1 January: Made a great decision today to take a diversion off Ruta 3 and come down to the coast to see a Penguin colony. The scenery improved almost immediately as we moved away from Ruta 3, the penguins were fairly arbitrary but the coastline reminds us a lot of the west coast and we found a nice little free camp spot above a bay to spend the afternoon just relaxing.
2 January: Last night’s sleep was super disturbed after the wind changed direction around 1am and just buffered the hell out of Mr J so super tired today. On the positive side we accidentally took a very minor dirt road, after intending to follow the coastline, back to Ruta 3 which was quite scenic and nice and smooth and then at least we had a tailwind once on the tar. From Trelew (which supposedly has a huge Welsh heritage but in fact just looked rather large and ugly) we drove out to Gaiman as it has a “welsh stone circle” and good creamy welsh teas – the circle was a total disappointment and everything in town was shut. At least the fire station run camping spot was peaceful and appears to be wind protected.
4 January: The long days of boring pampas and winds are starting to get a bit much, at least today we reached the start of what appears to be warmer weather – have even put away the winter duvet and blankets
6 January: Another long day of winds and now excessive heat (seeing upwards of 35deg C inside Mr J), scenery has changed from the boring pampas to big open fields of farming, mostly maize and sunflowers. Thankfully Mr J is running well even when we have fairly strong cross-winds which just goes to show how strong the winds down south were. Crazy to think we have done 2700km since Christmas Day, pretty much the amount we would like to do in a month. We are close to the supposed surf areas so hoping tomorrow will place us on or near a beach somewhere, just not sure about the wind…
7 January: Drove down to an area which spoke of some surfing and some wild camping on iOverlander to find it packed with Argentinians enjoying summer. The wind was blowing a bit so not real great but still okay. There were some waves so attempted a surf in the afternoon – it was frikking cold and lots of seaweed which collected around leash acting like an anchor!
8 January: an even more windy day than yesterday – was downright unpleasant, mostly couldn’t have the shower/toilet cubicle up and we were constantly sandblasted. Mr J, inside and out plus ourselves are covered in dust.
9 January: Short day into Necochea, dropped of laundry and after much searching found a place to wash Mr J, sometimes the simplest of tasks can be a real mission. In an official campsite which is massive (over 300 sites) and packed to capacity for the summer holidays, the wind is still helping so we not seeing the attraction of the beach but at least camp is protected. Fair degree of frustration this afternoon as despite being close to town there is no signal at camp so ended up walking a kilometre or more back towards town just to get a weak cell signal to download some books onto the kindle.
10 January: a day of admin, packed up and went back into town to amongst other things: phone Denise for her birthday, collect laundry, get Mr J washed and do some shopping. The shopping was a pain as we first stopped at a typical “attacado” and found most of what we wanted but when it came time to paying you need a client card so abandoned that trolley and went to another shop to start the process all over again.
11 January: A great day! The wind had died and Stuart got in a nice little surf in the morning and then we went over to the fellow South Africans to share information on our travels, etc. We arrived at 12:00 and only got home after 22:00, needless to say much beer and wine was drunk and we had a great time.
12 January: Wind was still relatively calm today and as we were feeling a little fragile decided to extend our stay by one day. Spent the morning on the beach and again got a fun little surf in – the water is still frikken cold!
13 January: The plan was to head to a free wild camp spot along the coast and maybe do a 4×4 track that runs through the dunes for 50km or so but Mr J started to run very hot as we headed off the main road, so after letting him cool we back tracked and eventually stopped at a police control checkpoint, unfortunately no cell signal which means it is impossible to ask for advice. Suspected the water pump as we had recently replaced the thermostat with a new one so drained coolant, removed fan, pulley wheels, etc in order to access water pump only to discover one particularly stubborn bolt on the pump casing. As the it was 20:30 and the sun setting, decided to leave it for tomorrow. Over a glass of wine decided to test the thermostat first before potentially stripping a bolt in the efforts to remove the water pump. It is FRIDAY THE 13th!!
14 January: Slept surprisingly well and this morning removed the thermostat and put it in boiling water: it didn’t open so think have found the fault. As we don’t have a 3rd spare, reassembled everything and drove into Miramar with no thermostat and only water in the engine. Mr J ran very cool for the 50km or so. In town managed to find coolant and order a thermostat, despite it being 13:00 on a Saturday and in theory siesta time…. The campsite is huge and busy but nice and across the road from some nice beaches. Feeling much better this evening
17 January: A much better day today, weather wasn’t great so we took the opportunity to run errands, shop etc. Even found a surfboard repairer and will hopefully have a fixed board (minus the cool artwork by the weekend for a relatively cheap price.
25 January: It’s been great to be just stationary and get some rest, beach time and surfs in. Hard to believe we have only been here 10 days and it feels like ages, just shows how much continuous moving we have done the last few months.
30 January: Had quite possibly my best surf this morning of the whole of South America – waves were biggish but not too powerful, water super glassy and just fun. Looking forward to moving today though, time to check out somewhere new after 16 days in Miramar. Not that we plan on going far, just 15 km up the road to what sounds like a cool spot
31 January: Followed yesterday’s awesome surf up with an even better one today. Chapadmalal has a couple of small beaches tucked between large cliffs, the break in front our campsite faces a cliff separating too of these beaches so is initially quite intimidating but the confidence has grown and the wave was a fairly slow breaking one which made take-offs easier despite it being quite big. Even doing some turns and stuff!