Monte Leon National Park
Pleasingly the day dawned sunny. We’ll be able to go to the penguin colony after all. While Dennis started taking down the tent, I walked to the one toilet, only to find our camping neighbour using the sink to wash up his breakfast cooking utensils.
Last night’s only animal sightings
We have quite a long chat. It turns out he is a young German, Simon, and is not from Paraguay. His vehicle is Paraguay registered as it belongs to his parents who relocated to Paraguay 3 years ago after selling their business in Germany. Simon wanted to do a South American road trip so had a roof-top tent shipped out, so he could attach it to their vehicle.
Simon was very interested in our journey and had obviously studied the map on the side of Poki. He gave us his parents names and address and told us to visit on our way through Paraguay.
Penguin Colony
When we arrived at the entrance to the 2.5 km walk to the penguin colony, there were already 2 vehicles parked there. It was still pretty chilly as the wind was blowing strongly. As we approached the colony, the 4 people from the other vehicles were just leaving.
There were thousands of penguins either on the beach, in the sea or sitting on or near nests scattered under bushes all over the cliffs. Sadly there were a lot of dead birds. Some obviously predated as they were badly mauled, but others quite unmarked.
It isn’t an easy life being a penguin. There are constant dangers. At sea they must escape from killer whales, sea lions and leopard seals. Indiscriminate fishing exposes them to a lack of food and offshore oil activities and ships to spills of hydrocarbons.
On land the situation is no better with gulls, skuas, giant fullers, ferrets, foxes and pumas being their main predators. They are also exposed to diseases and virus from shells and oysters. Breeding numbers can vary widely from one year to another.
These are Magellanic Penguins. They arrive in the colony in September and start getting the nests ready. In October they mate and egg laying takes place. In November both parents take turns in hatching the eggs and feeding at sea. In December the chicks are born and both parents feed them.
There were nests everywhere with a bird sitting on the babies. Other birds were sitting nearby protecting the nests, others were at sea catching fish to bring back and regurgitate for the chicks.
In January the parents take turns in feeding the babies. In February they have grown so large both parents have to go to sea to seek more food. In March the young leave their nests, forming into protective groups, as they march to the sea. In April the young leave the colony, leaving the adults to shed their old feathers. From May to August all the penguins migrate north following the cold Malvinas current. They live and feed at sea.
As we walked back to Poki more visitors were arriving. There were 2 overlanding vehicles parked next to Poki. One from Germany and the other a hire vehicle.
Driving along in Poki the terrain was mainly flat and monotonous. There is a bushy plant everywhere with pink or white flowers, which looks like a large heather. Other than this and scrubby grasses, it appears devoid of any other vegetation.
Tiny Flowers
While we were walking we discovered this wasn’t the case. The ground is actually covered by tiny plants, with tiny flowers. Very pretty and all sorts of colours, but invisible unless you are close.
When we left the park we had to open a gate. It was a double gate right next to a cattle grid. I was trying to close it, but as soon as I pulled one section closed and went to close the other, the wind blew the first one open again. While this was going on, Dennis was going to reflate Poki’s tyres, which we had let down for the gravel road.
I heard Dennis shout “armadillo” and turned around to see him racing off into the distance with his camera. By the time I caught him up there was no sign of the creature. It had disappeared into a clump of bushes. It must have had a burrow there, as there was no sign of it. Disappointing, no pumas and no armadillos!
Rio Gallegos
We are now in the large town of Rio Gallegos. There is no camping here. iOverlander mentions 2 YPF petrol stations, so we gave them a try. The last 2 we stayed at were great. The first one here was full of trucks with little space and the second one was tiny with only hard standing parking for about 6 vehicles with no protection. Neither was a possibility.
We decided to drive out of town and see what we could find. On the outskirts were some large sports fields, all looking under used. We parked behind a small wall surrounding a football pitch. It offered some wind shelter.
We hadn’t been established for long when a white car pulled in beside us. Dennis got out to talk to the gentleman. He didn’t speak any English, but he and Dennis seemed to come to an agreement that it was alright for us to camp and that it was safe.
A short time later he returned with another car and another couple, who tried to speak a bit of English. It seems they were concerned we were going to stay and take up permanent residence. Once we assured them we would leave in the morning and that we wouldn’t leave any rubbish behind, they seemed to be happy with us staying.
What was not so clear was whether it was a safe place or not. They seemed to be a bit uncertain, but said for one night it should be okay. A bit later one of the men came back and said we should move to be near his house. Dennis thinks we will be fine here. He has bear spray to ward off any undesirables. I hope he’s right.
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