Argentina - Parque Patagonia

Day 473

Even we didn't quite appreciate how empty parts of Patagonia could be. And this drive certainly was a little sneak peak into that - hundreds upon hundreds of kilometres of nothing except rugged nature. Even after a mere 700km I can safely say we passed no more than 30 cars coming the opposite direction - and this is peak season, madness.

Stopping only for coffee breaks out the back of the van we powered through the battling winds. Learnt the hard way that it's wise to observe wind direction before going to the toilet on the side of the road - thank god for the extra baby wipes we packed with.

Our only salvation came in terms of the argentinian petrol station YPF, placed helpfully every 300km long the infamous route. Ready with fresh air in the tyres for Jengibre we darted for the border - still optimistic we might make the remote outpost before it closed for the night.

Quickly dawned on us that Google maps cannot be relied upon and that we would be stopping one more night in Argentina, Limbster came through with a cracking camping spot on an epic lake, and most importantly wind protected. Watched sunset come down with a helping of lentil ragu, hadn't banked on the extra night and so all out of wine - absolutely gutted but likely good for long term health at the rate we're getting through it. Trek hard, drink hard.

Woke early with a picturesque breakfast in the border town, cleared out our remaining fresh food supplies and hit our contraband (a giant sack of peanuts). Arrived at the mountain border as the gates opened, hadn't expected such an un- thorough car inspection on the chiliean side and kicking ourselves we hadn't stocked up on more wine and petrol - both instantly 2x the price the second you cross the border.

Most picturesque border to date, with 6km of no man's land cut out of the mountain. Stamps complete we kicked off our adventure on the Carretera Austral - the ultimate Chilean road trip. Stopped for supplies in the border town, limbster didn't enjoy the local store, dark expensive and playing xmas songs at 8am - all no's in her book.

Drive was incredible, cruising across the side of mountain after mountain all the while trailing the perfectly turquoise lakes. Slightly daunting with the sheer cliff drops now present but all adds the the experience. Everything takes time here but it's hard to complain, the landscape taking a diverse turn to snow capped peaks and lushous green forests - our style indeed.

Enjoyed a stop off at our first confluencia - as far as we're aware, the joining of two large rivers, in this case one lushous blue and one mint green - a spectacle indeed. We now weren't far off our destination - Parque Patagonia, a huge reserve we planned to explore. Our arrival felt like something out of a movie, everything looked like a postcard and guanacos welcomed us in the dozens.

Exhausted from the drive today, collapsed into the thick grass together, fully wrapped up, mountains in the background and just let the burning sun cook us. All about moments like this.

Woke early to take on biggest walk to date, a 23km circuit through this huge park. We flew through the trek thanks to a top pace setter, when she isn't frozen boy can she set a pace. Trek all to ourselves and enjoyed a few stops to attempt to conquer the mighty subs we'd packed along.

Making it down early on the trek meant we got time to sample the solar showers, admittedly we weren't very optimistic about these at first. But once I heard the moaning from the women's bathroom I knew it could be only one of two things, limbster bracing the glacial water or that in fact we had warm water - thankfully it was the latter and spirits were high!

We wasted no time and decided we'd seen enough of this incredible park and began our departure, admittedly this took longer than planned with me in the co pilot seat - maybe the role of directions is slightly harder than I give credit. Everything is for a reason however and the drive was one of the best yet, top driving by limbster and well worth the detour.

Until next time parque patagonia...Read more