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After 10 weeks, we finally drove out of Ushuaia. We had spent almost 7 weeks in the town and it was time to head back north and start another adventure. We stopped at Tolhuin again for sunset photos and moved further north to Rio Grande where it was so windy we got rocked and sand blasted because we were staying at a spot on the beach. We still had our sea legs though so it didn't affect us but we did move off the beach towards the main road to try and avoid the paint being blasted off Winnietwo!
We ended up staying there for 3 nights trying to sit out the wind before going across the border into Chile and the 110km gravel road to the ferry across the Magellan Straits. The gravel road was far better on the return trip and only took us 2.5 hours to drive rather than the 7 hours it had taken on the way south.
There was a large queue for the ferry though, because they had stopped running until the wind died down. We decided to stay the night at the ferry terminal and got onto a ferry the next day. Then we headed west onto a different stretch of road that we had yet to drive and stopped at San Gregorio.
San Gregorio was once one of the largest land holdings which started in the 1870s. It is now a co-operative with its main income coming from sheep. Some of the original buildings are still there and there were also two shipwrecks nearby on the beach of the Magellan Straits. One is the British Clipper "Ambassador" which is a National Monument and the other is the steamer "Amadeo" which was wrecked in the 1940s.
San Gregorio - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
We drove further and stayed for the night at a very nice (and free) camping and picnic area 22km north of Punta Arenas where we stayed for the following two nights. We needed to get Chilean pesos and whilst Kirsten went to the bank, I had to drive around to avoid getting asked for money for parking which we didn't have yet!
Once we had money we could go shopping and we also went to the Zona Franca - a duty free area - to pick up some motor oil that costs half the price compared to Argentina, plus various cheeses, cakes, and even some German black bread! We needed to stock up as we would be going to Torres del Paine National Park for about 2 weeks where there are no supermarkets.
After another night at the camping area outside of Punta Arenas we continued to Puerto Natales where we stayed for 3 nights. On the way we stopped at Monumento del Viento (Wind monument) built in 2000. It consisted of 4 posts with metal twists on top but one had already been blown off!!
We met up with Astrid who we'd met in Valdez in November last year and who is cycling around the world. She was now travelling with a friend, Moritz, and had already cycled through Chile with him and they were headed to Torres del Paine NP to do a hiking circuit for 9 days around the park. We would probably see them again there.
Kirsten also cut my hair but it was too windy to do it outside so we tried the indoor version by using the toilet as a seat and putting down a cover to collect all the hair. It took more than twice as long as normal because the clean up operation afterwards took so long. I think next time I'll just go to the hairdresser!
Since we'd finished our Antarctic cruise we had been spending hours and hours working on our website and we finally managed to complete the first 7 days of the trip and send out our first update. I'm not even going to try and work out how many hours we spent on just that first week of reports!
We did one more sight seeing trip on the way to Torres del Paine NP and drove along a gravel road to get to Cueva del Milodón. There are three caves that were formed by receding glaciers and the wind and rain taking out the softer sediments. There is evidence of human habitation from 11,000 years ago and numerous prehistoric animals. The milodón is a prehistoric sloth and the smilodón is a Sabre toothed tiger. Other animals include the prehistoric versions of guanacos, horses and foxes.
Cuerva del Milodón - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
In the 1890s Hermann Eberhard discovered the remains of an enormous ground sloth just 24km Northwest of Puerto Natales. Nearly 4m tall, the herbivorous milodón survived on the succulent leaves of small trees and branches, but became extinct in the late Pleistocene. We walked up to the first cave (admission 4,000 Chilean Pesos, approx $6 US) and were greeted by a life-size plastic replica of the animal. The cave is 200m deep, 80m wide and 30m high.
Cuerva del Milodón - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
We drove along a very bumpy track and then walked to a smaller second cave which was excavated in 1986 to 7. The final and smallest cave was further along a track but we decided to miss that one out and drove back out along the gravel road which turned to tarmac and we parked up at a viewpoint for the night with a view of Torres and Grey Glacier.
