1 December: Woke up to a cold morning and plenty wind. Drove the hour and a bit into Rio Tranquilo where if the wind wasn’t honking you could take a boat trip to some marble caves but with wind honking, big waves on the lake and it being cold that wasn’t even an option. Sat on lakeshore front for a bit catching up on internet time before heading further south along the shores of Lago General Carrera to another wild camp.
2 December: Last night our Brazilian gas bottle ran out so spent the first part of this morning changing pipes, regulators and brackets in order to revert back to our ZA Cadac bottle. Then we took the CH265 along the shores of Lago General Carrera, what a spectacular road, way more so than the famed Ruta 7/Carretera Austral. It winds along the shoreline often along steep sided cliffs until you finally reach the border town of Chile Chico. The wind had been honking all day, fortunately from behind and when we come into town there didn’t seem any point staying given that it was 3pm so we drove the few km’s to the border. The border crossing went smoothly until the final check at the boom where a very paradt gendarme inspected Mr J and decided we couldn’t bring into Argentina, some pickles, pickled peppers and our muesli. Overall not such an issue except he went off to complete a deceleration that these items couldn’t enter together with all the bureaucratic details behind that which took him close to 45minutes to complete.
3 December: We decided to take a much needed rest day, we have been moving constantly since entering Chile over relatively rough roads, ultimately we prefer to have driving days interspersed with multiple rest days.
4 December: iOverlander had a symbol and check-in that told us Ruta 41 which hugs the Chilean border was meant to be spectacular but we had no idea how much. Only negative was it was super windy and dusty so perhaps didn’t stop as often as we should have for pictures but perhaps that was a good thing as we may have ended up taking 3 days for 150km.
5 December: After such a great day yesterday, today was just painful and monotonous. For 200+km we just had strong winds, boring straight tar roads and a landscape where the highest plant was perhaps calf high – our first taste of the Patagonia steppe. Feeling very shattered at the end.
6 December: Another long day of not much and lots of wind, interestingly Tania was way more tired than Stuart today whereas yesterday was the reverse. Chilled evening spent in a free parking area opposite park ranger info centre outside El Chalten and base of Fitzroy
8 December: It’s been a chilled few days, literally and figuratively, as we ride out some bad weather. What’s been cool is the parking/camping area which has had a number of overlanders together with international travelers in rental vans but with the mindset of overlanders.
9 December: Bit off a bit more than could chew today by doing the hike to Fitzroy, really struggled on the way back with ITB and then still stood through the first half of the Argentina World Cup soccer game.
12 December: we have been in town 2 days already and not done too much. Dropped laundry off on Saturday afternoon and had to wait until today to collect, today spent a good few hours standing in line to collect western union blue dollars (the price you pay for cheap money) – have decided to try another transfer tomorrow and to hang around for the World Cup soccer semi-final with Argentina & Croatia. Hopefully Argentina win and then we expect a super festive atmosphere.
13 December: An awesome day – we had decided to hang around one extra day in El Calafate in order to do an extra Western Union transfer – we suspected the lotteria would close early for the World Cup semi-final featuring Argentina and so arrived 30 minutes before kickoff. It turned out to be perfect timing and we were in and out within 20 minutes unlike yesterday’s 4+ hour wait. And then we found a bar to watch the game which thankfully Argentina beat Croatia so was super festive and followed it up with a lekker burger and long chat with an American couple which was super interesting as he was first generation Cuban refugee and we heard and could partly understand the pressure and impact of being a first generation “born free”.
14 December: After the cool atmosphere yesterday we decided to delay heading south and into Chile near Torres del Paine and rather hang around for the final which is on Sunday so headed out to a free camping site in a national park near the glacier. The views are great, if a little windy but we have found spots to tuck away while sitting outside and avoid most off the wind. Was super hot today as well so actually sat in t-shirt and shorts for a while, until the wind picked up.
17 December: Back in El Calafate for tomorrows WC final. Been a very chilled day with short 50km drive into town, then chilled by Mr J this afternoon while also doing a few jobs such as crawling around under him to inspect for any issues, washing and cleaning counters inside etc. The normal “household” admin.
