25/2 Not quite Mendoza - yet

Saturday 25 February     Farewell to Chile

Left at 7am. Tab trying to tell us to turn the lights out at 6.40. Dan the Sax and Stewie came to wave us off. First real sight of the new members (except Dasher who is stuck in BA with a temporary passport). Easy run out on the freeway and into the mountains. Some big ones and attractive scenery. Helen is still rotten and Luke and Sean just fell asleep. Several people are taking photos of Luke’s ear.

Quickly through the border after a long run through a tunnel. Lunch and running gearbox repairs. Still fairly high up and feeling a bit dizzy. Very majestic mountain scenery.

Switchbacks up Chilean side

Disused rail bridge

We had hoped to make the detour to see the Christ of the Andes statue astride the border close to the customs post. This was a realistic looking Christ Redemptor statue, 2/3 the size of the one at Rio, made out of cannons melted down after yet another war between Chile and Argentina had been averted in 1904. Unfortunately this opportunity fell victim to the lost time.

Another interesting photo opportunity would have been Mt Aconcagua, the highest peak outside the Himalayas at a shade short of 7000m. We may well have had it in view but were unaware of it. We later looked at a day trip out of Mendoza that included a whole bundle of scenic attractions, including Aconcagua, only then realising that they were all along or very close to the road which we had taken from the tunnel through to Mendoza. The Oasis crew do not claim to be guides but it would not be difficult to research the locality enough to be able to include the benefits of a full day tour while passing through on the way onto Mendoza.

We limped on at 30km/hr because Bob could not be coaxed into high range – hence gears 1-4 of 8. After lengthy attempts at repair and an attempt to get into a camp ground, Sam announced that we would head for a night behind yet another service station (town of Uspallata) and she would dig some pasta out of the underfloor spaces for dinner. I asked whether it would be possible to get fresh produce from a supermarket, by taxi if need be, and she disappeared for over an hour, leaving us all shut in the truck. She returned with mince and veggies for a bolognaise and then started sounding off within general earshot and saying she hopes Chris is satisfied, she can’t carry on any more etc.

We went back to the servo where we had spent much of the afternoon, enshrouded in a foul smell from overflowing sewage. We avoided the worst of it by parking some 200m away, across an open space pitted with rough ground, the run-off from the sewage spill, and a number of wild dogs. I noticed a white mummy dog with 7 young pups behind the servo and she later came to visit our camp. I called out “hello mummy dog” and resolved to slip her some food after dinner. We asked to meet Sam to discuss her comments about me delivered within easy earshot of everyone on the truck. The outcome was her hysterical crying fit and loudly throwing lumps of wood, all about 10m ahead of the truck, where everyone had just finished dinner. This because I had suggested that we buy some fresh food, which she interpreted as mutinous.

We both had tummy disturbances which entailed numerous crossings of The Great Wasteland in the moonless dark. After walking the gauntlet of the unseen snarling dogs to the garage, the white mummy dog suddenly appeared, came up and sniffed me when I called to her again, and escorted me through the dark back to Bob. The other dogs all shut up.