2018-05-16 Day 350 Wed

Woke to -7.7℃ at 05:30 it then got colder, down to -9℃ . I wonder what the temperature at the top got down to? The engine would not start. 

A lovely clear morning. The sky’s these last few days have been so very very blue, amazingly blue. Australian dessert has these blue skies but not quite the same. Maybe having the high red hills help with the enhancement of the blue color.

We got the engine running at about 10ish and left our little camp, which wasn’t so bad, there was a bit of a view across the valley.

One of the few graveyards we have seen in this past year without a fence or wall around it.

The road was fast and seeing as we are a week early we decided to take a loop road into Parque Provincial Los Andes. It was a very quiet road .

We passed a few salt flats and saw some neat hills. The parque as usual from our perspective is just similar to the other land, farmed animals, people living in it. We are off the beaten track again….

What is with this Donkey you may ask?

Unnatural pose? Yes. It was a dried out husk of a donkey that someone decided to stand up!!!

Into San Antonio de los Cobres at the information building with the help of the lady and her Argentinian ID I managed to register my SIM, but no internet here today!!!!! I still had to logon to the website to buy internet packets. couldn’t log on. Very frustrating…..

The smallest Llama we have seen still wobbly on it's legs!

Some of the roads require some support!

As we drove out of town I realised that routa 40 didn’t exist it is on the map but not on the ground. Not sure how they say it goes all the way north (which it does) but just missing 12km.

Tried to find a camp above a train tunnel but wasn’t very nice so retraced our steps a little and drove up a track to above a few ruined houses and made camp. Nice and quiet no sirens!!

2018-05-15 Day 349 Tue

 -2.5°C at 0800hrs.

Walked across to a wet, or rather ice, area and took a few photos. Quite interesting how the ice forms a couple inches above the water or where there is no water.

Left camp about 10:00, crossed the pass at 4740m and down the other side. Another dirt track joined with a new set of tyre marks.

Only one small challenge where EC just walked out.

 At the village Rosario de Susques, there is a well cared for church, and about 6 houses huddled together and a very friendly cat. A bar was across the road keeping we assume people from entering not leaving.

 Through we went onto a better road. A front end loader had been improving parts of the road (I assume) as some of the places were still very rough. Finally we caught up to the loader and the guys asked for water; strange as there was a small clear stream right beside them, we chatted for a bit then continued. They had improved the road out to where their caravan was.

The road improved the further we went.

Just before El Torro there were some neat rock formations.

We turned off towards te Reserva Provincial Altoandina De La Chinchilla and Jama. The orange road out was not an orange with washouts etc, but the white road into Jama was good and fast.

Filled with fuel at Jama and although advertised they did not supply a password for wifi not sure of the reason.

In the last 2½ days we have only seen about 3 vehicles, a wheel barrow and a 3 wheel pushie.

Back on paved road headed to a high pass between two parks for the night. The white road we turned onto was an orange. It had been remade. At the pass 4570m altitude we camped on top of a hill. One of the few times we had left foot prints behind. Nice early camp.

I pulled stove apart to clean it as we had been able to smell diesel.

We opened a bottle of wine from the winery we visited. Very good Malbec.

Into bed and asleep.

At 10:30 siren and flashing blue lights. John got up and dressed to speak to the police officer. His concern was that it was forecast to be -24℃ and the engine would not start tomorrow. We couldn’t believe it would be that cold. He suggested we drive another 4 km and stay at the refugeo. Anyway we said we’d leave and he left. We packed up and drove downhill but after about 5km we parked up an unused section of road at 4280m altitude. It was -0.6℃ up top and 3.6℃ here.

So did not get my last chance to acclimatize for a night at the high pass 4960M

175km

2018-05-14 Day 348 Mon

We watched a lady walk past on the road pushing a 3 wheel bicycle. But apart from that everything was quiet.

