We have loved the scenery along the Andes but felt a change was called for so we turned east and headed for Neuquen to check out the dinosaurs. Since 1998 the area around Neuquen has become an important area for the discovery of dinosaur fossils from the Cretaceous period (135-70 million years ago). This was when the continents started to separate and the fossils found in the area have shown how the dinosaurs developed differently due to geographic isolation. Sorry for getting technical I expect you thought you would be reading about nice gentle excursions and sunbathing. Sorry no such luck.

We drove to El Mangrullo and visited the dinosaur footprints 500mm long, on the beach of an enormous lake. They look like giant ostrich and elephant footprints and are believed to be those of a 10 metre long herbivore called Iguanodon and a four footed Sauropod or Theropod. I have no idea what they are but basically their footprints were BIG and I would't want to meet one. We camped on the shores of the lake. With no manmade light and a clear sky the stars were fantastic. Question; is the constellation 'Orion’ upside down in the southern hemisphere? I’m sure it was Orion but his sword was pointing upwards. It got rather windy overnight , with strong gusts so at 4 AM we had to put the roof down. I slept on the floor and Peter in the front seat. Not very comfy so we were both tired and grumpy the next day, however Peter did get to see a magnificent sunrise. I woke to find him asleep wearing his sunglasses.

We headed for nearby Villa El Chocon to visit the museum which is famous for having an almost complete, hundred million year old, fossilized skeleton of a giant carnivore called a Giganotosaurus carolinii. It was discovered nearby in 1993. This carnivore is even bigger than the T. Rex. It stood 4.7metres high, was 13 metres in length and weighed 8 tonnes. Another one I don’t particularly want to meet.

We then moved onto Neuquen but found it to be a very busy, hectic and dull city so as the museum was closed for the holidays we headed out to Mari Menuco and the Palaeontology centre where they are still carrying out a massive dig in the area. We were very upset to find it closed but I chatted nicely to one of the scientists and he opened the site museum and showed us around. Unluckily we had left the camera in Gerty so you will have to believe us when we say it was incredible with lots of amazing fossils from a variety of dinosaurs they have found. We also got to see a dig with partly uncovered fossils including a giant femur and vertebrae.

Our New Year’s Eve was as uneventful as Christmas Eve with everything shut, but this time we did find a shop open and managed to get a salad for me and Peter a chicken pizza which turned out to be a load of ham on a base of chicken with a covering of cheese, which we ate in Gerty. (They love their meat in Argentina). At midnight the town was woken by half an hour of firecrackers and very load explosions with no pretty lights in the sky.

With another couple of museums closed for the holidays we abandoned our dinosaur foray and headed back west to Villa Pehuenia on the shores of Lago Alumine. We camped in a lovely campsite and Gerty was admired by several Argentinians and Chileans. She could end up getting quite big headed if we arn’t careful. It is amazing the number of people that have wanted to look her over and that ask all about her, where she came from and how she got to South America. Whilst camping we started to panic as we think the gas is getting low. Next day we tried to get the cylinder refilled but the European connection is different. We did think of buying a new cylinder but they have different fittings so we would also need a different regulator- it all sounds a bit complicated to me. So for the moment we are on cooking rations.

After lunch Peter went of white water rafting. He said that compared with Lea Valley white water centre where he went in September, the sun shone, the scenery was great and he didn’t understand any of the safetybriefing.

The next day we drove up near the rim of an old volcano (Batea Mahuida) located on land belonging to the indigenous tribe (Mapuche) and walked up to the edge and then around the lake that sits inside the crater. We then drove for two days around a touristy circuit that skirts several large lakes and some interesting volcanic rock formations. In places along the road there were deep layers of cream coloured pumice. It must have been one hell of a volcanic explosion.