For all my fellow users of chapstick to prevent cracks and ensure supple-ness, I am one of the few. I have actually got to the end of a stick without loosing it. I have never completed an entire stick without somehow misplacing it.

I still find it hard to grasp just how quickly an entire environment can change. Yesterday we were driving through lush thick forests and lakes plenty of water, and within 50k’s and one small mountain range we must have driven into a rain shadow. Now, the tallest shrub is knee high and the whole landscape is made of pebbles and gravel.

Ever since my eyes first gazed upon the Ande’s as we flew over Santiago oh so many weeks ago, I am still amazed as to how rugged they are. Impassably rugged. Unclimbable rugged. Un-survey-able rugged. The tops of the ridge lines look identical to parapets on a castle made from giants. The scree slopes start at the peak and encroach past the tree line and spill into the valley below.

Towns are becoming more few and far between. Petrol stations are not guaranteed to have any petrol so filling up before necessary is a wise move. I was told Patagonia is a beautiful place. I can only agree. It is the kind of place that you go to retreat from the hustle and bustle of real life. The giant fur trees, roaring wood fires (even at the end of summer the mountains are all snow capped) and endless horizons lend a tranquil feel to a stressed mind.

Our good friend Steve and Janet Hyde are now car number 8 to drop by the wayside and have a terminal breakdown. He blew the head gasket in his Mercedes yesterday afternoon for the second time in 7days. The one horse town of Esquel couldn’t do an engine rebuild overnight like the guys in Mendosa did for him. 🙁

Dad and I had the worst possible luck today, right at the beginning of a 100km regularity test. We started with high hopes and confidence. Calculating our distance, remaining time and average speed every half a kilometre. The only tools we use are a stopwatch and a calculator. 13.38 K’s into the test and our trip meter (monit) numbers stop changing. Our trip meter was broken…… Our life support system for the test had stopped. An unluckily placed rock had got caught and ripped our sender unit off. So for the rest of the test we had to use a less efficient gps trip and all the numbers didn’t match up so the maths was done all over again on the trot. Over the 1hour 38 minute test we had about 20 seconds penalties. I think that is good enough to retain our position at the pointy end of the tree 😀

James

Well, I don’t actually know what the cardinal sin is. But my cardinal sin is ‘one must not eat seafood unless you can see the ocean, or at least drive to the ocean without having a piss stop.’ And guess who broke that rule. Father dear did. You would think he would learn from past mistakes. No. He doesn’t. Hahahaha. We are in a stunning lakeside town called Bariloche at least 12 hours drive from any form of an ocean and Dad ordered seafood pasta for lunch (today was a transit day with no timing), and needless to say I do not need to describe how his afternoon was…….. sigh… :

Another border day today as we crossed back into Argentina for my 3rd time and probably one of the most stunning drives of my life. We were traveling through an region called the lakes region or something. But it is quite simply, large mountains with windy roads and every 5-10k’s is another lake at the bottom of the mountains. Similar to Swiss lakes but much much better apparently and the water is such a brilliant azure blue. I can understand why fisherman love this area of Patagonia. Without the fish it would still be the best place ever.

Piccies are still on the thin and wispy today for one main reason. IT WAS TOO COLD TO DO ANYTHING. I couldn’t whip out my phone to take picture because I need to take my gloves off to use the touch screen and there was no chance that was happening.

Still smashing first place.

James

First up, I need to say that my discipline to have daily reports is something similar to buying a British Vintage Car. Most of
the time it works well and as expected, however, sometimes for no reason at all it does not play by the rules and doesn’t work. So just pretend you have bought a British Vintage car by subscribing to my blog and you will never be let down 😀 Awesome!

Yesterdays funniest story first (by my standards). Driving through rural Chile and me and Dad both comment on the fact that we are in a nice area. The entire region was just nice, big farms, big houses, nice driveways and fences. We say “this is a really classy and respectable farming region here.” Not 30 seconds later we drive past a large “Welcome to some town” sign and someone has spray painted a giant cock and balls on it! I couldn’t stop laughing! I’m not sure why father dearest didn’t find it as funny as I did. I thought it was the best and funniest thing since Dad’s hat blew off his head onto the road.

