Exodus overland tour kicks off

A very quiet Chester greeted 6 other Overland travellers & the 2 guides, Ant & Tubbs early in the morning in Santiago. I’d not made the 1^st evening’s Curry night due to an evening of being married to the sink & toilet. The experience had let me feeling extremely weak so I was surprised to sleep all night having I slept all day. Our 1^st night Camping, was at this idyllic campsite located approximately half way to our destination of Puncon. I tried to be social for dinner but gave up & crashed early.

The truck has no internal heating to speak of so as we head south the temperature continued to drop each day, I snuggled under a blanket to keep warm & wear all but all of my clothes.

Day 2 started to the sound of rain. The damp, drizzle of southern Chile was packed in to the truck & continued to go by as we journeyed on. The rain didn't stop for the next 48 hours, when after 2 nights of camping in Pucon we decided to cut our losses & head for the Argentinian border before the snow, falling at attitude, cut off all the lower passes across the border. Sean & Jane cooked us some cottage pie to warm us up before our journey (unfortunately the local cats ate the remains (our next 2 meals) whilst we were in the pub drying out), picture is of Sean making the top "crispy" with a blow torch!!!! - Cooking camping stylie.

We set out from Pucon, without seeing the Volcano it is famed for. The low cloud hung like a damp blanket just above the city buildings. We didn't see much countryside either until a further 100kms south of Pucon, where we turned East & set sail for the border.

As we climbed up, the temperature went down & with no heating the windows quickly froze & we were left to read books whilst Tubbs & Ant took turns driving into the snow. We crossed the Chilean border at about 3pm. By 4pm we were still driving up hill into thicker & thicker snow. By 4.30 we passed several trucks stranded so stopped to put on snow-chains, it took us a further 2 hours to get to the border. One crazy truck drivers whipped around a bend passed us & crashed uncontrollably into a truck stopped putting on chains, (we'd been in the same spot 15miutes beforehand!!!) he got out with a broken arm & was taken back to the border.



We crossed the border into Argentina at gone 7.30. The border post was just about to close so we were glad not to have to rough camp outside of Argentina. It had been a full 40, cold kms between the 2 borders. We drove on & night stopped in a hotel before pushing onto Bariloche, a night earlier than planned. That night, over a few beers Rob had to help Tubbs fix a loose screw, he used a little Dulce y Deleche (a sweat caramel spread) that apparently took the next 3 days to reappear!!

Bariloche is Argentina's premier resort both for Winter Skiing & Summer holidays alike.
The temperature was a mear -4C when we arrived, but soon dropped to -10C the second night we arrived. The lake adds to the scenery but also the cold as the wind that blows in makes the wind chill factor huge!!! We'd planned to camp but I'd put my tent up to dry out mid afternoon & by dusk it was frozen solid, It's still frozen solid & that's 4 days later on!!!!

To balance the cold of the storm, there was a good foot of fresh powder to snow board & ski in. It has been fantastic fun & we could all do with a rest & get driving again. The problem is the cold has frozen the Antifreeze hose, splitting it wide open, we'll be here another 24hrs whilst it is fixed - bummer more skiing.........the scenery was fantastic to look at too :) I'll let you work out which 4 I spent most time with on the mountain !