Monday was an early start to start our drive up to Buenos Aires over the next few days. The drive itself was a long day driving through flat desolate grassland which little much to see other than the occasional guanaco or rhea en route. We stopped en route in Gabernador Gregores again for lunch which was hotdogs, as well as using the supermarket to buy supplies for the next few days. We didn't arrive to our campsite near Jaramillo until about 8 in the end, where dinner was cooked by me and my team as I had put myself forward as head chef. I then had an early night after a stunning sunset.
The desolate cold plains of Patagonia surrounding the tiny town of Jaramillo are a world away from how this area was in the Jurassic era. Around that time the landscape was covered with dense evergreen confierous forests. This changed at the start of the Cretaceous era when volcanic eruptions and the birth of the Andes coincided to reduce he amount of rain and cover much of the forestry with ash and lava, petrifying large amounts of the forest. This ecological legacy has been left behind in Jaramillo, with many examples of fossilised trees and cones lying strewn about the landscape. We were however refused entry to the site so it was completely pointless driving out our way to get there.
After leaving we drove back towards the Atlantic coast and stopped on the beach for lunch which was a salad with crackers. I even went for a paddle for the first time in the Atlantic on the trip. We then continued north along the coast, stopping en route in a large town for more cooking supplies, before making one last push towards our campsite for the night in the small town of Camerones. We didn't arrive until 8 again, although the town was very nice with a little beach with a small jetty, and another great sunset. Dinner in the evening was fajitas. We then sat down the beach and had a fire before going to bed.
Wednesday was a shorter drive day and included a visit to see a Magellanic penguin colony. Camarones is home to around 25,000 of the penguins that nest here on the windy, remote and rocky coast. Between September and April, the penguins come to these sites to incubate their eggs and prepare their offspring for migration - each couple stand in front of their nests protecting the eggs from birds and other predators, and occasionally one adult goes to the sea for food. It was a pretty amazing site as we were able to walk along this walkway and be right close the penguins, of which there were loads. We could even see some sea lions in the distance.
After the penguins we drove back to Camerones and continued driving north, stopping at a service station for lunch where we had a pasta salad. After leaving we also went via the small town of Gaiman for afternoon tea which is famous for its Welsh heritage, also home to an abundance of Welsh tea houses. It was a nice little town with plenty of Welsh names and dragons dotted round the place. It was then one final push to Puerto Madryn for 2 nights camping there, arriving in good time. Dinner in the evening was jacket potatoes with mince and various toppings. We then had another campfire which went on relatively late before going to bed.
Thursday was a free day to explore Puerto Madryn, a port town on the South Atlantic coast of Argentina. The original settlers here were Welsh, founding the port and colonising the Chubut River valley - these original settlers came here in 1865 as they felt like their Welsh customs and traditions were being eroded back at home and that they should emigrate to better preserve them. A distinct Patagonian dialect of the Welsh language has been spoken in the region for over four generations, but although it is now quite rare and you are unlikely to hear anyone speaking it, there are three bilingual Welsh-Spanishs schools in Patagonia, and it is thought that 5,000-10,000 people speak Welsh as a first language and a further 25,000 as a second language.
We had the option here to take a day trip to the Valdés Peninsula, a beautiful rocky outcrop known for its incredible wildlife including Magellanic Penguins, guanaco, sea lions, and even orcas of you're lucky. I decided against this however as it also included 400km of driving, and Puerto Madryn itself had a nice sandy beach with temperatures as high as 31 degrees so it seemed like the perfect place to relax after so much hiking and time sitting in the truck. I instead had a lie in and walked into town for lunch which was about a half hour walk. It was a nice day just relaxing on the beach which was busy. There was even a massive cruise ship docked which I think was European as it had a eu flag on the side.
After exploring the town I headed back to our campsite, stopping off en route at the site of the settlement where the Welsh first migrated. I also tried to visit this ecological site famous for its dinosaur fossils although it was shut. When arriving back at camp there was a thunderstorm although it didn't come to much. Dinner in the evening was this chicken and rice dish, although a lot of people didn't turn up as they stayed in town which meant there was a lot of food leftover. I then had an early night as we had a very early start in the morning.
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