just had to rearrange the “furniture” inside and lower the roof so I don’t blow
away in the night ! It is a lovely
clear starry night, with almost a full moon – But a howling wind to keep me
company ! Ho hum !
By the way, one interesting trick Brian told me about
last night – I can’t roll my R’s, never have been able to, and this makes
speaking Spanish quite difficult ! So
Brian said if you say “the row” (row as in row, row, row your boat, not row as
in argument), and say it quicker and quicker, you will eventually roll your
R’s. It works too – Seems to put your
tongue in the right place. So if you can’t roll your R’s, like me, help is at
hand ! Try it !!
"Aaaarr.. . .aaarrrr. Jim lad. Ol' Jamaicy. Aaarrr! Getting slowly better. Getting my r's into shape. Safe travels. J&S
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