Cold water and orange juice instead of tea! We continued on the loop Ruta 86. This road was narrower but had just been graded so had a good surface. The views were spectacular. Finished or circuit back close to Santa Catalina then headed south on ruta 65. An orange dirt road. A semi with a front end loader went by as we turned the corner.

Joined up with Ruta 40 the longest National highway in the world some 4500km?? We have tried hard to stay off Ruta 40 as being the main road there are too many trucks buses and cars. But here ruta 40 is unpaved and mostly unused.

 

We were on ruta 40 for 133km and the only traffic was one man pushing his wheelbarrow full of sticks back to his village. At one stage this national highway drove for 11km up a river bed in a fantastic canyon. We stopped often to take photos and marvel at the cliff faces. I wonder how many days/weeks it is unusable throughout the year?

Where did the road go??

 Dakar 2017

We passed by Mina Pirquitas whose township is the highest all year round town ship in Argentina at 4100m. Just after here we missed our turn and back tracked 5 km. How did we miss a turn onto an orange road well it was little more than a track beside a river bed, a bit washed out but there was one set of tracks so off we went.

A rough unkempt road. At a small washout the tire tracks turned back, we just walked through!

We got stuck in a washout and with a bit of shoveling and rocks got out. Then on to another challenge. A 3 foot deep 3 foot wide washout or a steep river crossing? After a trial crow barring at the washout we decided on the river crossing.

 A few rocks strategically placed and the high spot shoveled off the far edge and we were committed.. The left hand step dug in so backwards a bit and more shoveling. Got her front feet out and the back kept slipping some more rocks and almost out. Amazing what she can do in two wheel drive!!

Engaged hubs and out she walked!!

No more major challenges just little ones. We continued to climb to an altitude of 4400m and camped on side of road. Just habit I guess as there in no chance a vehicle will pass.

I cooked an omelet in the bread maker for dinner.

I had a slight headache. Most of the day was spent just over 4000m

187km

2018-05-13 Day 347 Sun

Had a good nights sleep. Took stove apart twice and still wouldn't run so no tea today. The stove is just not starting and does not fail with a code just tries to start for 10 mins then shuts down, but is then flooded so need to empty the diesel out of it.

We stuck to orange roads today - although all but about 10km were dirt. In Villazon which is the main Argentina/Bolivia border town we bought some fuel and pumped our tyres up. Spent time trying for WiFi and just got a little. Managed to buy a Personal Sim for phone but cannot register it as don't have local ID and the Personal shop was closed being Sunday. Bought a few veggies and another kilo of walnuts. Drove on Ruta 5 west out to the northern most road in Argentina. At last we are finding some interesting

landscapes. Camped at 4150m altitude looking out over a valley 600m below us.

John re pot riveted the back right hand locker door on. Took stove completely apart and cleaned it while a chocolate cake was cooking. Dinner will be heated in the bread maker tonight!!

186km

2018-05-12 Day 346 Sat

Drove down out of the hills and continued on Routa 09 turned onto an orange which was dirt but OK. After 42 km we turned onto a yellow which was no better than a track. It did have one set of vehicle tracks on it though. We only had to fill in one wash away with rocks to get through but apart from that, the track was good and the hills were not steep. We stopped at the saddle for lunch at 4300m altitude. Then down the other side. By this time I had a headache……

We drove through a guys farm yard and out the other side. A really lovely drive but slow. After 30km of track we were back on orange which was dirt and washed out in a few places.

More like a yellow road. After 20km camped off to the side of the road at 3620m altitude.

I took some nurophen and lay down for a while. John installed the inside phone transmitter aerial . John cooked Dinner and by then I was feeling a bit better.

250km

2018-05-11 Day 345 Fri

A lovely misty morning with good Internet so we stayed put till after lunch, catching up on things, managed to get my blog up to date and john published them all.

We drove through San Salvador de Jujuy and bought fuel and managed to get some money out of an ATM. Only 1 in 3 gas stations are accepting my card and about the same number of ATM's.

Drove on a really narrow sealed road. No way wide enough for two cars let alone two earth cruisers.

