Day 42 - Trelew to Puerto Madryn

Only 2 weeks to go!

Before we set off for Puerto Madryn, another place with a Welsh heritage, we visited Trelew Dinosaur Museum. The present building is 2 years old with well-designed exhibition rooms.

 
There are many bones and fossils and some complete dinosaurs. We had a very informative guide who spoke good English.
  
We then drove about 50 kms to Puerto Madryn and the Hotel Tolosa.

Tim was not happy with the standard of the rooms and we enquired at other hotels but we could not book 2 consecutive nights anywhere else as the Rally was coming in for the 2nd night. We were forced to go back to the Tolosa where Tim made a fuss! This resulted in a very good room for us - spacious and simple, but acceptable - and a smaller one with a seaview for Colin. The Tolosa is actually not bad, but some or even most of the rooms are small and not great.

We drove 20 kms out to the beach to see Southern Right whales. There were quite a few but quite far out to sea and occasionally you could see the tail flukes rising out of the water.

Parked up and looking out for whales.

The Robinsons turned up from Comodoro Rivadavia and told us that a whale-watching "hut" here had been paid for by Princess Diana.

Other people from the Rally have also arrived early, including the Doreys who have clutch trouble this time. We had a good meal with Colin and Paul at Placido next to the beach. More whales tomorrow, we hope.

Distance driven 90 miles.

Day 41 - Comadoro Rivadavia to Trelew

We are still in Patagonia and heading for the penguin colony. We left at 10.30 with Colin driving, but he felt tired. Tim had a bad back, so I drove. We went off the main road to Punta Tombo, where the penguins are, but it was a gravel road and I have become quite nervous of gravel after all the accidents, so, after a while, Tim took over the wheel for the last few kilometres. We arrived at the Reserve, paid $7 each, then saw penguins walking all over the road!

We had to drive very carefully. It was a wonderful sight and we were very close to them. We parked near the beach and were absolutely thrilled to see Magellanic penguins everywhere. There are about half a million. It was a dream come true - penguins swimming, walking about, sitting on nests, and so on. We saw the eggs and also babies that had just hatched. Another real highlight of the Rally. It was great to see them walking on their paths down to or away from the sea. They looked very comical waddling along, then they dived into the water where they appeared much more at home. We did try to keep our distance and not stress them, but some of them walked right up to us, as if curious to see what we were like. Here is Tim contravening the rules!!

Down at the beach.

We took masses of photos, then, reluctantly, we had to leave and drive on to Trelew (another gravel road).

Following Paul on the gravel road from the penguin reserve.

On the way we saw guanacos, rhea with babies, "gopher-type"rodents and possibly an armadillo.

We were staying at the Hotel Rayentray - OK, but fairly basic - and Joanna Brown and Co.were there too.

Colin did not feel well, so Tim and I ate in the hotel. There were white tablecloths and chair "aprons" and the food was pretty good too. Paul and Charlie joined us for coffee.

 

Distance driven today 301 miles. We are now 1,175 miles from Ushuaia.

Day 40 - Rio Gallegos to Comadoro Rivadavia

We left at 8.30, but had to turn back after 15 minutes as the Marklands were still having problems with their car.

We all sat around for ages at a garage and then finally left at 11.30. We hoped the Buick would be OK after having one piston and a con rod removed, so it was now running on 5 cylinders. It was a long drive and we bought some bread and sandwiches in a garage to sustain us. We swapped passengers, having Charlie with us and then Paul. The landscape became slightly more interesting and we saw flamingoes. We also looked out for seals, but did not see any.

Before our final destination, we drove into Caleta Olivia, where there is a massive 13 metre high statue of an oil worker, known as El Gorosito. He is reputed to be looking towards the North, where all the profits from his labour end up.

We checked into our hotel, the Austral in Comodoro Rivadavia, and immediately saw the Robinsons in the bar!

We changed and had dinner in the hotel with Colin, Carolynn and Peter and exchanged stories. They are staying tomorrow night in order to rejoin the Rally. We are leaving tomorrow at about 10am to go to Trelew and hopefully to see penguins on the way!

Distance driven today 499 miles.

Day 39 - Ushuaia to Rio Gallegos

 We made the decision to skip Rio Grande and head for the next town on the route, Rio Gallegos, north of the Magellan Straits in Patagonia.

We left at 6am. We crossed the border into Chile at San Sebastian. The gravel became quite bad and the lorries were travelling very fast throwing up lots of stones and dust. Our windscreen was hit by a big stone from a lorry, making a small hole although not all the way through. Then, we were hit again by the second of two fast trucks coming towards us and this time it resulted in three or four large circular cracks at the top of the windscreen.

As we approached the ferry to cross the Magellan Straits Colin Heathcote overtook us, in a cloud of dust and stones! We caught up with him and Paul Markland at the ferry.

We saw only one dolphin on the ferry back across the Straits of Magellan. We stopped for lunch on the North side and continued on to our destination, by now fed up with gravel - good, fast or otherwise. Paul and Charles were having problems with their car. We stayed at the Aparthotel Costa Rio which was quite good.

