-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.
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