After leaving Puerto Madryn and the elephant seals behind, we headed south first and at Trelew we turned right onto the RN25 to slowly approach the Andes. As soon as we turned onto the RN25 and drove west, we felt the strong headwind that blows continuously here in the westerly wind zone. For us, this is noticeable through a number of factors. Firstly, you have the feeling that the engine is no longer powerful and you look directly at all the instruments, and secondly, the noise level in the bus increases enormously. Of course, this is already quite high anyway, but when the wind at 80 km/h is added to the headwind, you can hear and feel it properly. But what also came to us in addition to the wind was a pitch-black wall of weather, which only a few minutes later produced an incredibly heavy rain that we no longer had to go to the car wash. It was all over in twenty minutes and it seemed like nothing had happened.
After about an hour, we turned south onto a minor road to the Chubut River. The plan was actually to find a site right on the reservoir, but due to the incredibly well-developed fence construction in Argentina (at least in terms of scope) this was not possible and we decided on a small campsite close to the river, with lots of trees and good wind protection.
The next day I went on and, using satellite images, I had chosen a probably excellent pitch on a small lake in a meteorite crater. The route was clear too...follow the RN25 and then turn onto the RP53. As a rule, RN roads (Ruta Nacional) are tarred and in good condition, while RP roads (Ruta Provincial) are almost always dirt roads, i.e. unpaved. Unfortunately, how good these are can only be seen on site. In this case it was pretty good, but I had a bad feeling that we wouldn't be able to get to the crater. And that's how it was - hey presto, shortly after the turnoff to a smaller track there was a fence with a locked gate. There was a dead puma lying in front of the goal, which was pretty exciting for us. Unfortunately, pumas are hunted by the local population, because they think (similar to us with the wolves) that they would kill a few sheep as well as children. There must be some superstition involved, because cougars are extremely shy and almost never attack people (at least nothing of the sort is documented). So we drove back and found a beautiful spot next to the RP53.
The next day, we continued to Paso de Indios, always following the Chubut river valley. In Paso de Indios we replenished our supplies of food, water and petrol and turned onto the RP24. This 250 km track led very secluded through the hinterland of Argentina. The piste was mostly good and the landscape was a dream. Even if it seemed very barren, dry and hostile to life, it was very varied and fascinating. After a good 2/3 of the way, on which we saw almost all the animals that can be seen (horses, cows, rabbits, guanacos, rheas, sheep), we decided on a wind-protected place at the Laguna Seca (of which there are Certainly some in South America) and continued on our way the next day. The RPs usually run through the grazing areas of the various estancias (farms) and you regularly drive over a pasture grid. One or more dead pumas, foxes or wildcats hang on the fences next to the passages, sometimes with a head and sometimes without fur. This is supposed to serve as a deterrent for living conspecifics, but this doesn't work at all and they are more of a kind of trophy.
Arriving in Sarmiento, we chose a lower-category campsite (although there was no real choice either), which at least offered decent protection from the wind. We slowly realized that the most important thing on a pitch in Patagonia is wind protection. The next day we tried to do some laundry, which didn't quite work out, and then to go shopping. We then drove south to see a petrified forest. That was very impressive, because there were some petrified tree trunks to see. However, the park was also extremely exposed to the wind - I always had to hold Luisa by the hand so that she didn't fly away. Jonathan had to stay on Juliane's back the entire time in the Madunca. We didn’t have to pay entrance – somehow there were no more tickets for foreigners, but in the end we got a personal mini museum tour 😉 After that we went a bit off the road (which was an extremely bad track) between a few hills near the Petrified Forest and had a bite to eat before heading into the night. The destination was Los Antiguos, right on the Chilean border. It was a long ride but it was worth it. The RN40 didn't really have anything to offer up to that point and it drove very smoothly except for short unpaved sections (no idea why you leave out the tarmac for 300 m) and some heavy potholes. At the entrance to Perito Moreno we were checked by the police for the first time, but we were very relaxed and after checking the vehicle documents and my passport we could continue.
In the morning we woke up near the RÃo Antiguos and took a walk to the lavanderÃa (laundry). A nice Argentinian took us across the nearby ford in the back of his pickup (much to the kids' delight) and we walked the rest of the way. On the way home we passed «Le Petit PanaderÃa» and stocked up on delicacies. Actually, we wanted to continue in the evening, a bit on the RP41. But somehow we couldn't get our hooves up, couldn't pick up our laundry until 7 p.m., had to fill up the tank and stood again in the same place on the RÃo Chubut.
The next morning we started full of energy. We had read that the route was supposed to be extremely beautiful and, with the exception of a few spots, quite easy to drive, more dirt road (earth as underground) than gravel. The first 40 km were the finest gravel corrugated iron track, a real torture for man and machine, but the landscape is actually stunning. After that, the road got a little better and wasn't as gravelly anymore. We drove higher and higher and finally climbed the pass at 1400 m. The landscape was phenomenal and unfortunately not to be captured in pictures. From here it was only downhill. The landscape remained really varied and exciting for a while, but the slope got uglier and uglier. After we were heading back towards the RN40, we made a short stop to eat behind a hill, slightly sheltered from the wind. We could see a few birds of prey eating their prey and an incredible play of light on the mountain range in the distance.
Now it was just another 80 km of piste back to the RN40. It was awful. If we had known beforehand how bad the road is for the most part, we would not have driven it. Altogether it was about 200 km, of which about 160 km was really ugly corrugated iron road. In addition, the gravel consisted primarily of river pebbles of various sizes. Shortly before midnight we reached the saving asphalt of the RN40 and drove about 1.5 hours until we found a place to sleep sheltered from the wind. The next day we continued to Gobernador Gregores (a larger town with a supermarket, playground, PanaderÃa, gas station) and then south on the RN40. After a few kilometers the asphalt also stopped on the RN40 and about 60 km of the worst corrugated iron road with river stones followed. It was a satisfaction when Zacharias swam across the asphalt again with only 2.5 bar tire pressure left 😉 Our ride that day ended at the turnoff from Ruta 40 to El Chaltén, where there is a small shelter that also gives vehicles some wind protection. The next morning the weather was good and the view of the mountains of the mountains was almost clear - but not quite and still a long way away.
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