OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
Trip Start: Trip End: .
After an extremely restless night in which the car, tent and us inside, were buffeted and rocked by the legendary Patagonian high winds, the local farmer came along just as we were packing up this morning and told us we had camped on private property. Without any fences or signs we had no way of knowing that last night but…
On the road to …… Leaving the Cave of Hands our next main destination will be the Perito Merino calving glacier near El Calafate, detouring on the way via nearby El Chalten to see the mountain scenery that makes this a popular summer tourist destination. From the town of Perito Merino Ruta 40 has been good straight tarmac, much of…
Cave of Hands First job this morning was to take advantage of being in town and stock up on some food. The small supermarket just about had what we needed and we were soon out on the road again. Our first planned stop was Cuevas de Manos – Cave of Hands – about 85 km south of Perito Merino. Turning…
… than someone taking over reading your book? There I was, happily reading my copy of Margaret Attwood’s “The Blind Assassin” when Paul starts flicking through the opening chapter. At first I thought nothing of it: I usually read his books after he’s finished reading them – ex-SAS (or similar) hard man does good for society using his skills in…
Kicking up some dust. It was a cold morning, with evidence that temperatures had dropped below freezing overnight. However, the sun soon warmed us and the land and we set off from our campsite, marvelling at the rugged yet beautiful scenery. Even so, by midday there was still ice along the edges of the steams and, in one place, on…
Carretera Austral scenery After our exploration of the southernmost part of the Carretera Austral, down as far as Puerto Yunguy, we headed back up to Cochrane again for the night. Leaving Cochrane today we pointed north again and then quickly turned east towards the border with Argentina. Another crossing, another set of stamps in the passports! As soon as we…
On the Carretera Austral The Carretera Austral continued to please us by being in a much better condition than we had come to expect from previous travellers. Sure, there are points where the corrugations get distinctly worse, notably on the corners, and in some places the corrugations are a little more like ruts and potholes, and the road is often…
We have reached our second antipodal point, with a massive cheer. We left Cochrane around mid-morning. Reading our map suggested it should not be too long a drive, although the narrow winding roads made it difficult to get a good time estimate. And then just a couple of hours down the road we made it. We were delighted to find…
Way back in the spring of 2010, when we were planning our ‘final’ circumnavigation route we used Google maps to locate two points exactly opposite each other to be our antipodal points. One was in north eastern Mongolia, the other on Ruta 7 in southern Chile. Imagine our horror in December 2012, when, having already visited our first antipodal point,…
Toyota attached! “Toyota attachment point” I was reminded of this sticker today, usually seen on the back of a Land Rover, as we pulled up in front of an old Toyota truck, heavily laden with straw bales for animal feed or bedding, wedged into the ditch at the side of the road. The small man with the weather-beaten face was…
…. to our second antipodean point that is. We have reached Cochrane, a small town of perhaps 1,000 people. Next stop – our second antipodean point. It seems we have been looking forward to this for so long. It’ll be relief and celebration all wrapped up together. First antipodean point – achieved September 2010 (was it really that long ago)…
Bush mechanics We woke to bright morning sunshine, welcome after a very cold night that had left our noses chilled as they poked out from under our duvet during the night. Our campsite proved to be just as delightful in the morning sunshine as it had been in the fire and moonlight. A few horsemen passed us by during the…
Cuesta del Diablo After our brief stay in Coihaique we continued our route south, down the Carretera Austral, stopping briefly to take in the scenery overlooking the Cuesta del Diablo. Although the autumn leaves were falling thick and fast just a few hundred miles north east in Argentina only a week or so ago, here the colours of autumn are…
Scenery along the Carretera It seems to have been forever since we passed our last significant marker on our attempt at a true circumnavigation overland, which was our first crossing of the equator back in Ecuador. Within a few days we are due to be at our second antipodean point, and tonight we reached Coihaique, the nearest main town to…
Even the car on the drive still remains buried in the ash at this house. Having stayed the night in Chaiten we took a look around the streets and the remains of this once provincial capital. Destroyed by volcanic eruption in 2008 it now stands as a sad shadow of its former glory. Many of the houses still stand as…
