Entry #6:

19th January 2009

This is written after a rather harum scarum couple of days on the way from the last stopping point, Puerto Madryn, which I shall write more about later.

We have had three quite long days driving, the first of which was to Trelew and the welsh villages. They proved to be a little less like we had imagined and a rather more modern and industrial. We did get a very nice tea in Guiman and managed to do justice to a mountain of cakes and sandwiches and lashings of very good tea.

That night we camped and were very fortunate to be offered food by the campsite owner who is Italian by descent and hand made pasta, sauce and chicken for us which was extremely good.

On the following day we visited the largest continental Magellan penguin rookery, which was stunning. The road was by now ripio or unmettaled and in places caused slow progress.We had many miles to cover when a misfire, which all the cars had been suffering, probably due to poor or dirty fuel, became serious enough to investigate on “Rusty”. Two hours later after a decoke and adjustment of points we were able to resume, albeit now about 17.00 and still nearly 80 miles over stoney tracks to complete. At least the problem had been resolved and nothing serious was going to hold us up. The repair had been carried out in a hostile environment, without water or shelter and had been successful in its conclusion.

A few miles further on we passed the latitude of the midway point between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia and stopped for a commemorative photo four abreast on the track.

We arrived finally at Camarones after 20.30 and pitched camp in the falling light.
the following morning we stopped at the bank for money and were spotted by the Mayor in his office next door. We were plyed with calendars, book marks and eventually persuded to stop for coffee in his office. This lead to the local newspaper reporter being summoned and we were also directed to visit the home of Juan Perone, who  was born in the village. We left finally at 12.30 and faced a marathon journey into the face of a Patagonian breeze (minor gale) and uphill to Comodoro Rivadavia 167 miles away to the south.

After several stops for minor adjustments and refuelling, we arrived in this bustling oil town feeling buffeted and tired. Tomorrow we have a nearly 200 mile day and a petrified forest to visit. Better get some sleep, more in a few days as we will be camping and taveling far on the next leg to Ushuaia, the ultimate furthest south point on our journey.