The journey across Argentina took 2 days. The scenery was quite spectacular with red, green and cream coloured giant flat topped cliffs and weird shaped rock formations. For half the distance (around 300kms) the road followed the Rio Chubut so there was some greenery including trees but the remaining area was covered with yet more scrubland (they call it Pampas). The first night we wild camped by the river. The road passes through about 4 small villages and we spent some time wondering what the residents do all day as they looked quite bleak (the villages not the people, didn't actually see any people!), bleak and dusty. It would take then a day to get to any town with shops and facilities so I suppose that would take up quite a lot of their time. You would be right ****** off if you got home and found out you had forgot something.

Halfway across we stopped to fill up with diesel (it’s best to keep the tank full as you don’t know if the next station will have fuel or not, especially in Argentina) and spotted a mineral museum so popped in. Basically a local man had converted a large garage into a space full of minerals he and his wife had collected from the surrounding hills. He had been a mineralogist for the petroleum industry and spoke good English and was happy to chat to us about his collection. One that fascinated both of us was a quartz like stone with water in it. Around 170 million years ago Silica had become trapped in a lava flow and the result was a beautiful rock with water trapped inside it. For the first time we saw armadillos, 3 crossing the road. They are so sweet looking.

Before crossing into Chile we camped in a road cutting for the night to use up all our fresh food. The Chileans are very fussy on what you can bring into the country. Next day we were very pleased to find an Argentinian customs office on the Argentinian side and a Chilean office on the Chilean side so no confusion this time. We did spot a sign that said no honey, amongst other foods, to be bought into the country so we quietly placed my lovely honey in a bin outside the customs office only for the inspector not to even bother looking in the food cupboard, typical!

The initial road from the Chilean border was paved but after lulling you into a nice welcome it gave way to the typical gravel road. We drove slowly and very carefully for hours avoiding big rocks and potholes with no sign of a suitable camping spot. The road (the Carretera Austral) started to get mountainous and we passed the start of some quite extensive roadworks repairing what looked like a lot of landslides. Halfway along the roadworks we found a grassy bit (more mud actually) to pull into and camped for the night. It rained all night and at about 4 Peter decided to move Arthur in case we started to sink into the mud. Next morning Arthur had a flattish tyre, which Peter had to get fixed at the gomeria (vulcanisacion in Chile) in the next town. The road got worse and eventually the traffic (2 cars and a lorry) came to a stop whilst a large JCB digger climbed up what looked like a recent landslide, to try and clear some trees. After a 30min wait we continued past a great looking glacier and finally onto a paved road into the town of Chaiten, where we stayed a night. Peter, surprisingly, is still talking to me. I was supposed to be seeing him under a metal canopy into the hotel carpark. It all looked fine to me but the ensuing crunch said otherwise. A couple of ratchet straps around a couple of sand ladders on the roof were protruding more than I realised. In my defence I wasn’t told that they were sticking up (Peter claims he did tell me). We later found out the damage was a little more than bent ratchet straps.

Our intention was to head north along the fjords to a town called Hornopein. To do this you have to catch several ferries. We tried to buy tickets on line but this was without success. I was a bit worried as it says you must reserve a place either on line or at an office. The hotel owner was very helpful and advised us that there was a small office in the town, phew. We dashed along but it was closed. Luckily for us it was open on Sundays so we managed to get tickets the next day before we headed into the park. The ticket covers 2 ferry trips. A 30min trip, after which you make a quick dash across a small peninsula (10kms), to catch the second ferry for a 3.5 hr trip through beautiful fjords.

In May, 2008 the Chaiten volcano (23kms away) erupted for the first time in over 9,000 years and the town of Chaiten was destroyed. Volcanic ash spewed upwards of 19 miles (31 km) and landed throughout Patagonia and even across the Atlantic. A week after the eruption, a lahar (landslide of mud and ash caused by volcanic activity) occurred which caused the Blanco River to overflow, flooding the entire town and nearby areas with a thick slurry of mud and ash that poured into houses. We saw a couple still in the process of digging out. For a while Chaitén was abandoned by the government, but is slowly rebuilding itself. I do love a good volcano so next day we headed into Parque Pumalin to climb the 1000 metre high volcano (which hopefully won’t be active for another 9000 years). It was quite a slog. I didn’t think I would make it. Peter didn’t think I would make it but after 3 hours we got to the top. I collapsed. The last 100 metres had been up steep loose scree. The crater is a little odd as it has a large steaming cone of volcanic material in its centre. Around this are several lakes and a lot of, what looks like, mud. All around one side of the volcano is the evidence of the damage done by the pyroclastic flow, the clouds of ash and the lahar. There are thousands of dead trees, most knocked over or raggedly broken from the blast. From the crater you can see the route the lahar took right down to the town of Chaiten. The Parque was closed for 2 years while they repaired and cleared the roads. The Parque (700,000 hectares) is special as it is a private reserve created by the US billionaire Douglas Tompkins. It is considered to be the most diverse temperate rainforest in the world. It was certainly very beautiful. We camped by one of its lakes and watched an otter.

It rained all night and I woke to a wet bed. Peter investigated and it wasn’t me, but it would appear that the ratchet strap was fixed to an eye that got pushed down when Arthur hit the metal roof truss at the hotel and made a small crack in the roof, opps!

The next morning we drove north. Just north of the town the road was very very wide and we realised it served as a runway as well as road. Thats a first. The road then crossed through the Parque to the very small village of Caleta Gonzalo to catch the first of the 2 ferries. The second ferry drops you at the town of Hornopein. Whilst making a cup of coffee for the ships engineer the gas started to die so our first job upon arrival was find a gas cylinder shop. Going back a step Peter had befriended the engineer and gone down into the engine room and subsequently the engineer popped over to have a look at Arthur. He told us all about the boat which was from Greece. The engineer sailed it to Chile across the Atlantic and through the Magdalen Strait which must have been an adventure.

Stocked up with new gas cylinder, food and water we headed north to Petrohue on a very scenic, but rough, road alongside the Seno de Reloncavi a beautiful fjord with snow-capped mountains and steep tree covered slopes. It is the northernmost of Chiles glacial inlets known for its Sea lions and Dolphins (we saw the former lounging on a large red buoy).The fjord is used extensively for fish and mussel farming. It was a lovely hot day so we camped overlooking the fjord and sat by the side of Arthur reading our books.