And so it begins...

We’re off, our adventure around South America has been on the road for nearly 2 weeks now. Everyone’s settled in and knows their way around, we’ve seen whales, kissed sealions, got drenched in Andean rain, beaten by the wind, eaten a fair few Argentinean cows and a drunk a few thousand grapes.

Our trip began in the wonderful city of Buenos Aires, the group gathered and everyone went out to explore BA, walking around until their feet ached and doing a bit of shopping for last minute camping supplies, particularly for poor Mike who had sacrificed his sleeping bag to the gods of airline travel.

Then it was time for everyone to meet, introduce themselves and hear all about how the trip was going to work at the pre-departure meeting and group meal down at a local Parilla (grill.) Everyone got to try some steak and some other cow parts that were best left un-translated.

Pre-departure dinner

Maddie's dinner of various cow parts

The next day we got on the road, everyone got their first glimpse of Ithaca as she blocked off half the narrow street outside the hotel, bags were loaded, people found a seat and we headed off. 

All aboard!

The first couple of days were to be long driving days through the pampas: the vast tracts of flat farmland around Buenos Aires, not the most exciting scenery but brilliant if you’re a beef cow! We did our first outdoor toilet stop, a bit of a shock for some, and then drove on in to a big rain cloud. 

Emma and Tee, an Odyssey Extreme Overlander, having travelled with us from London to Australia in 2009

A rainy lunch

Everyone seemed a bit subdued, worrying about their first night in a tent being a rainy one but Emma assured everyone that the weather was going to clear, and she was very relieved when she was right and we pulled in to a stunning bush camp by Lago de las Piedras near Bahia Blanca to clear blue skies, a beautiful sunset and sunrise to match in the morning.

Stunning first bushcamp

Tents were put up, everyone got a proper tour of Ithaca and then proceeded to drink the bar dry in one night whilst filling up on a big vat of spaghetti bolognese.

Lago de las Piedras

Ellie

Bushcamp sunset

And sunrise

Scenic tooth brushing for Glenn

Simon packing the wood locker

Breakfast

First time flappers

Eamon having a quiet moment in the sunshine

In the morning we had a bit of tricky off-roading to get back on the road from the lake, which scared some of the group and made Simon very happy. Then another long drive day down to Puerto Madryn. We left Buenos Aires province and headed in to Chubut and the official start of Patagonia. Unfortunately for us Patagonia has some quite strict bio-controls and we were stopped and asked if we had any fruit, after a brief Spanglish discussion/difference of opinion we handed over our stock of apples, oranges, limes and peppers, which went in to a giant juicer.

So slightly less well stocked we drove on, feeling happy that at least they hadn’t asked about our 5kg of beautiful beef. However another half an hour down the road we were stopped again, this time at the ‘meat control station’ and watched on in horror as the officials dumped the chunks of steak in to a bin and poured disinfectant all over them.

Emma and the beef disinfecting man

However when we got to Patagonia and saw the wildlife and vast expanses of plains and incredible beauty we felt a bit better about trying to protect it from foot and mouth and fruit flies. Eastern Patagonia is HUGE, and flat and at first sight completely void of life, but after a while we got used to the vastness and began to see wild foxes, hares, guanacos (a close relative to the llama) and even flamingoes. It’s incredible that anything can survive there, but they do.

Flatagonia

Patagonian guanacos on the horizon

Very tiny flamingo

A victim of the long, flat, sleep-inducing drives in Patagonia

Patagonian lunch stop 

Patagonian lunch and new oranges!

Our sat nav didn't have to work too hard with directions

Our destination was Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes, the sealife mecca. Everyone headed off on a tour under the care of Martin, our very knowledgeable guide and saw penguins, armadillos, elephant seals, sealions and whales who posed beautifully for photos.

An armadillo's back end

Pinguino

Seals

Peninsula Valdes

Sealion

Southern Right Whale

Whale mother and calf

The next morning some of the group headed off to swim with sealions, an experience unique to this part of the world, our guide called them the ‘dogs of the sea’ and they really were, they swam up to us, had a good sniff, a quick kiss and loved any kind of attention. The rest of the group had a quiet day to wander around town, try some local seafood and enjoy a brief pause in the relentless wind that Patagonia is so good at.

