Guest post by Nina Ramm-Schmidt

Slightly disappointed not having completed the car selling task in Punta Arenas, but at the same time happy to be back in our “home” again, we hit the road north on to the 3000 km stretch to Buenos Aires. The Safari was now all clean and shining (we had cleaned it for the sale, of course), and thanks to some reorganizing and now having less stuff (Kuba and Jono sold their bikes), we were even able to see through the back window without the bikes blocking the view.

Eager to reach Buenos Aires and enjoy some real city life (which we haven’t really had until now since Santiago), as well as warmer climate, we focused on driving and didn’t stop for too many attractions on the way other than to see some sea lions. We had three nice camping evenings along the way, some minor problems with the car, and other than that we mostly just enjoyed the scenery, beautiful sunsets and full moon from the car.

After the border crossing to Argentina the car was starting to feel more shaky than usual, so we stopped over to check what was wrong and concluded that the tire bought in Punta Arenas just a few days ago had not been of top quality. We took a stopover in Rio Gallegos to have lunch, changed the tire and restocked on some groceries for the next days of camping. This was already our fourth new tire during the past few weeks, and the last one we hoped.

Finding camping spots by the road on the eastern coast was not easy due to the never ending fences, so the first night we decided to try out the seaside camping municipal in a small town along the route . With our previous negative experiences at municipal camping grounds we were actually quite well off and had a good evening cooking our favorite Argentinean recipe: Steak with mushrooms and vegetables.

The next morning we woke up to a sunny day on the coast and had our traditional Sunday breakfast with champagne. We also invited our neighbour at the campground, a motorcycle guy from England, and shared some experiences of our trips. Hearing one of his creepy stories from Central America made us realize how lucky (or careful?) we had been along the whole trip avoiding threatening situations.

The second night we camped right outside a national park, Reserva Faunica Peninsula Valdez, right beside a random dirt road we by accident saw taking off to the side where there was a gap in the cattle fences that seem to line every road in the country. This happened just as we were about to give up and try to find a hotel.

Our last camping experience on this trip turned out to be somewhat interesting and different. As the evening came we were again suffering from the fact that even minor tracks off the highway were fenced off and the surroundings were nothing but open fields. After trying several side roads with no luck, we finally found one road leading us close to a little forest between the fields and we decided to park the car by the road and then jump over the gate and camp on the inside in the forest.

As we were cooking our evening meal by the car, right beside the road, we saw a car approaching and we hoped it would just pass by not paying attention to us. But no, it was the Argentinian police, and they stopped of course. We were quite sure that they were going to force us to leave, (which would have been so annoying since we had just settled down after an one hour search mission) but surprisingly though; the two police men had a very friendly approach and didn’t complain at all. They just wanted to check our passports and then they seemed concerned about us not having hot showers and told us that we probably would be better off at a proper camping site further along the road. So, since they didn’t exactly say it was forbidden to stay, we stayed.

After enjoying a nice sunrise and an awesome breakfast of oatmeal with honey, cloves and fresh cinnamon in the nicely smelling eucalyptus forest we continued towards Buenos Aires and made it there for a late lunch.

At the time of writing this post we have already reached our final destination and our team is about to separate to different directions. So I guess it’s time for me to say goodbye and thank all of you for an absolutely amazing trip! Ewa, Jono and Kuba – you’ve all been great company and I really enjoyed spending the past two months with you guys! Big thanks to the Safari as well for carrying us safe through the continent! I will remember this trip as one of the most spectacular, interesting and rewarding trips ever!