Last Night’s Wine Tasting
Dennis said, if I was able to and not inebriated or hung over, I would enlighten you on our tasting of Tannat. Well, it is a very full bodied robust red. We tasted 5 wines altogether. Chardonnay, Rose, Merlot Tannat which is 40% Merlot and 60% Tannat, Tannat and Moizo’s liqueur
My favourite was the Merlot Tannat, not quite as full bodied as the Tannat itself, but very smooth and a competitor to Argentinian Malbec, which we had taken a liking to. We had the liqueur with our delicious desert. Dulce de Leche, which is a very soft, creamy, home made ice cream, with chocolate and grapes. The liqueur was sweet and very moreish.
The Moizo’s grow many different types of grape. All of them, though, are French varieties.
Fruits
During our tour we tasted the table grapes. The harvest took place a couple of months ago, but, as Dennis said, there were some stragglers left behind. Omar said we could help ourselves to some in the morning.
Omar also showed us a tree he thought would be new to us. He was very surprised when we said we had three such trees in our garden. It was a feijoa. Of course, they are native to South America and were taken to New Zealand. There were lots of fallen fruits on the ground, so he said we could help ourselves to these too. This morning I collected a bag of both before we set off.
It was only just over an hour’s journey to our final campsite. We left at about midday, stopping en route for lunch and to stock up with supplies for the next five days.

Uruguayans love bold house colours.
La Chacra Holandesa
La Chacra Holandesa is a very popular place with overlanders, either at the end of their journeys, where they can prepare their vehicles for shipping, or where they can do the reverse. Pick the vehicle up from the port and get themselves ready to travel.
There were three other vehicles at the campsite when we arrived. Marieke, one of the Dutch owners, met us on arrival and showed us around. It is a very well set up place, with a large kitchen, washing machine, swimming pool and lounge areas.
At 1700 Marieke and husband, Jan, have drinks in the lounge. Here we met another Dutch couple who are driving a large Mercedes Truck. They are leaving their vehicle here in Uruguay and going back to Europe for the summer. They will return in October and carry on travelling. Like friends, Lilian and Rob, are doing.
Good News
During the day I heard from our shipping agent. We no longer have to go to his office with our paperwork tomorrow afternoon. We will meet him at the port at 9am on Tuesday and do the paperwork there, before Poki goes into the container.
We now have 4 days to tidy Poki, pack our bags and remove the boxes from the roof. Plenty of time. If it’s nice weather, I can see us spending time relaxing in and by the pool.

An ailing Phoenix palm. The crown will die and fall off the stem.
Views: 75
Almost there! Bloody well done you two intrepid, (if slightly deranged) travellers. An amazing journey carried out with aplomb, and I suspect, a very big dollop of Jen’s organising skill. Well done that woman. I hope the loading and shipping goes to plan and the ruskies don’t get word of your impending arrival in the war zone. Phillip Island and east tomorrow. Going as well as can expected.
Hi Kelvin. Thanks for the kind comment, but it’s a team effort. We wouldn’t have got here without your big brother’s vision, driving and maintenance skills 😀
Bossy bugger if you ask me.
Laughing…she’s the bossy one.
Nice you’ve arrived safely at Chacra Hollandaise. I hope the weather will stay nice and allow you to relax and get your cleaning and reorganising done. Say hallo to Jan and Marieke from us. We are nearly in Santiago and will go through the same cleaning process as you.
Take care, safe travels home and we’ll keep in touch 🥰
Hi Lilian and Rob.
Just what we didn’t need. Wet weather when we’re packing up. Had just got the tent dry, when it rained again! Hopefully tomorrow morning will be fine. We don’t have to be at the port until 2pm.
Hope you have better weather for your packing up and safe travels back home. Yes, we’ll certainly keep in touch, 🥰