Drove out a Westerly loop road and camped at just under 2000m altitude near the park provincial Potrero de Yala. A really lovely windy narrow drive.

Met a group of 4 wheelers off for a weekend play. One guy had really good English so we chatted a while.

104 km

Equipment

Our lockers are full of a bunch of equipment from safely gear thru to the fun stuff. Some of it we use on a daily basis and some of it we hope we will never ever use, but here is a partial list.

Vehicle. We travel in a right-hand drive 2010 Mitsubishi Fuso Canter powered by a 4.9 litre turbo-charged diesel engine, with a 5 speed 4x4 transmission and limited slip differential. The accommodation is built by an Australian company, Earth Cruiser.

Vehicle recovery. The Earth Cruiser is fitted with a WARN large-frame winch, an air compressor and Michelin XZL tires. On the pavement these tyres run at about 55psi (cold) but when things get rough we drop to around 40psi; and when it gets tough we will drop to 30psi (or even lower in a pinch). Tough going means mud, or loose sand. Loose, coarse, well-sorted gravel is really tough. The ability to adjust tire pressure as required is the most import technique we have; and sometimes more often than daily. We have a set of 4 gadgets to make letting down the tires faster and easier. Also we have a set of maxtrax when low tire pressure is not enough. Next comes the winch with a full set of heavy duty recovery gear (shackles, pullies, straps etc).

Tires. The tires are the Military spec Michelin XZL on 16" rims, with 2 spares. We also carry spare tubes, patches, and goop. One key bit of gear is a torque multiplier to get the wheel nuts loosened after being torqued up by pneumatic wrenches in the shop.

Mapping. We use a 10.5" ASUS Android tablet running Open Street Map (OSM) for our mapping. This has been an excellent solution.  A key feature is the ability to download maps for the entire South American continent (some 20GB) prior to venturing into regions far from the Internet. We use the Open Cycle Maps as a base because they have contours. We also installed the Trip Recording plugin to enable us to record our route in the gpx format; and use GpsPrune to consolidate prior to uploading to Google maps.

First Aid. We both have basic first-aid training and carry a basic kit.

Hiking. We carry a full set of hiking gear to enable multi-day excursions. All of the usual stuff: pack, sleeping bag & mat, tent, cooking gear, wet weather gear etc. Most of our hiking is however day walks.

Kayak. We carry an Advancedframe Convertible Inflatable Kayak which has proven excellent for exploring.

Photography. We have a Canon EOS-7D body with 3 lenses; 50mm; 10-20mm & 20-200mm Sigma. We also have a Ricoh CX2 which is excellent for macro work.

Internet. We purchase a local SIM in each country we visit; and sometimes two SIMs from different companies to improve coverage. Each country has a different requirement for registering the SIM, purchasing credit, and using the credit to purchase Internet data access. We then setup a blue-tooth tether from the Android phone to our other devices. We also use a Fusion2Go 3.0 RV signal booster to extend our effective range from the mobile phone towers. This setup facilitates Internet access away from the urban areas where WiFi may be found; however it is not without it's challenges. The SIM purchase is dirt cheap but the registration and initial setup is tricky in some countries and usually requires local assistance. Purchasing credit is usually easy at any small store or supermarket. Using credit to purchase Internet data is a bit different in each country but is usually easiest via a set of USSD codes typed into the keypad. Mobile phone towers are most common near urban areas; may offer LTE, 3G, 2G or nothing; and provide highly variable actual data thru-put, regardless of the signal quality.

Communications. Apart from the local SIM cards in each country we also carry a inmarsat phone & a SPOT device.

Spares. For the South American trip we are carrying just the basics for the Fuso (fan belt, compressor belt, air filters, fuel filter & oil filter). These have been necessary when servicing the vehicle in areas where Fuso is uncommon. We also carry a basic set of tools (drivers, spanners, sockets, files, drills, tap & die set, pliers, hammer) and general supplies (hose clamps, screws, bolts, electrical wire & connectors, cable ties, tape, & fencing wire).