18 December: Argentina win the World Cup Soccer final. A great final game were Argentina gave up a 2nil lead after 60minutes, then went ahead in extra time before France levelled again. Finally won on penalties. The vibe was so good the whole time and the whole town off El Calafate was out in the streets afterwards. For us it felt a lot like when South Africa won the rugby word cup in 1995, so so important for a country in which its people are struggling (hyper-inflation at 100% per annum)
19 December: A very boring day driving across the Patagonian steppe with the always present wind as we headed south and into Chile. Crossed the border at a small post it’s below Torres Del Paine National park, super easy although once again we had to sacrifice some food to their controls which are inconsistent – this time eggs and honey. The evening’s wild camp spot above two lakes was however divine.
20 December: after taking a short detour to see if we got better views of Torres del Paine we headed south and into Puerto Natales hoping to find a tailor/seamstress to fix Stuart’s technical hiking pants (zips all falling off after laundromat) and spent rest of day chilling in a campsite as can only collect the pants tomorrow. As we have loads of data still left on our Chile SIM from earlier in the month, used to watch Gerry Lopez the Yin & Yang movie by Patagonia – was very good.
21 December: The seamstress is such a sweet little old lady and did a great job on the pants, except missed one zip which Stuart didn’t notice either so will require another fix somewhere down the line. Drove about 100km out of town in order to knock some mileage off for the trek westwards to Ushuaia – we still have over 700km to go and hope to be there before the 24th.
22 December: a very long day today, as we continued eastwards and then across onto Tierra del Fuego, which was very boring driving from a viewpoint perspective and hard driving because the wind honked the whole time. Thankfully border crossings went quick and ferry crossing as well. Ended the day in a YPF gas station, tucked away from the wind, which all seemed good until Tania tried to have a shower and there was no water – not a good end to the day!
23 December: A very hard last 150km to the end of the world thanks to strong head and side winds. AND then what a disappointment Ushuaia was! We stopped at the big Ushuaia sign at the beginning of town for the obligatory pictures and then drove into town which for the first few kilometres is just a scruffy and grimy industial zone, then downtown was just busy and not allot hat attractive. A typical tick box destination where everyone seems to make it out to be be a bigger deal than it really is.
24 December: Had a very nice evening last night with Genevieve & Andreas at their AirBnB and again this morning a nice walk around town after they picked us up at the campsite. She isSouth African and he is Swiss but too show how small the world can be – they both lived for years in Northern Mozambique and so knew Arthur & Winnie really well.
25 December: Super chilled day and a great Christmas. Lots of video calls to spread the cheer apart from with the one set who clearly can’t manage time zones! Then a great lunch and finally sundowners with fellow travellers.
26 December: Time to flee the southern most city, we have decided having “ticked the box” we are in desperate need of some beaches and warmer weather. Not sure how easy that will be to achieve as Argentina is not exactly known for beach life but are going to head north and hope we find something in the region of Mar del Plata (only 3000km away…).
27 December: Another very long day, first we had about an hour wait for the 30min ferrry crossing. To get off Tierra Del Fuego and then when we reach the border crossing for Chile/Argentina it was chaos. Both borders took around 4 hours and most of that was spent standing in a que while a very cold wind howled and every now and then we even got hit with frozen rain droplets. Added to all that the driving wa along, boring and Mr J sometimes ran hotter than we thought he should. Ended in a very crowded gas station parking lot with a crappy burger from the shop for supper.
30 December: Feeling pretty exhausted, frustrated and stressed. All we have done since turning our tails north is battle strong winds across very boring flat “pampas” and then added to that Mr J has been running hot and struggling. Yesterday we changed the tensioner pulley wheel on the auxiliary drive belt as that seemed to be packing up and when that didn’t seem to help, today we changed the thermostat while parked up over lunchtime. He does now seem to be running smoothly.
31 December: Another long day of battling the winds but at least Mr J seems to be running cooler although now we seem to have a whine coming from the pulley wheels/fan belt area – hoping it’s not the water pump which we have a replacement for but that would be a bit of a mission to do on the side of the road. Distances are just huge here, since Boxing Day we have done 1500km, crossed borders twice and had long waits for ferries. Once again we are overnighting in a gas station, so no New Years celebrations for us.