The day after visiting the Fray Bentos factory we headed to the border which is a bridge across the river Platte. It all went very smoothly, amazingly smoothly on the Uruguay side but when we got across the bridge we couldn't find the Argentinian customs and immigration offices. There were several buildings but one was closed and in another an official looking man just waved us out and on our way which was rather disconcerting. We even asked some lorry drivers who were hanging around and they did the same. This was a little nerve racking as the Argentinians can be a bit prickly about paperwork. We drove down the road and still no sign of offices. We finally reached the first town and asked several people including policemen and ended up at the customs office in the town. They thought it was funny and kept making signs of someone in handcuffs. I didn’t find it at all funny! Eventually they showed us that our passport had been stamped and Arthur did have his paperwork. We felt right twits. It turned out that the offices on the Uruguay side were for both leaving Uruguay and entering Argentina. In our defence there was not a sign or flag indicating this on the offices or the desks. But with a sigh of relief we headed off into the wilds of Argentina.

It wasn’t so much wild as field after field after field of rough looking grass, a few cows, the odd horse and the occasional farm house. The road stretched ahead of us as far as the eye could see and each small hill revealed yet another expanse of farmland and road. For 3 days we drove through this scenery. At one stage the Sat Nav said the next roundabout was 140Kms away and the road was dead straight to that. We had forgotten how big Argentina is. Gaucho Gil shrines lined the roads. Imagine Robin Hood meets patriotic soldier meets protective Saint and you have some idea of Gaucho Gil. According to the story, Gaucho Gil lived, loved and fought in Argentina back in the nineteenth century before he was strung up and executed for desertion on January, 8, 1878. It is unclear how much of it is fact, and how much is fable. Despite this he is revered by many Argentines, despite being in no way sanctioned by the Catholic Church.

We drove through a few small villages but they didn’t look to impressive so we drove on. We wanted to get to the Valdes Peninsula as this has some good marine wildlife and in particular the Southern Right whale spends time here, the mothers and new-borns that is. With no hotels or campsites on route, we spent 3 nights in YPF petrol stations and shut ourselves away in Arthur and started watching 'House of cards’ on the computer.

The nearest town to the Peninsula is Puerto Madryn. Our plan was to stay there for a couple of nights before going onto the peninsula but this didn’t pan out as the town was heaving with people (we discovered it was a bank holiday weekend) and lots of smart looking Fiat 600’s (some club event). Hotels were fully booked and the campsite full of Fiat owners, so after visiting the supermarket we headed back out of town to, yes you have guessed the YPF petrol station. Next morning we headed to the Peninsula.

Around 3,625 km2 (896,000 acres or 1,400 sq. mi) in size the peninsula is an important nature reserve listed as a World heritage Site. The only town on the peninsula is the small settlement of Puerto Piramides, where you can get a boat out to see the Southern Right whales that spend time here from around May to December to give birth. The large bay provides shelter and a warmer temperature but no food so as soon as the young are strong enough mother and baby swim to the Antarctic where they will feed.

Our first boat trip was good although it was a bit windy. We spent an hour watching a mother and baby before returning and braving a beer on the terrace of a nice hotel whilst battling the clouds of dust and sand swirling around the village. The following day the wind had died, the sun was shining so we went on another boat trip. The sea was so calm you couldn’t even tell you were on water. We found a whole group of mothers and babies. One baby came to investigate our boat and bumped into it. Now you might think ‘so what’ but this baby was almost as big as the boat so you definitely felt it. It must have worried the baby as well because the mother came over to investigate and check that the baby was okay. We also got a great sighting of some Dusky Dolphins. Pushing our luck we went out again on a boat with windows in the bottom but we only caught a glimpse of a couple of tails.

The next day which was rather breezy and a little wet we drove around the peninsula to several good spots for viewing more marine wildlife and got to see Sea lions, Elephant seals, Magallenic penguins. Peter even spotted a group of Killer whales but was disappointed that they didn’t come on the beach and grab a sea lion, which is a technique they have developed in this area. On the land we saw Guanacos (Llama like), Maras (rabbit like), Tinamou (funny looking birds) and one squashed Armadillo being eaten by Turkey Vultures. The whole of the Peninsula is rough looking scrubland and I am not sure how anything can survive there. A few haciendas eeck out a living with some sheep but they look pretty scraggly. They must have done okay at one time as ships used to come into a now sand filled port to collect the wool. The only break in the scenery is the odd salt lake. The largest of these lakes is about 40 m below sea level. Before leaving the peninsula we popped along to one final viewing point but it was so windy we couldn’t even hold the binoculars still enough to view the very noisy sea lion colony sheltering under the cliffs.

After this we headed back to Puerto Madryn to restock on food, recharge our phone and get some cash. Peter spends a lot of time battling with ATMs as they seem to have minds of their own and one day like our cards and dole out lots of cash and other times won’t let us have a peso. We found a nice looking hotel but later realised it was not so good as the local dogs started up. The Argentinians (most S Americans come to that) seem oblivious to the racket their dogs make and just leave them running free and chasing anything they take a dislike to. I watched one poor bloke on a motor scooter get a whip out and chase them off, Peter reckoned he must be the local sausage delivery boy! We got very excited when after a worrying time with very little cash one ATM was feeling generous and we quickly got lots of cash and celebrated with a cup of tea. The next day we walked along the front and watched some whales just off the coast. I am not sure if the Argentinians also watching the whales indicates this is a rare occurrence or the few Argentinians watching indicates a common occurrence. Either way we got some good sightings. It would be great to live somewhere with whales. Not much chance in Royston!

The history of the town is a little odd. Towards the end of 1862, a Captain Jones Parry and Lewis Jones left for Argentina (Patagonia) to decide whether it was a suitable area for Welsh emigrants. They first visited Buenos Aires then headed south. They reached Patagonia in a small ship but were driven by a storm into a bay which they named "Porth Madryn" after Jones-Parry's estate in Wales. The town which grew near the spot where they landed is Puerto Madryn. On their return to Wales they declared the area to be very suitable for colonisation and soon another 153 Welsh settlers arrived. They soon found out that the area was not as good as they had been led to believe (never believe an Estate Agents description) and things didn’t go well until the local Tehuelche people showed them how to survive in the dry and barren land and on exploring a little south they came across the rio Chubut. But why come here in the first place? Well a chap called Prof. Michael Jones had the idea of a new "little Wales beyond Wales". He proposed setting up a Welsh speaking colony away from the influence of the English restrictions on the Welsh religion. He recruited settlers and provided financing and chose Patagonia for its isolation and also the Argentines' offered 100 square miles (260 km²) of land in exchange for settling the still-unconquered land of Patagonia for Argentina. So there you go. More about the Welsh later.