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Published: November 19th 2013
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Patagonia Driving
You cant see these valleys until you are right beside them Thursday 14
thNovember (Odyssey Day 6)
Sleepy drive day today. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open! Guess I didn’t sleep as well as I thought last night if I’m sleeping so much today. We were up at 0600 for departure at 0700. Our first pit stop today was at an old dilapidated road house. It was looking a little rustic and if you saw it in a movie, you would almost expect a serial killer to jump out at you… There was no water in the taps in the basins, but at least the toilets flushed. Though the fact that they had a few long mirrors around an empty room was a little odd…
The landscape today was incredibly flat. There were no hills, and it was almost like the landscape had been inverted and instead of hills going up, you have these sudden valleys going down in rolling green hills. Through the valley’s you can see the sea in the distance.
We had a windy lunch break by the side of the road, and then after lunch, it suddenly
started to rain. And suddenly there are hills where it was all completely flat before, and my ears start to notice. We pulled over to find a place to camp by the beach somewhere when we came across a guy in an old car who had gotten stuck. The guys all piled out of the truck to give him a bit of a push. It was quite amusing. Especially when after we helped him out, he pulled out a camera to take a photo of us all, and clearly the camera was worth a whole lot more than his car!!
We found a spot just a bit further down the coast and pulled in. The rain paused for just long enough for us to put up out tents before starting again. I went for a walk up the hill and around the point, from where the view was amazing. Well worth the climb even in the rain. When I got back, the guys were putting up a cook tent, while the girls stood back and watched with drinks in hand.
Fortunately the rain didn’t stay long
and blew past us in short order. The wind stuck around though and the cook tent came in handy. We had a fire tonight too. Having collected enough wood to have a fire, we finally got around to lighting one! We all huddled around it as it got colder and windier but at least didn’t rain again.
The one striking point of Patagonia must be the wind. It’s just incredible and there is nowhere you can go to escape from it.
Friday 15
th November (Odyssey Day 7)
It was still nice and dry when we got up for breakfast at 0700. I went for another walk up the cliff and the tide had gone out quite a way overnight. It was definitely a lovely spot to stop for the night.
Packing up camp didn’t seem to take very long. I think the cold spurs everyone on in order to get on the warm truck as soon as possible. By 0900 we had reached the nearby town and spent a couple
hours there. Emma and Simon had to restock our food supplies so the rest of us enjoyed a chance to do a little shopping or just wonder around practicing our limited Spanish.
By 1045 we were off again. Our lunch stop was a lovely sunny stretch of road. As long as you can keep as much dust of as possible in the wind, its fine. Easier said than done though!
We had planned for another bush camp but had trouble finding somewhere to pull in that had enough shelter for us. In the end we used a campsite that was on an island in the middle of a river! It was quite decent, but most importantly – it was sheltered from the wind. Everything is about the wind.
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