After an hour driving down the Paso de Jama into Chile the driver suggested we stop to let the brakes cool down. What he failed to mention was that he had his foot right down on the pedal and nothing was happening. The road was a good tarmac road and fairly straight. We had dropped over 3Km in an hour, doing 60KPH. I reckon that's a constant 1:20 drop. By this time it was getting dark so we camped by the side of the road. We are getting quite adept at this wild camping.

Next day we drove into San Pedro de Atacama located on the altiplano (a high plateau with lakes, salt flats and snow-capped volcanoes) on the eastern edge of the Atacama Desert. This desert, which is the driest in the world with areas where no rainfall has ever been recorded (not like Royston then), consists of a wide plain between the coastal hills and the altiplano. Why so dry you may ask (even if you don’t here are the facts). Chile is very wide at this point and the rain carrying clouds from the Pacific lose all their water at the coast because of the cold Humboldt Current that runs up from the Antarctic (at least that’s what Peter told me).

From San Pedro we took a coach trip (to give the driver a rest) to the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the moon) and Valle del Muerte (Valley of the dead). These are two valleys located in a range of hills (2400 metres), comprised mostly of salt, clay and sand, thrust up by tectonic plate movement 23 million years ago and eroded by water and wind. The scenery was weird especially when you remind yourself it is made of salt.

The following day we drove to the Sala de Atacama, the third largest salt lake in the world (1160 Square miles after Bolivia’s Sala de Uyuna and the lake around Salt Lake City in the USA). It lies in a great depression between two mountain ranges and has a salt layer over 1450 metres deep. The surface is a mass of salt crystals formed from the evaporation of the saline water that sits on the impermeable layer under the lake. This water originates from run off from the surrounding mountains. In several places the water forms small lakes on the surface. Very little survives in the water except brine shrimps which are fed on by the Flamingos (Phoenicoparrus species). We saw Andean and Chilean Flamingos but the James variety was not to be seen, probably sick of shrimp and had nipped down the pub for beer and curry. Peter found time to have a quick float in a lake with a very high salt content.

We wanted to visit El Tatio Geysers but all the coach trips left at 4 in the morning so in the afternoon we drove to the park and camped outside by the side of an old shed in an abandoned settlement. It was eerie. All night loose bits of corrugated roofing rattled. On the way up we drove through blazing sun, rain, hail, snow and lightning all in the space of 30 or so kilometres. One flash hit the ground next to Gerty- I won’t repeat what I said. We didn’t get much sleep as we were at an altitude of 4300 metres again and it was freezing. Peter even slept with 2 pairs of socks on.

The next morning we were awoken by one after another minibus shooting along the road to the geysers. We joined them even though it was still dark and very cold. Apparently the geysers exhibit more activity in the morning – not like me! There are around 40 geysers and 70 Fumaroles in the geothermic basin produced by the water coming into contact with hot magmatic rock deep underground. They were impressive even at this time of the day.

After this we headed for Calama to book a trip to the world’s biggest open pit copper mine. Unfortunately the trips don’t go on the weekend so we had to spend a couple of days in Calama. A town the guide books says 'don’t visit unless you have to’- not a good sign. But we both needed a rest so there we went and we still love a good look around a supermarket (sad I know) and this time we were rewarded as I found rye crispbreads, cinnamon crunchy bars and Haribo jelly cherries - don’t ask. After the excitement of the supermarket we went to the cinema and saw the latest Die Hard film. Desperate times!

The mine is located just north of Calama next to the abandoned town of Chuquicamata. The town was built in 1915 for the mine workers but pollution eventually led to its closure in 2008. It was the cleanest town we have visited! Some buildings including the hospital have already become buried under spoil from the mine. The open pit of the mine is 5 Km long, 3 Km wide and 1 km deep. It employs 16,000 people and extracts 500,000 tonnes of rock a day which yields 1500 tonnes of copper and a small amount of Molybdenum (the ore contains 33% copper and 1% molybdenum). The Molybdenum pays for all the extraction of copper. There are 91 giant 400 tonne dump trucks with 50,000 litre diesel tanks. They use 3 litres of diesel per minute. Their tyres cost 40,000 dollars each and last just 8 months. They calculate that there’s a further 1 km depth of ore which will last 50 years. Currently 36% of output goes to China. The mine was renationalized in 1971 and the huge profits account for all the new schools, hospitals and civic buildings that you see being built all over Chile. Just a shame they don’t use some to keep their streets clean, you would not believe the rubbish that’s everywhere; really sad.

Having only seen one UK vehicle in 5 months (a motorbike) we met two British travelers on the mine trip. We had a great time chatting and camped together that evening. Strangely, the next day, driving to the coast a classic car rally going around South America passed us going the other way. There must have been about 30 cars, British, European, American and Australian including a Jag and a number of Austin 7s. There were about 5 UK Land Rovers in support. That looks like fun!