We had a good night’s sleep, but in the morning the wind returned with a vengeance. Our camping spot wasn’t very sheltered and the Caranex was flapping like a mad thing. Fortunately, it seems to stand up reasonably well to wind. Better than can be said for rain.
Heading for the border at San Sebastián, the scenery can only be described as desolate. Huge estancias, or ranches, of many thousands of acres. Thousands of sheep and some herds of beef cattle. All sparse pasture land. There isn’t a tree to be seen anywhere.
Chile Border Post
There were few people here, so we went straight to the immigration desk and within a few minutes, were stamped out of Chile. Next to Customs to cancel our Temporary Import Permit (TIP). This was even quicker. All done, the agent said, so off we went.
Argentinian Border Post
This was a 15 km drive further on, on a very rough, pot holed road. Again it wasn’t busy, but took a few minutes longer as we had to have a new TIP issued. No customs checks here, so we were speedily on our way.
The scenery continued to be vast open plains with sheep everywhere. At about 12.45 we were thinking about lunch and looking for a parking spot with some shelter from the relentless wind. Typically it started to rain hard. We passed an overturned burnt out truck on the roadside.
We finished off the last of our bread and cheese. Our food stocks are now very severely depleted. iOverlander tells me there is a good supermarket in the next major town, Rio Grande. I hope it’s right.
Rio Grande
Rio Grande is a sizeable place, but we easily find the supermarket. We manage to obtain everything on our shopping list. The queue for the checkout desks is very long. The amount of shopping some people have is huge. Some have Christmas stuff, but I wonder if others live on remote estancias and only come into Rio Grande every month or so to stock up.
Tolhuin
We are heading for a proper campsite tonight in Tolhuin. In fact there are 5 camp sites, so we are spoiled for choice. As we get further south, the scenery changes completely.
There are now forests. The trees are severely stunted and festooned with lichen. The harsh winter climate must be the cause of their sorry state.
As we come in to Tolhuin the weather is looking very threatening. We hope we can get the tent up before it starts to rain. It is a large campsite, but the terrain is rather uneven. It takes us a while to locate a flat spot.
The campsite manager is cleaning the bathrooms when we arrive. We are rushing to put up the Caranex before the rain starts when he comes over. He says there is hot water. Great, a shower will be well received after 3 days without! He wants to see a passport and to collect 20,000 pesos payment.
The rain holds off long enough for us to get established, but returns while dinner is being prepared. Fortunately, it doesn’t last too long. We are well fed after a big plate of spaghetti bolognaise, washed down with Malbec and followed by strawberries and cherries with yogurt.
We are now just over 100kms from Ushuaia and so will be there tomorrow, all being well.
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