29 April – Cafayate
Wow! what aan amazing couple of days we have had. We left Mendoza for Moon Valley full of high hopes for a day of changing scenery as the name implies. But…..
About an hour out of Mendoza some youths threw a stone which smashed one of the windows in the truck showering a couple of people with glass. We then proceeded on to route 150 which we were told was a good road!. We should have realised it was going to be tough when a sign said route interrupted in 10 Km. But we continued having to go through river beds (fortunately dry) where bridges had been washed away. Then we came to the end of the road. There was a 2 metre drop to where the river obviously flows in winter. 200 metres or so further on the river was flowing but quite shallow and about 50 metres wide. We waded across to see if we could find the road on the other side. Well we did but it was about 200 metres further on. Having assessed the situation we decided to push on. Our driver, Skanks, found a way down to the river bed and drove across the river. Gerry and one other acted as pathfinders to find a way to the road on the other side -not easy. Success and we all felt on a high but after about 15 km we came to sand drifts across the road. We deicded to pusjçh on and the truck got boggged down. It took us 2 and a half hours and several attempts to dig our way out . By now night was falling so we decided to bush camp. What an experience. No people for miles and miles in any direction -just desert. No light pollution and no clouds so the night sky was fantastic. We got up at dawn and started on our way towards the mountains that we had to cross. But after about 20km the road ended again and did not start again for about 700 metres. We all decided that this was not good and did not bode well for the mounbtain passes. So we turned around to retrace our path. Not surprisingly we got bogged down at the point where we had bushcamped the previous night. We were all now very experienced at digging the truck out and we were on our way again in 20 minutes. Then came the river crossing which was more difficult going back and we got bogged down again. What an exciting 24 hours!!!!!!
That evening we bushcamped again and were visited by the local police in some force. They were fine once they established we were not new age travellers or drug dealers. They even paid us a return visit with 2 police vehicles and about 10 officers ranging in rank from constable to at least 4 ranks above. They were friendly and surprisingly, we felt slightly more relaxedthat they knew we were there.
Yesterday was a long drive through some amazing mountain roads which were frequently damaged by landslides and neccessitated diverting off the gravel surface to get through. However, we arrived safely at Cafayate 2hours later than expected but in time to set up camp before dusk. Cafayate is a wine region and full of wineries which we intend to sample this afternoon. Tomorrow we leave and head for Salta and then the Bolivian border. The weather continues to be lovely and warm with balmy evenings.
Love and hugs to all our readers.