There must have been more olive tree’s in one valley we drove through yesterday than all of Australia’s olives trees put together. I have noted so far that Chile has an abundance of 3 things, vineyards, olives, and gravel. They should never ever ever run out of gravel to make roads. It seems that gravel covers 90% of the surface of every mountain in the Ande’s.

Chile still does not cease to amaze in all aspects. From the aridest of arid deserts in the north, the temperamental volcanoes, vast farming lands, earthquake remnants near big bridges all the way to Ferrari’s zip lining down side streets in Santiago and horse and carts carrying pumpkins to the market not more than 1km from the cbd of Chile’s biggest city. I still cannot describe Chile – let alone South America – in words for the sheer reason that every corner of every region is just on a different scale.

Piccies will come after I call roadside assistance to come collect a broken down British car. Most likely tomorrow arvo.

Tonights little stop in Pucon should have the most spectacular sunrise in the morning. The sun is expected to beam up and over some nameless (named but I just don’t know it) volcanoes which stands guard next to a large lake. The kind of lake and volcano set-up you would expect any wealthy Chilean to have an exorbitant holiday house on the lakeside and have their Malibu ski boat dry-docked or mored at a private boat club. Yep. This town has it all. Huge houses on huge acreage with huge front gates with huge boats next to huge mountains and a huge lake. Huge.

Only a few trucks slowed us down on the time trial today and after some street-side rumors it sounds like we were a few seconds faster than Billy Boy in the Bentley (our strongest competitor in our class) which firmly secures our still equal tied first position until tomorrow. Lloyd and Chuck in a big ass white Cadillac are neck and neck with us and every afternoon there is at least 5-10 minutes of quality banter on what will happen. It usually ends up with us being called convicts or something of the sort.

James

Back in Chile now. And in more sense than the country name it was stupidly chilly today. From the laxed Intercontinental at Mendoza to the bustling Intercontinental here in Santiago stood the herculean Andes, and once again we had to drive by ancient glaciers ever making their way to the bottom. The last rest day of the rally was welcomed by all yesterday, everyone just chilly out. Well, almost everyone. Steve Hyde had to pull his engine apart and change head gasket. Mark and Chris in the Model A had planned to spend the afternoon changing tyres which were sent from Buenos Aires Ford Model A club which were never sent, so it looks like their tyres will be somewhere close to as bald as a badgers bum by the time we finish in Ushuaia. I am well rested, which is highly important of course!!

Another swift border crossing at 3 kilometers above sea level. Either side of the few buildings huddles together is essentially 50k’s of road winding along a contour of a valley or just switchback after switchback and then a few rolling and twisting hills. We even drove past the smallest ski fields I have ever seen in my life. One or two T-Bar rope pulls going what seems to be up vertical cliffs with a hotel plonked at the base with at most 25 rooms! So peculiar. On the way up to the border we had to stop twice because it was just getting so cold!! Small puddles of water were frozen over and on the way down we had to do the exact opposite.

We have driven through very little villages or small towns over the past few days, only large city to large city and especially in Argentina there is nothing apart from grazing cattle when out of urban regions. Chile seems to be much more agricultural with bulk tobacco and other fruity tree things that I cannot name but i’m sure Dad ‘farmer’ Stephenson will be more than happy to give you a detailed lesson on all kinds of flora.

In other news, Dad’s hat flew off his head today while in the car. Lucky I’m nice and went back to get it for him. I’ll put that one on the list 🙂

My new favorite food is Empanadas! omg they are amazing. Pretty much just a meat pasty. I hope they take the world by storm just the same way Sushi has. Meat and veggie filled pastries are gods gift to my taste buds.

The Spanish don’t do dinner untill way late in the evening so I’m thinking I will squeeze in a power nap before hand. Don’t tell Dad because he will

say that I am getting old like the rest of them : Maybe I wont nap. Maybe I’ll power through just on principal.

More updates tomorrow 😀

Adios