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The petrol station where we stayed for the night was the only place for hundreds of kilometres along this stretch of Highway 3. It was in the middle of nowhere but obviously a favourite stop over with a hotel/hostel adjoined to it. As a consequence we didn't get much sleep with people driving in late and into the early hours, whilst others left from 5am onwards. It was the start of the Christmas holidays and people were on the move, most of them heading north.
We set off south and then turned off onto a gravel road to get back to the coast (Camino Costera) - a tip from some Germans who have been travelling in South America for the last 15 years. We spotted armadillos at the turn off. The gravel road was very bumpy and slow going even though it was only 5km (3 miles) to the coast.
We stopped for coffee and the rest of our yummy apple strudel from the bakery in Puerto Deseado. We set off again to continue on the gravel road that hugged the coastline on the way towards San Julian. It started raining and it took us 45 minutes to drive 7.5km. Winnietwo was really dirty by the time we found a spot above a pebble beach at Cabo Curioso.
We stayed for two nights in this peaceful place where we also got some great sunsets. It got cool in the evening so we put the heater on but it only lasted for 20 minutes as we ran out of propane! We have two propane bottles - one for the heater and one for the cooker - so we can always swap the bottles over if we need to, but we decided to do without the heater for the rest of the evening.
We continued along the coastal gravel road and got to San Julian for some shopping. We asked about propane but the two places we stopped at only did bottle exchange. We would need to wait until we got to the gas plant in Rio Gallegos.
Our destination for the night was Monte León National Park but it was already 7-30pm by the time we got to the park entrance. We knew that we would have to drive 20km (12 miles) along a gravel road into the park but there was a campground at the end where we were planning to stay for 3 or 4 nights over Christmas.
We had different information about the campground. Some said it was free and others had to pay so we decided to drive down there and find out. On the way we stopped for photos of guanacos, rheas and a skunk that was blind in one eye. We also went to a lookout across to La Isla Monte León where we could see lots of kelp gulls, imperial cormorants and terns.
The gravel road was slow going with some steep parts and two bridges where we had to drive over wooden planks wondering whether they could take our weight! By the time we got to the campground it was 8-50pm and starting to get dark. We found out that it would cost 180 pesos per night ($12) and we were running out of pesos. We didn't exactly get a good welcome from the campground host so we decided to head back out and find somewhere else to stay for Christmas.
We quickly made some bread rolls to eat during the slow drive back along the gravel road to Highway 3 and out of the park. The host made a point of coming out and telling us that we weren't allowed to camp within the boundaries of the park. No idea why he had such a negative attitude towards us. Maybe he was just having a bad day.
Anyway, we set off at 9-15pm with our bread rolls on plates knowing that it would take us an hour to get back to Highway 3 and would probably mean driving the last part in the dark. We'd only been going for about 10 minutes when Kirsten shouted "Puma!!" She threw her plate onto the dashboard as I braked to a stop, grappled for her camera which was packed away and only just managed to get a video and a couple of photos before it was too far away.
What a rare sighting!!! We knew that there were pumas in the park but we really didn't think we'd get to see one. The only reason we did was because we were so late getting to the park in the first place, decided not to stay and drove out again as the sun was setting. What a stroke of luck.
Skunk and puma at PN Monte León.
We finally got back out of the park entrance at 10-10pm and parked up outside the gate. It was too dark to continue driving and there weren't any other camping possibilities that we knew of.
(We sent an email later to Roxana, our tour guide on the boat trip in Puerto Deseado, who gave us 100 points for the puma sighting but then deducted points from us because the skunk was half blind!!)
We made the right decision to stay just outside the park entrance because on the drive south the next day there weren't any possibilities for an overnight stop. We saw a lot of dead guanacos on either side of the road - they tend to graze right next to the busy highway where water accumulates and the grass is greener, but they get hit when they cross the road. Especially at night.
Even during the day we had to slow down and even stop on a couple of occasions for guanacos crossing the road. We had to keep our eyes peeled and be ready to stop if they suddenly decided to cross in front of us. Not easy for us and certainly not for all the trucks that race up and down this stretch.
We made a short stop for photos at a swamp area and got to the propane plant in Rio Gallegos at 3-30pm, but the plant closed at 2pm! Fortunately they were open until 1pm the next day which was Christmas Eve. The only other place for propane would be Ushuaia and it would take us at least a week to get there. So we stayed for the night.
