Saturday 16 March 2013

Bariloche to Esquel :))

Well we left the rather splendid Hotel Llao Llao and took a ride through the town of Bariloche..
We were all expecting a similar version to Pucon but not sure whether Gillian's 'compass needle (as chauffeur Roj lovingly refers to Gillian's junction hand signalling) was playing up or...
But i wouldn't bother lol

We couldn't quite decide how best to describe it and it appeared to be market day as well, but 'Tatty & Rough' was the grim opinion but there again that compass needle may have been playing up lol

We soon reset the 'compass needle' and shot off - well not quite 'shot' as Chauffeur Ayre was grumbling yesterday about the power or rather lack of power in this Toyota Hillux truck that we have hired for our 3rd leg of our journey to 'ends of the earth'
Now its Chauffeur Roj's turn at the wheel and is struggling with its acceleration and we just got over taken by a butterfly lol

Luckily we were soon out of the tatty little streets and back on Route 40 or as Roj calls it The Esquel Route.
Quite scenic again but very overcast today so don't blame the iPhone lens..

David informs us that the little white tree stumps that we see in the distance are the remains of the damage from the volcanic ash that spewed out ..

We came to a police control on the outskirts of town and Gillian panicked and and squealed 'oh gosh i've got a banana' don't worry said Roj 'its not the Fruit Police' :)
A few days ago Gillian was telling everyone in the car park that she had a 'lovely pear' - it didn't half sound funny and we had a few strange looks... Lol

It turned out that the 1st police control of the day was just informing us of the start of the 'Foot and Mouth' Free Zone..

They took one look at us and flagged us through. Now if it has been the 'Foul Mouth' Free Zone then we may have been pulled over.. LOL

We went through the town of El Bolson and noticed the queues appearing outside the petrol stations - apparently this may prove to be a problem the further south we go...

We took a coffee / nose powdering stop just on the outskirts and had to wait about 30 minutes for a cuppa. Strange vent in the ladies loo - not sure whether it was to keep the burglars out or stop the ladies from making a sharp exit before paying their bill lol.

Then onwards through a little shanty town called Choilla which was on the route of one of todays 65 km test.
We headed out of the village and onto the rough stuff.

'Nice bit of dirt' commented Chauffeur Roj as we left the village and sped on leaving trails of dust behind us. I could see Roger was enjoying this and wishing he had his hands around his Healey wheel instead of the Hillux..
Soon we came to the time control 'end of test' - No 'time card' for us today chaps so don't get out for us lol (hope they got their 'way point' spot on today or they will be in for an 'ear bashing' again lol

We came across the Jaguar, Mark at the wheel today with Yvonne doing the navigation. They are still going strong despite some very early 'teething' problemos.
Back onto Route 40 and through the Patagonian Pastures (spot the sheep) and some more interesting landscape.





















































































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