Sealion swimmers

Simon getting a sealion kiss

Team sealion

Then it was back to the road. We headed South with the Atlantic Ocean to our left and vast tracts of flat Patagonian plains to our right following Route 3 which we had been following on and off since Buenos Aires. We were planning 2 bush camps along the way, when it comes to finding bush camps it comes down to 10% research and 90% the whim of the overlanding gods. To build up our luck we decided to honour the Argentinean tradition of beeping every time we went past a ‘Gauchito Gil’ shrine, an unofficial local saint, a sort of South American Robin Hood. Drivers often stop and leave offerings such as hair, cigarettes, food etc, or at the very least they give him a beep as they drive by to help bring luck on their journey.

Gauchito Gil shrine

We also did our good deed for the day, on our bushcamp hunt we headed down to a beach recreation area only to find a local guy jumping and yelling at us and pointing at his car which was about 2 feet deep in sand. He’d got caught by the tide and had been trying to dig himself out for a long time. When a huge truck arrived with sandmats on the side and 25 strong helpful gringos to push him out he must have thought Christmas had arrived early, he called us gods from heaven and invited us to a BBQ should we ever pass near his home.

Pushing the car out of the sand

All this invoking of local saints and doing of good deeds must have worked because we found a wonderful bush camp by the sea just South of Comodoro Rivadavia, with crashing waves and the occasional penguin it was a great place to have our first bonfire and spend the night, particularly once the drizzle dried up and we had yet another glorious sunset and sunrise, even if the morning wind did make taking down the cook tent a little challenging!

Road near the bushcamp

Sky clearing at bush camp

Cook tent about to take off!

Tee in the luggage locker

Wayne practicing to be a gaucho

Teamwork!

Donna & Hannah

Triona

Johnny flattens the cook tent

Danielle

The next day our luck did seem to run out a little, after a big food shop in Caleta Olivia and a long haul down towards Puerto San Julian we started our bush camp search, unfortunately miles and miles of fences, a lack of any kind of shelter and unbelievable winds scuppered our plans a bit and after a few failed detours we cut our losses and headed to a lovely little campsite in Piedrabuena on Isla Pavon with great facilities, (occasionally) hot showers and, more importantly, huge poplar trees to keep our tents from blowing away.

The highs, and lows, of Patagonia

Sheltering at the Piedrabuena camp

Not a bad alternative campsite!

Simon fills the water tank VERY slowly

The next day brought a change of scenery, from the Atlantic Coast we headed west. We started the day with this view...

the plains were so flat you could almost see the curvature of the Earth. Then we headed off on some pretty rough roads...

And after 4 hours kicking up dust and fighting the ever present wind we got this view...

And what a view!

The views kept coming

Mike & Steve admire photos

If anything getting closer to the mountains just made the wind worse and our lunch stop that day involved most of the group eating more than their suggested daily intake of dust as it got in to all our food, we also almost lost a few washing up bowls and nearly a couple of the group as Kelly and Johnny played around in the wind. Kelly was all for getting out a tarp and trying horizontal skydiving, which thankfully he didn’t! Joanna also learnt that there’s a real knack to emptying washing up bowls in gale force winds!

Eating dust

Lunch stop with a view

Anti-wind door holding team

Johnny plays in the wind

Lou and Maddie get a scenic selfie

Then eventually we arrived in the tiny mountain town of El Chalten, as we drove up we had wonderful views of Lake Viedma and the Viedma glacier and Mt Fitzroy in the distance, everyone was very excited to be in such a beautiful place and the weather was good enough to put on a spectacular show for us. 

Cerro FitzRoy

Group near Chalten

We had 3 nights staying at the foot of The Andes, the wind didn’t let up for more than a few minutes at a time so once the tents were safely up and dinner done people either did the sensible thing and tucked themselves up in their sleeping bags or the less sensible thing: found a warm bar and settled in for a few too many beers and an Oasis singalong with the locals.

Pub singalong

We had 2 full days to enjoy the extensive walks around the area, one day brought rain and wind, the other sun and wind, but everyone braved the weather, saw some beautiful scenery and built up a good appetite for our first proper Argentinean asado (BBQ) in the evening.

Hannah, Mike, Maddie, Glenn, Donna & Ann out hiking

El Chalten

Icebergs at El Chalten

Simon prepares the BBQs

Salchicas (sausages)

Maddie shows off our sweet potato salad

After Chalten it was a short hop down to El Calafate and a very welcome break from the wind which had been getting progressively stronger, the novelty had begun to wear off a little! But with clearing skies we were treated to a beautiful view of Chalten’s mountains as we drove off and even a condor soaring in the distance, it was a perfect goodbye to a beautiful part of Patagonia.