The Golden Van: Bye Bye Penguins

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Layne and I made a decision to take one final have a look at the penguins, only a transient cease on the entrance to their space on the deserted ranger station. 

The doorway to the reserve would have been closed to Rusty however now it’s all vast open. 

We drove the border with Chile for a few miles with the Straits of Magellan a touch of blue on the horizon. There was no objective apart from to fulfill my curiosity as I like testing these odd human constructs round borders and possession and management. Every nation has its personal fence proper alongside one another to mark the road and Chile has its personal street on the opposite aspect.  

…a part of the complicated of drilling installations, authorities places of work, naval outposts and even hospitality amenities on this beautiful however lonely spot. 

I joked we might inform individuals we’d been to Cape Horn and nobody would know the distinction. Konstantin mentioned he has a good friend busy visiting each lighthouse on this planet and he would. Spoilsports.

The Argentine flag on the roof could be a giveaway however extra importantly in entrance of the Navy base is an indication asserting mile zero, kilometer zero actually, of Ruta 40. 

You’ve in all probability by no means heard of Ruta 40 however it’s well-known because the street that spans Argentina high to backside, 3227 miles lengthy (exactly 5194 kilometers) and it goes from 12,000 ft altitude on the border with Bolivia all the way down to right here nearly at sea stage.  

There’s a few of the identical mythology related to as Route 66 within the States. Years in the past the freeway was principally dust and vacationers reported horrendous journeys torn by winds scuffling with a horrible street floor for hundreds of miles. 

That is the tip of South America in Argentina, caught on a beautiful sunny day with winds not robust sufficient to blow us over. 

The wind was robust sufficient to play with Rusty’s ears. 

He refused to pose with the signal.  

However we did. Konstantin and Julia from Seattle, Russian immigrants to the US, and us seeking to get espresso and cake to have a good time our arrival. 

Cabo Virgenes under and the straits to the correct shielded from us by a skinny strip of Chile. 

What a splendid isolation with the Argentine prefecture (Federal authorities consultant) on the distant hill and us with the navy on this hill and  the deserted provincial park’s yellow buildings under within the valley.  

We’re going to drive donebof Ruta 40 on our method north hopefully Salta close to Bolivia and Chile the place there may be intriguing desert and colourful mountains and equally colourful impoverished colonial cities. Fortunately although the freeway is paved these days, all besides the southernmost stretch which we are going to by cross after Rio Gallegos…I hate dust roads. 

This photos intimate Faro (lighthouse) at Cabo Virgenes the place there occurs to be a tea home. It’s run by the homeowners of this land, the ranch (estancia) referred to as Monte Dinero (cash mountain). Additionally they have a visitor home with bunk mattress hostel lodging and extra luxurious lodge rooms for $265 an evening. We had espresso and cake.  

The lodge is inland about forty  minutes by sluggish Promaster on the primary street which is the place these workers dwell. The espresso store has these nice views I photographed above out to the cape. 

There’s additionally a really robust cellphone sign all throughout the cape which was how I posted yesterdays penguin images as I didn’t must arrange our Starlink. Web entry is fairly weak throughout a lot of the plains down right here. I used to be the one one in every of us who left his cellphone within the automobile and solely had my Panasonic digicam. 

We additionally purchased a Ruta 40 passport and a sticker for GANNET2 marking mile zero. 

We’re not going to drive each mile however we should always get fairly just a few stamps in our e book as we crisscross Argentina. 

There was clearly rain our forecast as we service on 65 miles of gravel again to paved Freeway 3. 

Konstantin and Julia bought again to Rio Gallegos in three hours whereas it took us 5 simply to get again to the pavement. I’ve no need to wreck GANNET2 recklessly. 

And when it began to hail we stopped and I circled to place the windshield out of the wind as I used to be fearful we’d get broken. 

It handed in 5 minutes however the street was white for some time there. Patagonia has extraordinarily changeable climate. The wind picked up too and by night we had 50 mph gusts and admittedly the gusts appeared fairly steady to me. 

I can’t think about drilling for oil and fuel right here in winter however I assume they do it in  Alaska…

And do again up our riverside camp outdoors Rio Gallegos. 

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