Spare Parts

Thursday January 15th: Spent the morning visiting car shops to buy spare petrol cans for the long stretches ahead of us where petrol stations are too few and far between, cement to fix the Chummy's door hinges, and other miscellaneous 'must haves'.

Spent the afternoon doing maintenance on the cars. The rough roads and wind have shaken all sorts of screws loose.

Don't forget to view the other website for a more detailed account and pictures.

Lots of Sand, Wind and Miles

Wednesday January 14th: We decided to drive straight to Puerto Madryn today, a 286-mile trip. Despite very strong headwinds that had the Chummy reduced to a top speed of less than 20 mph in second gear at times, it was a successful day of driving. For the last half an hour of the drive as we approached Puerto Madryn, we drove through sand storms that had us driving like bandits - bandanas covering our noses and mouths. We washed away the sand with a refreshing cold beverage and settled in for the night.

Tomorrow is a rest day. We'll maintain the cars and do some laundry.

Viedma

Tuesday January 13th: Left Bahia Blanca at 8:30 this morning and made it the 150 miles to Viedma by about 2:30 pm, stopping only for petrol and a puncture repair. Coffee-stop opportunities were sparse so we gave up and kept going. Off to explore the town after a quick beer and coffee.

Greetings From Bahia Blanca

Friday 9th January: After a brief visit to the British Embassy we left Buenos Aires in 90+ deg heat and drove the 125 miles to Las Flores. We stayed at a very nice motel where we dined on pizza, wine, and bread pudding. life is good.

Saturday 10th January: Getting a relatively early start to avoid the afternoon heat, we drove a further 174 miles to a very remote farm (21+ km down several dirt roads) belonging to our friend, Axel, near to Benito Juarez. We quite happily set-up camp for the night and the farm caretaker very kindly killed and cooked a lamb for our dining pleasure (River and Diana were extremely content with the lettuce and tomato sandwiches provided).
Sunday 11th January: Breaking camp, we journeyed 214 miles through countryside of sunflower fields to Bahia Blanca. Our hotel, Hotel Muniz, is like a film set from Poirot and quite a welcome relief from the heat and dirt of the road.

Monday 12th January: Bahia Blanca is a lovely town of older shops and wonderful service. We are having a rest day today and taking advantage of the local laundry service although some of us (first name beginning with "C" and last name with a "P") reluctantly surrendered his

 clothes from the challenge of seeing just how dirty they could get!

Finally!

After another day and a half spent at the docks, lots of hand-waving and frantic paperwork, we finally greased enough wheels and got our cars out of customs. We are due to leave Buenos Aires tomorrow to begin the drive South.

Arrival in Buenos Aires

We arrived safely yesterday and headed straight to the shipping company to began the long process of waiting to get the cars out of the docks. The evening was spent at fellow car enthusiast, Axel´s, flat where we were served sandwiches, local sweet treats, tea, and G and Ts!

Today so far, we have paid lots of money to wait at the docks to get the cars after a very hair-raising taxi ride.

Website

See a website of the journey at http://www.austinstoargentina.net/

Virtual Map

View Larger Map

Itinerary

Shipping Day Arrives

Chris "eyes the competition" as the cars are readied for shipping from Tilbury, UK to Buenos Aires.