San Martín de los Andes, Wednesday 09 November 2016

Well, we’ll soon be on the move again, the ‘we’ including my sister Caroline –out on a trip from Wales– with whom I’ll be sharing the blog for this trip. The idea is to see something of Patagonia – taking in part of Chile, and following the Welsh belt across to the Atlantic seaboard, with a wild life visit to the Peninsula Valdes thrown in. Lots of yummy shellfish on the Pacific coast and sea lions and elephants, penguins and [hopefully calving] whales on the Atlantic. We’ll be blogging together, and uploading observations, reflections and photos as the whim takes us. Fingers crossed for a good Internet signal as we travel south.

Planned itinerary – subject to ongoing revision

Above is the route we intend to cover, starting and finishing in San Martín de los Andes. We start by driving into Chile through the Tromen pass at Mamuil Mamal, driving through the lovely tourist town of Pucón and then across to Chile’s Ruta 5, and down as far as Valdivia where we’ll spend the first night. After exploring Puerto Montt and the island of Chiloe we drive back into Argentina across the Pueyehue pass and then westwards to Welsh Patagonia. More as we go.

Preparing Silver with spare wheels and petrol cans.

So today is a day of last minute preparations. We intend to leave early tomorrow, Thursday 10 November 2016, and still have a few things to sort but we’ll leave on time. Watch this space.