6/7/9 San Pedro to bushcamp

We spent the day on the truck travelling towards La Serena where we will be having our last camp in a site near the beach tomorrow night. Tonight we have our last bush camp but it is nearly at sea level after weeks at cold, high altitude so it should be a warm nights sleep. The route was through the Chilean desert and we took a turn off the main road to see La Mano del Desierto as in the picture. It is a huge sculpture of a hand and looks just like a giant is reaching up out of the sand. It is just off the main highway and looks really strange. We all jumped off the truck for a photo call and then got back on to head to our final bushcamp site. We stopped at sunset in the desert to set up camp and watched a really beautiful sunset and then watched the moon rise...check out phils amazing photographs!!! We lit the campfire and the final bushcamp meal of bangers and mash was prepared while the rest of us had a few rum and cokes and warmed ourselves. After a lovely meal we all chatted round the fire for a while and headed off for bed.

7/7/9 Bushcamp to La Serena

We spent the day driving along the stunning Chilean coast towards La Serena which is a beach resort to spend our final night together as the tour official finishes in Santiago tomorrow. La Serena is the second oldest city in Chile but we only saw the beach and our campsite. When we arrived we needed to give our tents and the truck interior a clean so it was all hands on deck again scrubbing and cleaning before we could get dinner and a few beers. We had a final cook group tea of Carbonara which was delicious but as Phil isn't keen we went to a beachfront resturant for some food for him and a drink for Liz. He had a really delicious ravioli dinner with a groovy Chilean band playing. Incidently Liz managed to step into a drain up to her shin and so soaked her jeans and trainer.....Phil then tried to dry the trainer over the fire and ended up melting a hole in it!!! Off to bed for our last nights camping until Africa....hoorah!!!!