On the road FAQs - in no particular order of importance.
What about toilets?
Driving in South America is so much easier than Africa, there are Tarmac roads for a start, although we have been on some dry and dusty unpaved roads, the dust can be a real problem but mostly there are still pretty good roads.
Toilets; most of the service stations boast the best toilets ever, very clean and definitely of a very high standard. The toilets in Peninsula Valdez information centre are spotlessly clean with the added advantage of some wonderful views of the Atlantic Ocean! If you are lucky you might see a Southern Right whale passing the bog.
In real emergencies, there is always the odd bush / tree / abandoned building/ small hill, and you have to choose carefully or be quick. Beware of thorn bushes and creepy crawlies. Sometimes, I use the van to provide some cover, I just get comfortable and the idiot behind the steering wheel always insists on tooting the horn or revving the accelerator. So childish!
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| Your shower awaits, Sandra trying it out. |
What about showers and stuff?
Our portable solar shower is well employed especially when we choose to wild camp in some beautiful isolated spot.
Before setting off in the morning, Noel fills the shower bag with water, it's strapped to the back of the van, and the sun does the job of heating the water. By the end of the day, we have a bag of warm water, suitable for 2 people, but in case I need to wash my hair, Noel needs to add a kettle of warm water to supplement it. We have a shower tent that pops up in seconds, although light and flimsy looking, it does the job, just need to make sure that we don't have a shower in the Patagonian wind......see blog on Buenos Aries. We are not exactly having a difficult time with this. Most of the service stations that we stop at have fantastically clean shower facilities. Just had one of the best hot showers, it only cost 20 pesos, about a £1. In some places it's free.
I do drive a little bit, but someone has to navigate, plan the route and use the SatNav. There is the onboard catering to consider like coffee and biscuits, chewing gum, as well as deciding whether we play La Boheme or Jethro Tull on our new car radio CD player, which we spent a fortune having it installed in Buenos Aires. Noel hates the SatNav, why can't we use the map and compass, he is forever complaining. If I make even the smallest mistake he calls me Vasco, I dont know why.
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| Map reading |
What about money?
We are spending a lot, tried to have a budget of £50 a day, but with some of the extra expenses we had, it hasn't quite worked out that way so far.
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| Cheap meal in local restaurant, just after crossing into Chile, but we got charged 6 Euros for 2 onions! During the border crossing we had to hand over all our fruit veg and meat, hence the onions for the lentil curry. |
Laundry
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| Washing machine |
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| Switching over to spin cycle |
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| His underpants have gone all baggy!! |
We have a water tight container,actually a mango chutney barrel. we fill it with water, detergent and dirty laundry, it is then strapped to the back of the van before we set off. During the drive, especially over rough terrain, the laundry gets thoroughly washed, all we have to do when we arrive at our destination is to rinse it out and hang them out to dry.
Food
Steaks, hamburgers and chorizos ( big fat sausages!) and barbecues.
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| Noodles! |
The pressure cooker (thank you Susan) is very well used for some easy one pot meals. Stew, hot pots, curries, lentils, all served with the odd starch and salads, nourishing and healthy.
We have had some odd combinations though. You don't always have to have rice with chilli con carne, spaghetti works just as well. I did make a tuna and sweet corn pasta, it turned out the tin of sweet corn was actually a tin of sweet corn gruel ( I couldn't read the Spanish, just saw the picture and assumed they were sweet corn kernels). Anyway, it was horrid, though our German friends were very polite and ate most of it.
At every campsite, each pitch has a barbecue pit, just bring your own meat and get started. We have had some fantastic barbecues, steak is cheap enough for us to indulge.
Shopping
Shops are well stocked, there are large 'supermercados' selling everything and anything you need. We bought Noel a reclining chair for his birthday.
How long will you be on the road?
Don't know
What do you miss?
Proper wholemeal bread.
What do you do to get away from each other? Plug in the headphone and you are in another room.
I tend to play spider solitaire whilst listening to a favourite opera whilst Noel spends a lot of time gazing at the goodies on eBay that he is not able to buy. Not true, he did manage to buy a wreck of a car which was used in a famous BBC TV car programme and left Daisy to organise it being delivered.
Activities of daily living on the road
No time to be bored. A typical day starts with simple breakfast, usually instant oats, then we pack up the van and set off. It takes at least an hour to get going, we can do it in less time, but Noel is not really a morning person, by the time he 's had his 4th cup of coffee in bed, we will have used up the hour. We tend not to rush around unless we have a deadline and we try not to have deadlines. Sometimes we plan where we are going but it has been known where we get in the van and realise that we haven't even looked at the map or considered what the next destination would be. It all sounds a bit hit and miss and somewhat chaotic, but it works!
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| Can't see the dust and fumes, but definitely part of the lunch. |
We usually stop for lunch
( sandwiches and a cup of soup) somewhere scenic hopefully, but we have stopped in some not so nice places too, such as the time when we had lunch in the middle of a very busy lorry park with fumes and dust all around us.
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| Rodin in Buenos Aires |
possible.
Murals with some powerful political messages
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| Sight seeing in St Julien |
chile |
| Volcano at Pali Aike National Park, Chile |
Stopping in some lovely places to wild camp works well,
it's usually free to stop at service stations where there are toilets and sometimes showers, we haven't as yet stayed in a hotel.
Making a decision about where to stop in the evening usually happens at around midday, we may have some vague idea as to where the different stopping places are. We have the IOverlander application on our hand held mobile cellular telephone, which has been extremely useful. Sometimes tips and advice from other travellers offering directions and helpful hints about campsites / service stations / nice scenic spots for wild camping, as well as providing information on costs, suitability of the ground and wifi availability.
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| Wild camping on the clifftop, Kinh leading in the chopping up of firewood, but the force 10 gales did not allow for the campfire, instead we all retired to our van to watch a video |
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| This is 6 of us watching a video in the van |
When we stop, providing the weather is good, there are usually several chores to accomplish, checking the van, setting up, includes putting up the awning, chairs and table, making a living area suitable for the rest of the evening.
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| Van getting a huge amount of salty mud jet washed off |
One of us will be checking out toilets/showers/ cooking facilities and the local area for safety. Mosquitoes flies and stray animals eg cats, dogs, the odd armadillo or llama sometimes charming, often a real nuisance. If the weather is wet or, more likely, windy then we tend to sit inside the van and read or play Scrabble.
By the time we've sorted out dinner we might play a game or two of scrabble or watch a movie. Daisy has kindly downloaded lots of films for us which for which we are grateful. If we stop somewhere nice and where there are good facilities like Internet, laundry and showers, we'll take a break from driving and spend 2-3 days resting and catch up on 'The Archers', read a book, chatting and getting to know other travellers or local people. Of course if we have internet then we have the blog to do and emails to reply.
Great life!
Tough life! Enjoy Xx
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