6th March 2015
Penguins, wrecks, pumas, missiles, cuises, and no lights
!
Woke up in Camerones to a beautiful morning, just a light
breeze, and the smell of fresh toast wafting through my window – Brigitte and
Joel were making toast from a (relatively) fresh baguette for their petit
dejeuner ! That got me moving quite
quickly !! There was even some wifi down outside the office, but it was so
s-l-o-w that in the end I gave up, and we hit the road to go and find Xavier
and Elena who must have spent the night somewhere up the coast.
Camerones is a sleepy little fishing town, but a very
pleasant one. Joel had to get some fuel
and the man at the fuel station was very helpful, telling us about the track we
intended to take up the coast, and more importantly telling us where we could
buy fresh empanadas and also fresh bread.
The empanadas were sold from a very pink shop – Actually just a house, Camoen
Casa Rotiseria. When you went inside it
was like going into their living room – except they had a table with price
lists on it, and we ordered a mix of empenadas to go – Caliente, por favor ! 2
minutes later the senora came out with them all wrapped up nicely, and smelling
delicious. Very pleasant little shop.
Then it was down a couple of streets and across to the Panaderia, which
was a little more “shop like, and we limited ourselves just to a baguette each,
although Joel needed more wine – Also for sale in the panaderia !! So we set off well provisioned for wherever
we might end up.
Camerones has some pleasant little houses, and even a big
“Gimnasio Municipal”, with a big mural of a salmon on the front. Early every February they hold a big salmon
fishing competition here, and it is their big claim to fame – The rest of the
year I think they live off the proceeds of the Salmon Festival !! Eventually we found the dirt track out of
town, and drove out alongside deserted beaches and a blue blue sea. Ironically there was hardly any wind at all,
so the dust from the car in front hung around for ages which meant you had to
leave a big gap between cars if you were to avoid the dust ! Where is just a little wind when you really
need it !!!
Suddenly Xavier and Elena appeared in their Land Rover –
They had come back some 50 kms when Joel and Bridget didn’t appear ! Whoops.
‘Nuff said !! So then we all set
off again – I was at the back, having to leave a big gap between myself and the
others out in front. Quite a good gravel
surface, crossing lots of gardaganardos (cattle grids) between Estancias, all
of whom have their signs up at their boundaries. There was an old electricity line on wooden
poles beside the road, although all the wires were long cut and disused.
Thought it reflected the whole feeling of Patagonia – An old part of the world
just starting to come out of the past and going through a very rapid, and often
haphazard, process of modernization. The
overall feeling of Patagonia for me is of pleasant people who always have the
time to talk, and interested in everything, but are quite happy with their
leisurely way of life. A very pleasant
part of the world in which to spend time.
Except for the wind !!
It was almost lunch time when we arrived at Cabo Raso
where Xavier had spent the night, and we ended up driving the extra 4-5 kms up
to the end of the road for lunch. On the
way we passed the wreck of an old fishing boat, high up on the rocks, with its
bow snapped off and some 100 metres away.
Fascinating – They obviously have some big storms along this S Atlantic
coastline. After lunch (the last of my
camerones from last night !), we wandered back to where
there are a few ruined
buildings, one that looked like a bomb shelter, and a single house where
obviously someone lives ! Now, on the map, it just says “Ex Refugio de Missiles
Condor”, and to me that is saying this was once an area where they launched /
tested Condor Missiles. Hmmm. Wonder who they were aimed at ?
From this Missile Centre, we then continued up the very
dusty coast road, and after about an hour I turned off to Punta Tombo, while
the others continued up the coast towards Trelew. Punta Tombo is one of the biggest penguin
colonies in S America, with somewhere between half to one million penguins,
dependent upon which travel book you refer to ! The French felt they were
penguined out, but I wanted to see what was there – And was very pleasantly
surprised.
There is a very new, large, and informative
administration centre, seemingly designed to handle about 200 people at a time
– But there were only about 8 or 10 people there while I was there ! After a quick trip round the museum I toddled
off to the rookery because it was now nearly 5 o’clock and it all closed at 6
pm, and I had some distance to cover. It
was another 1 km drive to the entrance, and then about a 3 km walk around
boardwalks and through the bush of the rookery itself. It is very similar to the first penguin rookery
I went to out of Ushuaia where you are walking among the penguins – But SO much
bigger. It is the immensity of this
rookery that is so amazing – That and the presence of so many other different
animals.
Heading down the boardwalk the first thing I see are
dozens of these little tail less rat like animals that I had seen a few off
scurrying across the road earlier. It
turns out that they are cuis, or cavies, or like a small guinea pig. There are hundreds of them in the rookery, I
guess finding good pickings from what the penguins leave behind. Cute little chaps, and seem to get on very
well with the penguins – Sometimes even disappearing down into an occupied
penguin burrow ! I have also seen
several armadillo like animals running across the roads – I found out here that
these are peludos, or hairy armadillos – Somewhat flatter than the bigger and
more rounded armadillos we had seen further north.