 
We had a roomy apartment with a kitchen. I watched "Viva Maria" in French with Spanish sub-titles while Tim went to have the car cleaned. We had supper downstairs in the bar - perfectly adequate. On to Comodoro Rivadavia tomorrow.

Distance - 375 miles

Day 38 - Ushuaia - Rest Day

We went down into the town to look around as others from our group started arriving. We took photos of each other at the Ushuaia Fin del Mundo sign and saw the Pelly-Frys there.

 
Nobody is sure whether the Robinsons are continuing on the Rally. We last saw them at Temuco and they have been travelling independently part of the time. Wilhelm and Barbara (from Germany) have rolled their Land Cruiser on the way to Ushuaia, but thankfully are unhurt. They might continue if the car can be fixed! When we saw the car in the hotel garage, we could not believe how they could survive unscathed as the roof was crushed down to the bottom of the windows.

Tim had a meeting with William Brown to sort out the hotels going north. We had decided to continue with our 'one day ahead' of the rally. HERO had arranged with all the hotels to Buenos Aires for us to book in a day early. We were all very pleased with the arrangement. No more fighting for rooms!!

Later, Tim and I went for a walk up the mountain road behind the hotel. We saw a mountain stream, a chairlift and several buildings including a tearoom. There is skiing here in the winter season. It became very warm in the sun as we walked back downhill. We went back into the town to Tia's Supermarket with Colin and Chris Cooper for supplies for the next leg of the rally. It became very cold and windy with a shower of sleet and snow. We went back to Kaupe restaurant for dinner at 8.30 with, we thought, a group of 20 people, but it turned out to be about 30! Once again, it was good, but, not surprisingly, slower than last night. I had sea bass with sage and cream. It was Queen Noor's birthday.

Sunset over Ushuaia.

Tomorrow is the start of the long drive north with the Inca Trail finishing in Rio on November 29th.

Day 37 - Rio Grande to Ushuaia

To El Glaciar Hotel, Ushuaia.

As we left Rio Grande, the landscape gradually became more interesting, more hilly and wooded. We passed Lake Fagnano which is vast - about 110 kilometers in length. A lot of the road was gravel and, after a mountain pass, we came into Ushuaia. The El Glaciar Hotel hotel is on the hillside above the other HERO hotel, Las Hayas.

Our hotel, El Glaciar, above Ushuaia, overlooking the Beagle Channel.

Looking down onto the Beagle Channel.

El Glaciar is OK, but not as good as we expected. We had a sandwich in Las Hayas, then went down to the town with Colin and Paul to buy provisions. Ushuaia is the southernmost town in the world and we had a look around the waterfront before going back to Las Hayas for a Pisco sour.

Tiffy, Malcolm and David Tremain arrived at our hotel, then 9 of us went out to dinner at a restaurant recommended to us - Kaupe, meaning "at home". It is a family-run restaurant (the wife was an English teacher in Buenos Aires) overlooking the Beagle Channel, and the food was very good indeed. So good, in fact, that we booked a table for tomorrow night as well!

We drove a total of 163 miles and since the start in Rio we have driven 8,397 miles!!

Day 36 - Puerto Natales to Rio Grande

To Rio Grande (Argentina) via a ferry to Tierra del Fuego.

We were sorry to leave Chile. We crossed the border back into Argentina and shortly after we reached the Straits of Magellan. We drove along the northern shore and saw these two ships stranded on the beach. You can just see the yellow Buick of the Marklands ahead of us on the road.

We drove to San Sebastian and were very windswept as we waited for the ferry. Behind us in the queue came Joanna Brown, William and other HERO support people, including 2 from Uruguay. We went inside for a coffee and Tim had a discussion with Joanna about the accommodation problems.

The ferry took half an hour and we saw black and white dolphins (tortinos). Looking back to the landing jetty on the north shore from the car ferry.

Refuelling after arriving on Tierra del Fuego, with the Straits of Magellan in the background.

The wind was stronger as we arrived in Rio Grande, a godforsaken place. Luckily, we had a very acceptable hotel, the Posada de las Sauces, and we checked in and then walked to the Malvinas War Memorial with Yvonne. It was very cold and bleak and we were saddened to see that the memorial was not well-kept. We were told later by the hotel receptionist, who spoke excellent English, that the majority of the victims of the Falklands War, including the General Belgrano sinking, were poor conscripts from northern Argentina around Jujuy.

We saw the Robinsons' hotel for tomorrow and it did not look good! We had an excellent dinner back at the hotel and Paul gave us stone penguins to remind us of our time together.

Total driving distance - 344 miles.

Day 35 - Lago Grey to Puerto Natales

Simon and Gae have headed off to Santiago via Punta Arenas. Simon has promised us a copy of "Polar Bear", a children's book he has published, for Joel.

We were up early for the boat trip on Grey II to Lago Grey and the glacier. With us were Colin, Paul and David Moffatt, plus Claudio, a very pleasant guide from the hotel. We transferred from a dinghy to a larger boat which was covered and had comfortable seating and set off at 9am. It was quite windy and cold and the lake was about 2 degrees Celsius and very deep, but it was not as choppy as we expected.

