28th January 2017............. Happy Chinese New Year!
The long
drive North begins
It is now
quite a while since I have written a new post.
By the way
we still believe that a lot of emails are getting somehow lost, so if you feel
that you are being ignored or are due a response from us, it may be that the
message has not arrived, please let us know or keep trying. We try hard to
reply to every email.
Before I jot
down some of the main events and important people of the past couple of weeks,
I thought I would give some impressions of how our hopes and expectations have
panned out since we started.
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| Wagon train! This was a chance meeting we all arrived from different directions |
Right from
the start I was worried that we might be part of a wagon train of other
travellers, mainly German, Swiss and a few French, moving from one well
documented tourist site to another. This has, to a large extent been true.
However, there are a couple of provisos here. One is that far from any
prejudices I may have had, I find that we have made some lovely and strong
friendships with a number of people who are doing the same as us. I realised that in many ways we are so
fortunate to have their company. Of course, the other question is ……. “are we
following them or are they following us?” It may be true to say that my fears
have been fulfilled to a degree, but they also have given us a lot of
satisfaction and enjoyment.
A peculiar feature of this part of the journey is the number of times we have to cross from Chile to Argentina in order to travel through Patagonia. Each time we cross we go through the ritual of having the van searched for meat and vegetables which may not be imported to either country.
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| Nice police officer at the customs. |
Most of our
places to visit have been very predictable touristic destinations while many
are awesome in the truest sense of the word. There is also a sense for me that
they are sort of compulsory. It is also true that with many of these places
they themselves have become quite spoiled by tourism. It is mostly a somewhat
different kind of tourism.
Exploitation
of tourism is a feature In Argentina the main theme of this is that everything
becomes very expensive as everyone is making a buck from tourism. In the
Chilean centres, however we experienced what is unmistakeably, ’We don’t mind
taking their money but we really do not like them’. We found several examples
of blatant bad behaviour that was quite unpleasant. An example was when a group
we were part of were unceremoniously turfed out of a campsite, no reason was
given though it may have simply been that we had gone past the checkout time.
They were pretty unpleasant about it.
Another
example is when we went to get an oil change and a very small job done on the
van. Despite the fact that we had been introduced to the garage and had an appointment time, and we arrived
on time, it became quite clear that the mechanics really didn’t want to do the
job. They kept us waiting and waiting and very openly complaining. The manager
of the garage was no help at all and it all became very unpleasant. In the end,
they took 3 hours over a job that should have taken about 45 minutes to an hour
and they were openly hostile about it.
There was no apparent reason for their behaviour.
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| Rene, who was so helpful and kind |
All of this
is such a shame as we had been introduced to them by Rene the brake specialist
who had repaired our brakes, he had been
interested in our journey and gave us loads of advice on places not to be
missed along the way and then refused any payment. He was good natured and very
friendly.
From this
point in our journey we have been led to expect that the gaps in the wagon
train will start to get wider and there is less of the predetermined mental
intinery. In other words we will be much more on our own, not necessarily
bouncing just from one national Park to another. Much more making it up as we
go along.
Peurto
Natales and Torres Del Paine
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| Puerto Natales, beautiful mountains in the background |
Puerto
Natales would be a somewhat down at heel town of no great size, but for the
tourist trade. People, mostly quite young, flock in to this town as it serves
the nearby National Park of Torres Del Paine which is an incredibly beautiful
mountainous area dominated by Glaciers and some very significant
mountains. They come brimming with
enthusiasm and expectation of some very adventurous and testing trekking. The
town is crowded with brand-new top of the range mountain trekking gear,
gleaming rucksacks with all kinds of bits and pieces dangling from them. Some
of these expectant people will be disappointed at two levels. One that because
it is so busy there is a strict booking system, for all but the most minor
walks you would have to have booked weeks ahead, the other is that there are so
many that it can become quite busy and
congested.
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| In the far distance The Grey glacier (which is surprising as it is bright blue!) |
I heard Ping say gracias! Assuming that she was just overwhelmed with appreciation for me taking her to such a wonderous place, I modestly said’you are welcome’ Her reply took me aback rather. She said no gracias you sirry irriot ! Glaciers!!!! And there for our wonder and amazement was a beautiful bright blue glacier flowing down to the lake.
This is known as Grey lake named after some bloke called Grey I guess
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| Nearly 5 miles away a frozen River. Amazing! |
We walked on
up to a distant viewing point where could watch as bits of blue ice tumble into
the water of the lake. It was pretty impressive but made more so as we learned
later that it was some 5 miles away. Afterwards many people told us that this
was the best view in the park. Importantly it was one of the few experiences
where you dindt have to pay out large amounts of money.We had a lovely
morning made richer for meeting a very
interesting couple who had come Missouri. for a short adventure holiday.
We toured
around the park I guess that Ping was quite frustrated that the only treks
available were either very short or too adventurous for us. She does like a
nice walk in the country!
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| Artist at work |
After our
second day there we entered a particularly challenging winding mountain road.
