Headed inland on a
white(dirt) road to Tilama. Where there is a quartz quarry, but like most
other tourist industries they were closed. Headed north on the gravel
road. Were behind a truck which was great as when he went into the
tunnel we could confidently follow and feel safe as it was only one lane. The
second tunnel he went in honking his horn, we soon found out why. It
was a curved tunnel. The third we had to wait for another truck
coming our way. The last tunnel was very narrow and the tire tracks
were well worn in the dirt. I think a car would be scraping its under
belly.
Found a river with
water in it at Limahuida, so stopped and investigated further with the
steps and did the washing. The main cog that moves the steps seems to
be almost siezed. Unable to get it off so some WD40 and time.
Drove on and up. At
Illapel we finally found a supermarket to buy a few things in. The
"witch" had most of the streets incorrectly labeled so we nearly drove
up some the wrong way. A little further north we peeled of the orange
road back onto white. Quite a narrow road but had just been dressed
so no potholes.
We turned off this
white road onto a lesser white road and went up. Lots of switch backs
and very narrow. I was hoping we wouldn't meet traffic as very few
places to pass. Lots of small mines in the area.
At the top we
followed a small track trying to reach the crest looking south. The
road fizzed then we noticed a guy coming towards us. A really
friendly chap missing his two front teeth but a very welcoming smile. I
informed him we were trying to get up for a view. He then explained
to John where we should go.
We ended up at the
top of a very rain damaged track at about 1920m. A great 360 view.
