Day 7: J R Hartley and Lloyd Christmas

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We’ve just had a day to remember out on Lake Lalog here in San Martin de los Andes. Javier, the owner of the apartment hotel where we’re staying has a boat to go out on the lake with. There’s the half day trip and the full 9 hour trip including roast lamb on the beach.

To be honest I wasn’t that interested. Previous boat trips for me have been about half an hour of doing something different and enjoyable and then just a long wait in the cold to get back to where you started from. But the rest of the family were keen, so I went along.

I asked Javier if there were life jackets, to which he answered “yes” and then introduced me to Captain Fabian, who was in charge of the boat.

They asked if we could take our car to the boat so Captain Fabian directed us, mentioning that Javier had asked him to take us to his log cabins first.

The area round here is beautiful with forests adoring the snow tipped mountains, but the view from Javier’s log “mansion” was amazing. Ben was snapping away so you can see from the photos. We were scratching our heads a bit as to why we were being shown round the family home, until we realised there were 2 mansions and that one was being painted up for sale! Captain Fabian the estate agent! Before we could re-write our retirement plans we were back in the car along the gravel track to the lake.

The water was calm and blue and clear with the lake winding its 27 Km through the steep sided mountains. The bugs were back though as it was warmer today…Andrea getting mullered again!

I deliberately asked the make of the boat for you, Rob Farrell, but instantly forgot, as it was a make I’d not heard of and local to Argentina. But it was very smart. The things I can remember is that it had a 270BHP Nissan Diesel Engine that took us at 25mph across the water.

As soon as Fabian cranked the lever forward, we all had smiles on our faces. The back of the boat dug into the water with a huge wake spreading out behind already so much better than any boat I’ve ever been on.

It turned out that he really was a Captain. He used to pilot huge 300M sea vessels around the coast of Argentina and was about as unflappable as you’d expect piloting a little motor boat. He was quite happy for Joe, Ben, Nady, Andrea, Me AND Douglas to do nearly all the driving, which was nice. He told us how the volcano to our right had erupted 500 years ago leaving river of lava down to the lake and then pulled us up to the shore. Here a local artist lives and paints the wildlife; Condors, Deer, Mountain Lions among them. He has a lovely Alsatian called Dogs (!) who spends all day running through the water on the shore. Ben decided he was probably the happiest dog in the world.

We were all interested to see Fabian brought some fly fishing rods out from the little house and showed us how to fish off the back off the boat as it went along very slowly. Pretty soon we decided that we were probably the worst fishermen in the world! Mine and Joe’s lines got tangled and we really had no idea! Captain Fabian continued calm as the lake around us and untangled the lines and said we were fine.

I’ve always fancied doing a bit of fishing but thought I should wait a few more years as it’s just generally too slow for me, like golf. But here with the sun and a huge lake, family all around as well as beautiful mountains I can see the attraction. But it’s not for the hurried!

With the engine running as slow as it would go we sat and waited. And waited. And waited. Then an ALMIGHTY on the rod. The rest of the family falling around laughing as I froze not knowing what to do. By the time I wound it in, that huge fish had got away.

I decided it was time for a cuppa, so went below deck to brew up on the little stove (I got a new gas bottle in the town of Neuquén whilst Nady was eating her “Sad Meal”). It seems that Andrea doesn’t have any better fishing gifts than the rest of us and we started laughing at how rubbish we were.

We continued putt putting along slowly for a couple of hours. Captain Fabian even had the biggest fisherman’s cheat you could imagine with his Sonar screen showing up all the huge fish swimming below us. Finally I decided to wind the fly in to move it to a different part of the lake “you’ve got something” I heard Captain say. And low and behold was a huge Brown Trout being reeled in and safely landed into the Captain’s net. That was it for me. I’d die a happy man now. What a feeling! Tea for this evening well on the way.

We turned the boat around and went back over the same stretch of water and soon Andrea was reeling in another whopper. Joe was still having no luck…both fish having been caught with the same rod. Andrea and me, now the experts, are being asked for tips on what it feels like when you’ve got a bite and how to reel it in. Then Ben gets the biggest one yet and decides to name him Lloyd Christmas!

We’re all rooting for Joe now having abandoned the unlucky rod. We go round and round and round and eventually Joe is reeling in the 4^th Brown trout of the day, under the watchful eye of Douglas. Smiles all around tinged with a big of sadness for Lloyd and palls gradually flapping less and less.

We’re all a bit confused with our sense of time of day here with it getting dark around 10pm (we’re used to it being dark by about 7pm) and as Captain Faby shows us how to gut the fish Andrea announces that it’s nearly 9pm…explaining why Nady’s gone a bit floppy!

After a quick trip to the local supermarket we’re soon barbequing Lloyd and his friends and enjoying our fish supper. It’s the first time we’ve ever caught anything and eaten it. Quite a sense of satisfaction that Richard Rohr would be proud of (Boyzeeee).

Ben sums up the day with a “Thank you Lloyd”.

Bed again about 1am.

Looking forward to that Power Boat course you’ve promised me Rob!

Gray

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Comments

[Rob Farrell]

Nice to get a mention
Hello, nice to get a mention in your blog. I can't work out what kind of boat it is either, but it is Right Hand Drive.