Another day of borders.
A Mirage fighter of the Argentinian Air Force. Probably of Falklands vintage?
Despite Jen’s fears, we had a night uninterrupted by visitors, once we had established approval to camp in the sprawling soccer field complex. Our hosts were quite accepting of our presence, once they had established that we were not moving in for more than a night..:)
There must have been a motor racing circuit out of view over a hill, as you could here cars and bikes racing well after dark.
Promising our hosts that would be away from the camp site around 9am, we were up early, packed and on the road by 9.30am and swung by the caretakers residence to say “thank you”, for their hospitality.
Border formalities.
The border with Chile is another 60k’s south and on arrival, there are queues at both border posts. Our fear was the Chileans would go through our possessions and be brutal enforcing their bio security rules. There was a dog and handler on call to ferret out any hidden contraband!
After duly completing all the formalities, and not very relaxed, we were waved through Customs with only a cursory inspection of the fridge. Supplies had been deliberately run down and there was very little in it. The whole process at both borders took about 2 hours. Not the 6 or 7 hours some had reported.
Chile
So, we are in Chile again. There is very little fuel left in the main tank and there is no mention of a petrol station for miles. The decision had been made to refuel on the Chile side, as their peso is stronger than the Argentinian one, for now anyway.
The fuel gauge needle is hard into the red but we keep going. Before reaching the ferry terminal we stop for a light lunch and I put a splash of fuel into the tank from a can. I don’t want to run out getting on or off the ferry and holding others up. We just miss one sailing and there’s a 40min wait for the next to arrive to take us onto the final island, Tierra del Fuego, or the toe at the end of the continent. Trucks get priority when loading the ferry and once they have all loaded, cars and smaller vehicles can board. We are 2nd in the queue, so we are assured of a berth. A 30min ride and off the other end. There are no petrol stations here either, so after another 20k’s I stop and put another splash in the tank.
Cerro Sombrero
The countryside is bleak. Wind swept and barely a blade of grass for sheep to feed on. With virtually no prominent features. Another 20k’s and there is a settlement with a fuel station. We fill up and take on 99liters. Now we need to find food and a place to camp. There is a municipal camp here but this settlement is probably covered in snow most of the year, and the camp is very run-down looking. It’s also closed, and the gate locked. What to do? We drive around, and below the town, there are sports fields and a shearing shed. After buying some tomatoes, about all that was useful in the tiny shop, we drive back and set up camp beside the shearing shed. It’s not sheltering us completely from the south westerly wind, but enough to make camp acceptable. Jen is busy doing repairs to the Caranex zipper. It’s needed fairly constant repair since we started out 6 years ago and has been fully replaced twice already. We have some spare sliders and hope a replacement will solve the problem of it parting.
The most important ingredient is wifi and our Entel card, from being purchased further up the mainland, still works. The sun has come out and could be with us till 10pm tonight? Though light rain is forecast. Our latitude, approx 52.2deg S.
Tomorrow we should be able to make the further 127k’s, before crossing back into Argentina, and another 320k’s to Ushuaia. Nearly there! This has been one of our priorities, similar to North Cape in Norway and Tuktuyaktuk in northern Canada and Capetown in South Africa. Interestingly, I read recently that the Inuit settlement in Tuktuyaktuk is going to have to close down and relocate, due to shrinking ice fields and melting tundra.
Late addition :
Cricket. For NZ, a repeat of the first test. England reign supreme. The Black Caps crushed, in an inept display.
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