The van started overheating and I got quite worried so we stopped at a Ranger
Station to let it cool down while we waited Ping made the surprise announcement
that we had run out of gas. As the engine had cooled down I suggested that we
leave the park and make our way to a town about 40km away. That is when I found
that the engine was very reluctant to start.
It seems
that our unwilling mechanics from Puerto Natales had failed to bleed the air
from the fuel system after replacing the pipe and that is why it was
increasingly difficult to start.
So we felt
pretty vulnerable with an overheating
van that did not really run very well and we could not even stay put as we had
no gas to cook on. As it turned out, no harm was done by the overheating and we
could start the van albeit reluctantly. So off we set.
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| Lovely members of the 'Wagon train' |
We arrived in the town
where within minutes we were joined by other members of the wagon train who
just happened to come there , each from a different direction. It was the most
extraordinary coincidence. In the end we stayed together for a couple of
days, while the Swiss gave us some of
their gas, the Germans, thanks to Bruno, offered invaluable technical help and
the French were very encouraging! It was a really nice couple of days.
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| Sheep |
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| Shepherd |
After
this we went back to Argentina for a spell. Just before we crossed the border
we picked up a particularly desperate looking pair of hitchhikers who virtually
prostrated themselves before us on the road. They turned out to be English ‘Who
would have thought it!’ Johnny and his recently made ‘good friend’ Ellie who
having discovered that they needed to book everything in advance, were leaving
the park to see where else they could have some adventures.
They were
very good company and we really hope we will hear from them again sometime. The
wind on this leg of the journey was unbelievable wherever we went it was
impossible to stand without holding on to something. At some points the van
faced a headwind and would do no more than 25 mph it was hard work and the wind
just drains your energy. We went to El Calafate which again was just full of
aspiring mountaineers. If any of them forgot to pack their anorak, no problem
you can buy a new top of the range North face one for double or triple the
price.
We had a
much overdue major cleaning and repair session in a campsite run by a
delightful lady for whom nothing was a problem. It felt good to have the van
clean and no jobs nagging to be done. Once again some of our old chums turned
up and we had a nice meeting again.
Arriving at the great Mount Fitzroy (named after the skipper of HMS Beagle)
We went on
to a town of El Chaiten, the famous Mount Fitzroy towers over this town and
again the young adventurers flock here in their brand new anoraks to meet the
challenges of this mountain. Sadly, yet again this town has only one industry
and that is to relieve these people of their money as effectively as possible.
Every bit of ground available is occupied by tents. It is a good illustration
of the grab the cash attitude that the campsite we ended up in covered every
bit of grass with tents but they could not even be bothered to clear the horse
manure that had been left after winter grazing. Most unpleasant, but if you
don’t like it then you can go elsewhere!
We got out
the next day!
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| Self contained petrol station |
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| Thomas and Anis |
We do not habitually pick up hitchhikers,
there are so many of them at every point between these tourist towns. On this
occasion, we did take pity on a French couple Anise and Thomas who turned out
to be great company and were very respectful of the need not to take advantage;
they ended up staying with us for three days camping alongside the van.
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| Not everyone is allowed to drive my van! |
Along the
way, we visited a place called the Cave of Hands, in an area of quite startling
beauty with a deep, deep valley and canyon up to high mountains. It was very
remote and was the most amazing drive along unmade roads up the steepest
inclines that we had encountered and then Whoa!!! Down the other side it was
great experience and the van performed magnificently.
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| On the hill above the Cave of Hands such beautiful surroundings! |
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| Our guide at the Cave of Hands |
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| 8000 years ago this is how people left their mark |
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| Not sure what to make of this one |
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Anise and
Thomas did it the hard way, this involved a 3 hour track down the gorge and
wading across the river on the floor of the canyon to get to the caves. When we
met up with them 3 hrs later, they were exhausted. It was far too adventurous
for us.
On the walls
of the caves, there was a large collection of primitive paintings where
impressions of hands are all over but also a lot of depictions of animals and
scenes. We gathered that the caves were a mixture of a communications point as
well as a kind of training room for the various hunters and other who lived
there for around 8000 years up to about 1000 ago.
We then went
off to the town of Perito Merrino where we parted company with French
Chums we stayed at a petrol station
where we enjoyed all the comforts
including the luxury of red hot WiFi at last we were able to catch up with
correspondence, post the blog and talk on the phone with Simeon and Daisy.
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| Uninvited visitor |
We had a cat
get into the van. Ping made noises at
which I believe were meant to be scary but they had no impact on the cat. He
didn’t want to go. So I picked him up by the scruff of the neck and tossed him
out .
Back he
came! I physically chucked him out 3 times and each time he found his way back
in. He was a very nice cat but he had to go.
There was a
downside though. There was a huge generator next door that operated all night.
The noise was horrible and unrelenting.
The town was
a bit odd with very few shops. Banks with no power to the cash machines and
when we asked for advice and directions people did not seem to know much.
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Ok its cooked wheres that customs man? |
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| Bacon sandwiches |
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| Lunch in the customs shed for everyone |
Next instalment..........driving the Carretera Austral