I then saw rhea wandering through the rookery, with the
penguins watching them, and by then I was down at the beach area. There are not ½ million penguins here at the
moment, but they are coming and going all the time. The busy time is in December / January when
the chicks are being incubated or are hatching – Now many of the chicks are
quite big and do not need the adults around them all the time to protect them
from their many predators. The
penguins
land on the beach after their food hunting trips, and some of their nests are
up to a kilometre or more back from the beach – When I asked a ranger why some
of them are so stupid to nest so far back, she said because only the older
wiser penguins are privileged to next near the beach ! In some of my photos you
can see just how far back the rookery extends, but there is little bush cover
out there, which not only means less protection for chicks from predators, but
also less shade. This means that as the weather warms up, the combined distance
from the beach and lack of shade means a fairly high mortality rate for both
chicks and adults – They just can’t make it that far in the heat.
I saw evidence of a lot of dead penguins, but this is a
major research centre and the rangers say this is perfectly normal. I also saw eagles feasting on dead penguins,
and I was fortunate enough (according to the ranger) to actually see a grison –
A kind of weasel / stoat looking animal – The one I saw was jet black, which is
apparently quite common.
I also found out the name of that grouse looking bird I
have been seeing so many of – It is a Martineta. And I was right – They only fly if they have
to, and then only close to the ground and for short distances – Otherwise they
walk ! So I was right when I said they
were “grouse like”. Also saw a
Patagonian hare, or Maras, which is not like a hare at all – More like a big
guinea pig ! And there were also lots of
Patagonian Mocking Birds flitting around in the bushes.
A very pleasant national park, and I left right on 6
pm. Not far up the road I saw a cat
cross the road ahead of me – He wasn’t big enough to be a puma, but was
definitely a cat, so I think he was just one of the larger wild cats they have
had the skins of up in a couple of the National Park offices along the
way. I must try and find out more about
them. The Estancias down here have
fences right up to the edge of the roads, so wild
camping is difficult, and I
had to at least get to Trelew to be able to stop for the night – And that was
about 100 kms north, fortunately up a good tarmac road. So I was there by soon after 7pm, driving
through some very scenic pampa grasslands, but couldn't locate any campgrounds
there, so had to continue on to Puerto Madryn another 40 minutes or so
north. As I head north, it is starting
to get dark earlier, and it was pitch black
by the time I arrived at about 8 pm
and had to make my way through the city.
When it got dark I noticed my dash board lights weren’t working, but the
head lights were on so I was OK, so probably just a blown fuse. When I eventually arrived at the camp site to
the SE of the city, I finally noticed that the head lights were the ONLY lights
that were working ! No rear lights, no
side lights – I must have looked like a local driving through town with half my
lights not working ! Whoops ! But I was too tired to look tonight – A job
for the morning.
As I drove into this big and very organized camp site,
and was trying to reverse into my allocated spot, there was a thump on the back
of my car and a voice shouting – Oh god, I have hit someone / something !! Scared the living daylights out of me. Suddenly Joel, my French road mate (not my
friend after that !) who was in the same camp site and came over when he saw me
drive in ! They had major problems since
I last saw them – or Xavier had in his Land Rover. On the dirt road a rock had flown up underneath
and severed his brake line, leaving him brakeless ! So he has to work on that tomorrow – But I
have to wonder why a brake line is exposed to the possibility of being hit by a
stone……Isn’t a Land Rover supposed to go off road ?? What a major design fault !!
buy fresh empanadas and also fresh bread.
The empanadas were sold from a very pink shop – Actually just a house, Camoen
Casa Rotiseria. When you went inside it
was like going into their living room – except they had a table with price
lists on it, and we ordered a mix of empenadas to go – Caliente, por favor ! 2
minutes later the senora came out with them all wrapped up nicely, and smelling
delicious. Very pleasant little shop.
Then it was down a couple of streets and across to the Panaderia, which
was a little more “shop like, and we limited ourselves just to a baguette each,
although Joel needed more wine – Also for sale in the panaderia !! So we set off well provisioned for wherever
we might end up. 
camping is difficult, and I
had to at least get to Trelew to be able to stop for the night – And that was
about 100 kms north, fortunately up a good tarmac road. So I was there by soon after 7pm, driving
through some very scenic pampa grasslands, but couldn't locate any campgrounds
there, so had to continue on to Puerto Madryn another 40 minutes or so
north. As I head north, it is starting
to get dark earlier, and it was pitch black 
by the time I arrived at about 8 pm
and had to make my way through the city.
When it got dark I noticed my dash board lights weren’t working, but the
head lights were on so I was OK, so probably just a blown fuse. When I eventually arrived at the camp site to
the SE of the city, I finally noticed that the head lights were the ONLY lights
that were working ! No rear lights, no
side lights – I must have looked like a local driving through town with half my
lights not working ! Whoops ! But I was too tired to look tonight – A job
for the morning.
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