We found a bakery and took photos of the only two signs that it is Christmas here - a Christmas tree on the main square and a cow in reindeer garb! We got propane the next day and spent the rest of the day phoning up family using a decent internet connection at a petrol station near the river in the town. At midnight we heard a few fireworks going off.
Merry Christmas to everyone! I'm sure you all spent the day relaxing and eating too much! We spent the day cleaning Winnietwo inside and out at a larger petrol station on the outskirts of Rio Gallegos. It took us 3 hours and afterwards we paid 15 pesos each ($1) for a warm (not hot!) shower.
We spent Christmas night and the next two nights at Laguna Azul - a lake in a volcanic crater. There are several lava flows in the area and we went walking around the main crater on Boxing Day and then over to some other craters the following day.
Laguna Azul - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
Other craters near Laguna Azul - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
A Dragoman truck joined us on the car park which reminded us of our 2002 tour with Kumuka in South America. We told one of the tour group that we have done similar camping trips and always brought our own potato peeler with us. 10 minutes later there was a knock on our door - one of the cook group wanted to borrow our peeler!!!
At almost midnight we got another knock on the door asking whether we have jump leads! We spent almost an hour trying to help them. We had to pack up all our stuff so we could drive across the car park to them and hook up our jump leads. It didn't work! Then another car turned up but it didn't work when we connected them up either. The other car drove off promising to phone up someone to come out and help them once they got a phone connection back towards Rio Gallegos and they finally managed to drive off around 3am in the morning!
On 28th December we got our papers and passports ready for the border crossing into Chile and also put some more foam padding on the back doors as we would have at least 110km of gravel road to drive on. We also cut out some foam to put in the heater to stop dust coming in through the hole in the floor underneath it.
The border crossing only took 35 minutes and then we stopped for photos of sheep being loaded onto a truck at a large sheep farm. We just managed to drive down to the ferry across the Magellan Strait as the ferry was boarding. We didn't have any Chilean pesos so Kirsten jumped out to find out if we could pay in US dollars or by credit card. The queue started moving so I drove towards the ferry and picked Kirsten up just before driving on board.
No credit cards are accepted but they do take US dollars. We got the very front spot on the ferry which was full and we'd barely got out when the ferry already set off. We got in the queue for tickets and were grateful that they could give us change back in US dollars - we only had a $100 note left. We paid $20 in US and managed to scrape together the extra 35 Argentinian pesos they wanted!
By the time we got out of the office we were already half way across the Magellan Strait! We just about had time to get the cameras and video out to take shots of the Commerson dolphins swimming around and under the ferry.
Ferry across the Magellan Strait.
After the ferry the first part of the road is on tarmac but we soon got to the gravel part. The road wasn't very good and it was such slow going that we knew we wouldn't be able to drive the whole stretch in daylight. So when we saw an area off the side of the very dusty road just after 8pm we decided to stop for the night. It had taken us an hour to do less than a quarter of the distance!
The gravel road got worse the next day and it took us almost 7 hours to do the whole stretch. We got to the second border which took 5 minutes to exit Chile, then a 35 minute drive to the Argentinian side where it took 20 minutes to get back into Argentina. Then we got back onto tarmac. Yippee!!
We averaged 19km/h (12mph) along the gravel road and still had to go through the ritual of shaking out all the seat covers and mats and cleaning off all the surfaces afterwards. We pulled off the main highway and parked on a pebble beach just before Rio Grande for the night.
In Rio Grande we spent quite a lot of time trying to get money out of various ATMs until we found out that there is a machine limit on all of them and we have to use them twice to get out our daily limit. This means paying twice the charges!
Finally we had money so we could go shopping! Then we encountered a new electronic system to tell you which till to go to. It was supposed to save time and prevent queuing up at the till but all it did was make people wait in the aisle until their device showed which till to go to. I'm sure it meant a longer wait than just queueing up as normal! Kirsten was not happy at all and, every chance she got, she told the staff what a stupid system it was. Oh boy! I tried to pretend she wasn't with me!
Our next stop was getting diesel. After the second petrol station had none we found out that none of the stations had any Euro diesel because they were all waiting for a delivery which might arrive tomorrow! Good job we filled up in Rio Gallegos so that we have enough to drive down to Ushuaia and wait for a delivery there.
We finally left the town at 7-15pm and drove further along Highway 3 to Tolhuin where we found a really nice spot on the shore of Lake Fagnano. We ended up staying there for 3 nights over New Year. Helen got a hair cut with a view and we heard a few fireworks in the distance at midnight to bring in the New Year.
