1 November: A mind blowing day of changing views: first up the canyon Atuel past the various hydro-electric stations and with its incredibly different and varied geological formations, then across the flat plains towards El Sosneado and finally up the valley to the abandoned “ex-nazi” hotel. Sadly, the wind was honking on arrival which made it difficult to enjoy the late evening but we had did enjoy sundowners hidden behind the stonewalls.
5 November: It’s been a great few days of downtime and opportunity to catchup on the long list of “to do’s” that accumulate while moving.
7 November: A fantastic day yesterday as we cruised a dirt section of Ruta 40 south of Malargue and then wild camped behind a lava outcrop. The scenery was fantastic and the seclusion of the wild camp saw us taking many many photos. Today not as many photos but again a jaw dropping day of scenery, it is very very dry but the mountains look like one of those bottles were artists drop in different coloured sand to create wavy art. At any one time we can be seeing multiples of black (lava), white, green, red, pink, brown & yellow. Very hard to capture on camera but just amazing to witness.
9 November: We are now in the Patagonia “lake District” and even though only 300km from previous days, the contrast in landscape is phenomenal. Spent the afternoon, parked up next to a lake drinking white wine and soaking up the sun’s rays and views.
11 November: Been a magical 2 days, we only moved about 50km from the equally magical lake parking spot but are now in a deep valley with spectacular cliffs and are camped next to the clearest river we have ever seen. It’s been just us, the birds and these magical ancient forests for two days.
13 November: A cold snap arrived dropping daytime max temps to around 10deg so it’s been a case of hunkering down inside Mr J and even then, at times it has been cold, perhaps we do still need that diesel heater. On the plus side almost caught up on blog posts, plus the campsite has great hot showers and we had a lovely lunch in San Martin de los Andes today.
16 November: It’s been a great two days at a “libre” campsite in the National Park, parked close to a strongly flowing river with a cool backdrop of snowy peaks. Weather has warmed up too. So glad we have our gas geyser for showers and improvised toilet setup – makes wild camping very sustainable.
17 November: What a disappointment Bariloche is! We had run our minds a picturesque alpine village and instead got a sprawling mass of urbanization which was grimy and busy. If only we had known we would have stayed the other side of the lake but at least we have can get some laundry done.
19 November: Have been feeling a little frustrated the last few days, partly with the disappointment of Bariloche and secondly because of the complications to cross to Chile. Chile is super strict about “fresh produce” imports and we have about 2 weeks of frozen meat in the freezer and at the sometime the park rangers are striking in Chile which means all national parks are closed. Considering that the Carretera Austral passes through many parks this makes it seem pointless to cross the border and head south so we find ourselves trying to kill time.
21 November: It’s been a great couple of days next to the stunning Lago Traful. We have had hot days and cool nights, lake is amazing but not swimmable as it is icy cold. Right next to our camp spot is a stunningly clear crystal river and over the lake are snow-capped peaks. Did a short walk today to a magnificent waterfall, although the last part was too much for Tania as it got real steep and quite technical – Stuart went ahead and really enjoyed the feel of “walking a technical trail”.
22 November: from the highs of the last few days to a real low today! We come into Vila la Angustura hoping to camp, get connected to the internet and the world and ultimately figure out how to handle Chile. What actually happened is most campsites were closed, one was exorbitantly expensive and one looked downright dodgy so instead we parked next to a supermarket for a couple of hours while we tried to sort out some admin for some financial transactions we have just done for Tania. Eventually we headed out of town, had slight disagreement as to where to go to next and ended up close to the Chile border in a relatively expensive campsite which was kind of grotti and to top it off the wind was blowing and making everything dusty. On reflection much of our stress comes from wanting to cross to Chile but being unsure because we have a lot of frozen meat and other foodstuffs which they may or may not confiscate.
23 November: Woke up in better moods today and crossed the border, it took a while and the inspection was pretty thorough but not too bad and we still have some of our foodstufffs. Spent a few hours in the nearest town trying to shop, sort out data for internet, draw money etc. Come right on everything except data – looks like that could be a bit complicated. Overall a pretty successful day.
24 November: Finding a new SIM card and data took the better part of the morning but thankfully Frutilla is a small town and we could leave Mr J happily in a side street while we trawled the main shopping streets. Also found a reasonable butchery and veggie place in the process. After that we cruised the last 50km to Puerto Montt and the start of the Caretterra Austral. After driving through town was very glad we didn’t give up in Frutilla as it would have been a nightmare to hunt down a SIM and so forth in the bigger town. Evening camp is 20km out of town on the stony banks of a river and the Pacific.
25 November: Had a very disturbed sleep last night after waking at 3am to the high water tide being right at MR. J wheels and having to hastily pack up and move, so had a latish start. Thankfully the first ferry didn’t require any booking and we didn’t have too long a wait either, also eventually come right for booking of the second ferry in Hornopiren after we thought to try the macbook instead of using a phone.
26 November: a long and fairly boring 5 hour ferry ride today, followed by a very dusty exit as everyone raced away on the narrow dirt road – the thick forest causes the dust cloud to stay stuck on the road. After all official campsites were closed we ended up in a little clearing just off the road for the night but what a spot – spectacular view down the valley across a lake, lovely evening sunshine, a river close by for shower water, good food and midnight toilet break gave us a million stars. All round a “priceless” campsite.
29 November: having decided not to do the hike to Queulat glacier we headed further south, initially it was more of the endless dense forest with occasional mountain views but then after climbing a steep pass and dropping down the other side the valleys opened up, there were more flowers and we enjoyed the drive until we took a “goose chase” loop. A cyclist had suggested this loop to Vale de Luna, which while it had good scenery turned into 150km of corrugations with no opportunities to wild camp as the entire road was lined with fences. We could have saved ourselves some hassle.
30 November: A slow start but we made use of paid camping to have good showers, fill water tank etc and then a quick shop in town for wine and some basics. We headed towards Vila Casitello which is below a craggy mountain that looks like a castle. If the weather was good you could hike up to its lake just below the mountain but the weather isn’t good and deteriating. As all camping options are nothing to write home about and expensive we headed out of town and after not fancying a few spots ended up at a nice wild camp next to a river which was well removed from the dusty Ruta 7.