On the boat heading up to the glacier.

Once again, there was wonderful scenery with blue icebergs and constantly changing mountains. Then, after about an hour, we saw the glacier close up.

 
It is 26/27 kms long by 6 kms wide and is fantastic. The others all saw a condor very close by, but I missed it, being in another part of the boat! We very slowly went right up to the glacier and the crew went and chipped off some ice for our drinks. We had Pisco sours with approx. 10,000 year old ice! We touched a large piece of the ice which was extremely clear and smooth. The ice in our drinks lasted for ages and did not seem to melt at all. Close up, the glacier was incredible - tall and of varying shades of blue - and looking like fantastic sculptures.

We got cold on deck on the way back looking for the condor (in vain), but saw some up high later on. A great trip - $60 well spent.

The glacier is retreating very quickly and in the past 100 years it has retreated by over three kilometres. The bare rock walls on each side of the glacier and along the lake shores are evidence of the retreat taking place.

On the way out of the park, we visited the Explora Hotel for coffee. It is an interesting elegant place, but we liked the Hotel Lago Grey better.

On the way out of the park, near the Explora Hotel, with the magnificent mountains of the Torres Del Paine as a backdrop.

We then met the others for lunch at another hotel across a footbridge. We headed back to the Costa Australis in Puerto Natales, bumping into Tessa on the way. She was arguing with a taxi-driver who had been sent to pick her up, but she wanted to do her own thing and go on the bus! We stopped to buy stamps and souvenirs at a gift shop near the Argentine border.

Our hotel in Puerto Natales, the Costa Australis.

We had dinner at the hotel with Colin, the Marklands and the Moffatts - King Crabs (centolla).

Total driving distance - 105 miles

Day 34 - Chilean Fjords to Puerto Natales to Lago Grey

We docked at Puerto Natales at about 8.30 in the morning.

It took awhile to unload the ship and, when we went down to the car deck, it was impossible to walk to our cars as the vehicles were all packed in so tightly. We crawled underneath the trailers of huge lorries to reach our cars, something I found very disturbing and unpleasant. We went into the Hotel Cost Australis, where we are going to stay tomorrow night, and had a coffee. After that, we drove for 3 hours to Torres del Paine through stunning scenery.

We saw condors and black- necked swans. We passed the Explora Hotel, which we will visit tomorrow on our way out of the park. The lakes are a dazzling turquoise-blue. We arrived at the Hostaria Lago Grey in time for a late lunch with Colin and the Gauls.

We had good food and wine, also pisco sours. Later, I went for a walk with Tim to try to see the lake, but it was not possible. We did see large blue icebergs, a beach area and clear cold water which came from the lake.

We crossed over a river on a rickety bridge.

 
Back at the hotel, we saw huemul, which are like deer and are the Chilean national emblem.

We discovered we had a view of the glacier from our window!

All 9 of us - we 3, the Moffatts, the Marklands and the Gauls - had dinner together, which was good fun. It was a buffet, but pretty good. We were shown a slideshow by the Park Ranger and I was able to show off my linguistic knowledge - that calafate is berberis! We said goodbye to Simon and Gae who are heading back to Santiago. We hope to go on a boat trip to the glacier in the morning.

Distance 104 miles

Day 33 - Chilean Fjords

Couldn't sleep last night. It became quite rough and the worst thing was the banging and crashing from down below. Tim said it was ballast and water, but it turned out, as we discovered this morning, to be a loose anchor. I was quite scared and Tim came into my bunk, which was a bit of a squash. I felt better when I could see waves and the open ocean out of the porthole. We were thrown about quite a bit and had to hold on, but tiredness finally overcame me. Neither of us felt sick at all, a combination of Stugeron, which Tiffy gave us, and acupressure bands. I didn't sleep until about 4am when Tim went back up to the top bunk and I then slept fitfully till 7am, skipped breakfast and stayed in bed till 10am. It was calmer then and we went back into the channels.

The Pacific had been far rougher than the legendary Golfo de Penas, but the others had hardly noticed the rough seas. I think it is because we were in the foremost cabin of all and it was less noticeable the farther back you were. Anyway, we survived it. There was rain in the morning and it was pretty cold. We sat in the bar with Paul and the others planning the rest of the trip.

We bought Navimag t-shirts and went up on deck for a while. We could see Puerto Eden on Wellington Island - with a few houses where there are still 8 Indians living, but we didn't stop. It was warm in the sun, then suddenly very cold again. There were lovely snow-capped mountains.

After lunch, we went through Angostura Inglesa, then we read and dozed until a penguin alert. We couldn't see them and I had jumped out of bed specially! We did see lots of small icebergs. The boat has been great and I don't really want it to end, as long as there are no more rough seas. The service has improved since Jorge, the service manager, came on board, and has listened to our concerns and made sure we have everything we need. Luiz, our waiter, is a little slow, but we keep tipping him to oil his wheels. Also, Claudia, our bilingual guide, is very nice and informative. We had our last dinner on board - salmon, then I went up to watch a slide show on Torres del Paine. Tim came to join me playing bingo! (Didn't win). I am ready to go to sleep, hoping for a better night.