Punta Arenas (Camper Collection Day!)

Day 463.

Arrived into Punta Arenas, a town so far away from normal civilization its nearly at the southern tip of the world. Things are simple this far down south too - one road and one alone connects thousands upon thousands of kilometres.

We were however still very skeptical about the campervan owner whom we would be renting from - so far he'd shared only a few whatsapps, given no information whatsoever and actually would be 3000km away when we came to collect said camper.

Fortunately the camper did exist, and as it swung around the corner of this seaside town we couldn't have been more excited to see our home for the next 3 weeks. Compact yes, but a beauty nonetheless.

It was a painful two hours, this is missing, this is broken, paperwork etc etc but all in all a success and we left keys in hand, and with massive smiles on our faces at that. Hit up our first supply run (mainly chiliean wine, rum and cheese) and made sure to stock up on plenty of extra gas - who knows when we are likely to see another gas station (this would come in very useful just a few days later...).

Need to adjust to the height difference vs a normal car as we wasted no time ploughing into the entry barrier at the local supermarket - if we make it 3000km north with this van in one piece it will be a miracle.

Geared up and ready to hit the road limbster tours sprang back into action from months in hibernation, but she was back with a bang. First stop was just out of town on a quiet road - a place rumoured to be great for dolphin spotting. And she wasn't wrong, pulled up and spent the first 30 minutes of our journey watching dozens of wild dolphins splash around from the seat of our car and all to ourself - so far so good.

It turns out it certainly wouldn't be our first snippet of Patagonian wildlife on our 4 hour journey to our first destination - stopping off for flamingoes, eagles, ostriches and plenty of llamas - all in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and without another person in sight. We liked it here already. Luck was on our side it seemed and even though we had been expecting the typical crazy patagonian weather we had pure sunshine, actual shorts and t shirt weather and we couldn't quite believe it!

We quickly learned that summer here means long days - and super long at that. Sun rises at 6.30 and its light until 10.30, a cool 16 hours of sunlight a day - a campers dream.

Our first wild camping spot was like a picturesque patagonia post card (much to Limbsters relief) , crystal clear lakes, snow capped peaks and a sunset to top it off! Paved roads were quickly forgotten and uneven gravel would become the norm, it was no exception in finding this little gem of a spot - but it was worth every bit of extra effort.

Backed the van up right to the lake and set up for our first dinner, burritos, wine and plenty of melted marshmallows whilst we watched the sun drop behind the mountains - safe to say its already been worth the journey. Slightly worried we've set the bar high with this first night camp however, can the views get any better......

Amazed to say Limbster hasn't been cold once yet, plenty of duvets at night and warm weather has surprised us both - praying for more of the same!Read more