It’s been a long time since my last post, not for the want of trying however. From Lagos del Furioso onwards we have been in the mountains at eco lodges where wifi has been sporadic at best and laundry non-existent. I’m writing this in haste in a cafe in a little town on the way to the airport for our flight to Buenos Aires, wifi still not the best so hope this post is in reasonable shape when I upload it.

Rather than a blow-by-blow description of the last 10 days I’ll pick a couple of highlights and let the images speak for themselves…

Sunday, November 24 - Long day’s drive today, longest of our trip, approximately 800k’s. Left Islas Leones at about 7:30 and arrived in Lagos del Furiosas at about 19:30, straight run of 12 hours with brief pit stops for gas and bio breaks, snacking in the car as we drove. A mix of tarmac and dirt highways, so on balance we made very good time, original ETA was between 20:00 and 20:30.

Fascinating changes of landscape as we drove from the Atlantic coast to the foot of the Andes, flat coastal plains turning into rolling hills, back to a flat dry plateau and then into hilly country leading up to the mountains. Only characteristic shared by all terrains was dry, low shrubby ground cover…

Saturday, November 23 - Yesterday we drove from the little fishing town of Camarones where we saw the whales and seals, to our present location, Isla Leones eco-camp. Our very new camp, I’ll explain that in a minute, consists of 6 small huts about 30 metres above high water mark on the beach. The only power is provided by solar panels so each hut, like a very clean and comfortable monk’s cell has one small bedside reading lamp, a pair of single beds and no heating. The wind blows ceaselessly and at this time of year the temperature is in the mid-teens C during the day so not warm when the sun goes down or indeed behind a cloud, but I can attest to the fact that the duvet is very warm and my night’s sleep was most pleasant despite the lack of heating…

Another long drive yesterday from our parrot beach location to a little fishing village, Camarones, 8 hour’s drive south. We are here for two nights and today we were out in boat seeking out marine animal and bird life. Spectacular day, high blue sky with the ever-present ocean wind taking the heat out of the air. The sea was turquoise and as flat as it ever gets, no white caps but a pleasant little swell, a fabulous day to be out on the water. Coated ourselves with sunblock and headed out in a 16 foot RIB, with two 115hp Yamaha outboards. There were 5 of us aboard, the boat captain, Leo, , a helper/guide and the three of us.

Some spectacular sightings…

Arrived in BA on Saturday Nov 16. Met up with Robert, shared dinner and then I collapsed in bed at 9:30, having had very little sleep the previous couple of nights, Toby and then an overnight flight. Awake at 9am and although a solid 11+ hours of sleep, still not feeling very rested.

I always love coming to BA, a city I really enjoy, but there was steady drizzle all day so R and I passed the afternoon away chatting in the coffee shop awaiting our pickup from Hugh, the owner of MacDermott’s Argentina. Hugh has prepared trips for me/us in the past, most recently in 2023, when he organized the trip that R and I took to Chile when we drove the Carretera Austral. I cannot recommend Hugh and his company highly enough. He is a very interesting man, has lived a truly adventurous life….

After last night's walk to the Treasury at Petra by Night, V did not feel confident in her ability to walk the distances required to explore the site properly, about 5k to get to the end of the track which passes through the Siq, past the Treasury and and past a number of tombs and monuments ending at the trail which begins the 800 steps leading up to the top of the Monastery heights. The return to the gate is over the same ground, but uphill in the return direction and in the heat of the day after having hiked around exploring the site. V decided that she would to take a horse-drawn carriage to the end of the trail and then walk back, the carriage meeting us at the Treasury for the last stretch. I reluctantly chose to join her as I was not keen to use the scrawny and over-worked horses and mules that are available for hire but I knew that V would simply not be up to the walk.

We were at the gate at about 8:15 and we were dropped at the end of the trail at about 8:45, arranging to meet our carriage at 3pm in front of the Treasury building, figuring that we'd have 6 hours to explore and to work our way back to the Treasury. We began the climb to the Monastery and got about halfway up but the climb was proving problematic for V's knees and the heat was ramping up so we worked our back down to the trail and spent the next 5 hours exploring some of the monuments and tombs before directing our steps to the trail and the Treasury. The site is huge and, if you have not been, stretches over many square kilometres, all of it up and down. I was aware of that before arriving but still had not fully grasped the extent of the city and the amount of time and energy that are required to really explore the site. Even more surprising is the very small area that has been excavated, the largest percent of the area literally untouched with trails leading off through the rough scrub desert and valleys in which it would be very easy to get lost, Diana having done just that when she visited Petra two years ago...

Early out of Murelle and back up to Paradise Lodge on our way back north to Addis. Retraced our route through the trackless, well barely, rough, dry, scrubby desert country. This is a region of termite mounds which are scattered in surprisingly large numbers across the countryside in addition to something else that fascinated me. This was the presence of a flower called by the locals a bottle flower, blooming in large numbers on a plant whose stem was smooth and gray and somewhat bottle-shaped, which like the termite mounds, were scattered throughout the dry scrub....