After our glorious autumnal campsite at the Argentinean border last night the border crossings back into Chile were quick and painless (the Chilean customs didn’t take any more of our food supplies), before we headed west towards the Carretera Austral. Where we joined the road (Ruta 7) at Villa Santa Lucia we decided we had time to head north first…
…since I last saw autumn. Colours of autumn I am standing in the Rio Grande campsite, just 100 yards from the Argentinean border crossing that will take us back into Chile and on to the renowned Carretera Austral. In the background I can hear the steady sound of the turbulence of the river, no more than 30 yards away, while…
At least we had a beautiful place to camp while Paul did his repair work. After our second attempt at leaving the El Bolson campsite we made it. We spent longer there than anticipated thanks to a little ‘bug’ which hit us both. However our first attempt at leaving was delayed when we stopped to get some printing and posting…
The miracles of overlanding and LR contacts Well, we’re on the road again. After Paul’s return from work in the UK (and my stint in the laundry at Puerto Octay), and armed with new parts, Paul first caught up on some outstanding maintenance. Some things you just can’t anticipate. A couple of hundred kilometres down the road and there was…
Apologies if things have been a bit quiet on the blog front of late. We’ve been offline while we have been transferring hosting providers. Things have been a bit quiet here in Chile but we should be moving south very soon and REACHING OUR SECOND ANTIPODEAN POINT!!!!! *Big round of cheers*…
Check out the 12 winners from 2012 and vote – you can ‘flick’ through the books online and get a good look at them all – the books are all great but obviously we hope we’ll get your vote! http://www.bobbooks.co.uk/bookshop/book-of-the-month…
Check out the 12 winners from 2012 and vote – you can ‘flick’ through the books online and get a good look at them all – the books are all great but obviously we hope we’ll get your vote! http://www.bobbooks.co.uk/bookshop/book-of-the-month…
During our couple of days at San Martin de los Andes in Argentina I spotted some leaflets advertising a cultural film event and so we spent Saturday evening watching a set of three films about human rights and immigration issues. The promised English sub-titles didn’t materialise although one was spoken in English anyway and sub-titled into Spanish. The third film…
Chess on the Square We explored a little of San Martin de Los Andes today. A lot of outdoor clothing stores: they obviously get a good share of tourism here. The town square is pretty large, with lots of flower beds, seating and loads of people just sitting chatting or wandering around taking in the air. A band was setting…
Checking out the camera in front of Vulcan Villarrica After taking a drive part way up the side of Vulan Villarrica it was time to head towards our next border crossing. A drive through the pretty countryside towards Argentina was without mishap and the border crossings pretty straightforward. Once across the border we delighted in the lovely scenery, more volcanoes…
Roadside radiator repair While following the beautiful country lanes of the Ruta Interlagos today we became aware of an unwelcome smell – water coolant leaking out into a hot engine compartment. The bumpy corrugations of the Ruta Interlagos has caused the radiator to jump off its mounting, lurch backward into the engine compartment, pushing the bottom hose on to the…
Having reached Cunco in the Chilean lake district we stopped at a lovely little campsite, “San Pablo”, for a couple of nights. out came the kelly kettle Unfortunately while we were there our Coleman dual fuel (and dual burner) stove broke down (again). This otherwise amazing bit of camping kit had lasted Paul for some fifteen or more years of…
…. would you believe it? When we picked up our second replacement windscreen in Santiago back in December we carried it carefully back to where we were staying in order to fit it. Unfortunately not carefully enough as a tiny tiny tiny little chip was knocked into it around the top edge by one of the bolts in the back…
After leaving Rancho Esparantajaros we stopped first just 1km down the road at a local cheese farm. To anyone who doesn’t love cheese this might not seem important. But to anyone who loves cheese, travelling outside of the UK or the US results in chronic deprivation. Chilean cheese has been the lesser of many evils so far but even here…
After leaving El Molino in Puerto Octay we thought we would be at Rancho Espantapajaros farm and restaurant for a couple of days to finalising fixing the clutch before heading south to at least our second antipodean point before the month was out. However (there’s always an however isn’t there) after Paul had replaced the oil-leaking clutch slave cylinder and…