Fawlty towers, Patagonian style
Got up to discover there was no water in the motel, so Scottish showers for both of us this morning. Went and had breakfast in the roastingly hot glass conservatory dining room which, although very picturesque and looked out straight onto the beach, was absolutely baking and probably ensured both Sam and I smelled even riper than before! Was served breakfast of 3 tiny croissants by this old chap for who it seemed the highlight of his day was pouring the coffee into your cup, followed by the hot milk, French-brasserie stylie. He resisted all directions from Sam for just a touch of milk, as he was not to be denied his cofffee-milk mixing excitement. The other unique feature of the motel were the loos - absolute quality as, when you sat down, the door touched your knees and your feet poked out of the bottom of the door!!
After yesterday's storm, the weather was better than anticipated so we decided to go for it and take a whale-watching tour in the morning, whilst we could and before the weather got any worse. Was a very prescient decision as we ended up being on one of the very last tours to go out that day, and probably the one after too, due to the high winds and unmanageable seas. When the wind gets too high, they actually close the port down - we did feel quite sorry later on in the day for all the other visitors who arrived too late, and could do nothing but sit in their cars or buses, gloomily starily out of the window at the sea in disappointment.
Its Flipper and friends!
So, went out around 10am for our hour long excursion and, within 10mins of being on the water, one of the guides pointed excitedly alongside the boat - looked out over the side to see that we were being escorted by a dusky dolphin! Was my first time ever seeing a dolphin in the wild and i hadnt expected too, so i was absolutely delighted! Dolphin was joined by a few more, so at one point we had about 4 or 5 of them leaping and diving all around the boat! Absolute buggers to take pictures of, though - only managed to take one vaguely non-blurry shot! Boat was also bouncing up and down on the waves, big time, so it was a real challenge to get everything in sync, whilst not crushing your camera against the side of the boat and trying to keep it dry!!
After about another 10mins, we spotted the whale - a Southern Right whale mother and calf with an impressive load of barnacles on her snout! Got fairly close and again, it was a fantastic experience, although i already felt a seasoned whale watcher after our experience in Cape Cod earlier this year. Got one reasonable tail shot and then it was time to chug back into shore (clambered up into the crows nest lookout for some of the ride back - very wobbly indeed!), where we got towed out of the water by this rather nifty tractor. By this time the weather had really deteriorated and all the whale watching companies were packing up shop, so we were extremely lucky!
Flying Gloves and Tripods at Caleta Valdes
Before heading out for the afternoon's explorations, we checked in at Posado Piramides for the night (our room had about 15 beds, a kitchen and bathroom in it!), got Milanese sandwiches to go from Quimey (who had been inundated with a million schoolkids!), filled up the car with petrol, stocked up on anti-Sleepiness Coke and crisps and headed out of town. Sam initially directed me up this road which seemed to be almost entirely made out of sand, which made using the steering wheel a rather academic exercise before we rejoined the glorious ripio road system. We were heading first for Caleta Valdes, 45km south of Punta Norte in the middle of the eastern shore and which was reported to have huge colonies of elephant seals, which could be seen at close quarters. We were certainly hoping to be able to get a bit closer than the birds-eye view from the clifftops at Punta Delgada yesterday! When we got there, it was still very windy and high up on the cliffs, but we were able to see much better all the seals plus a number of Magellenic penguins, some very close indeed!
Glad we had our tripods as the wind would have made it completely impossible to take good pics without, although I almost lost mine over the side of the cliff at one stage, as a particularly savage gust of wind sent it careening towards the edge!! Really did almost lose my hat and one glove, though, as we were packing to leave and the wind just whipped them out of the boot and sailing across the reserve. Fortunately they got snagged in a bush, giving Sam enough time to sprint across the penguin sanctuary, dive through the fence and retrieve them before they were lost for good! We were a lot more careful when opening the car doors and boot after that!! Also, saw this ENORMOUS Dutch mega-truck in the carpark - i thought it looked like a huge windowless fridge on wheels. Probably wouldnt have any issues with the ripio roads in that as the wheels were at least 6ft high! Wonder if i can get one from Budget?
Punta Norte and finally a sunset!
So, back in the car for our final drive to Punta Norte, which is at the northern end of the peninsula, about 97km from the park entrance. Not visited quite as often by the big tour companies, it also was said to have colonies of sea lions and Magellenic penguins plus also sightings of orcas, who come here to feed on the sea lion pups at high tide. We timed our day to arrive at around 5pm, high tide (we thought) and - although we did see what looked like a whale a couple hundred metres out from shore, we weren't lucky enough to see any orcas. It would have been an incredible sight, but i dont think it happens very frequently, so we couldnt be too disappointed really. We thawed out at the little P.Norte cafe with a nice cup of tea first before heading back home to P.Piramides. After 3 weeks of absolutely bugger all, we were FINALLY rewarded with a half decent sunset, so we stopped and took lots of pics on the way home. By this stage the wind was really blowing, so we were driving through a dust storm for most of the time - God knows how long its going to take to get the dust and sand out of everything!!! After some great sunset and guanaco pics, finally got back to town around 8.30pm - to find we had no electricity!! Started the day with no water, ended it with no power!! But in true hiker fashion, we simply stuck our headlamps on (set to "flashing mode" for maximum visibility and personal amusement) and headed out to La Estacion for supper instead. Was a great little place that was absolute stuffed full of people, so this nice Brit couple let us share their table. Food was fantastic - i had lemon sole in a lemon sauce whilst Sam had cod, with fries and salad, and washed down with a very nice Chablis! Went back to the hostel via the ATM - lights (and heating!) were still out so just dove quickly into bed to warm up - Sam didnt appreciate my attempts to use him as a hand-warmer!
Got up to discover there was no water in the motel, so Scottish showers for both of us this morning. Went and had breakfast in the roastingly hot glass conservatory dining room which, although very picturesque and looked out straight onto the beach, was absolutely baking and probably ensured both Sam and I smelled even riper than before! Was served breakfast of 3 tiny croissants by this old chap for who it seemed the highlight of his day was pouring the coffee into your cup, followed by the hot milk, French-brasserie stylie. He resisted all directions from Sam for just a touch of milk, as he was not to be denied his cofffee-milk mixing excitement. The other unique feature of the motel were the loos - absolute quality as, when you sat down, the door touched your knees and your feet poked out of the bottom of the door!!
After yesterday's storm, the weather was better than anticipated so we decided to go for it and take a whale-watching tour in the morning, whilst we could and before the weather got any worse. Was a very prescient decision as we ended up being on one of the very last tours to go out that day, and probably the one after too, due to the high winds and unmanageable seas. When the wind gets too high, they actually close the port down - we did feel quite sorry later on in the day for all the other visitors who arrived too late, and could do nothing but sit in their cars or buses, gloomily starily out of the window at the sea in disappointment.
Its Flipper and friends!
So, went out around 10am for our hour long excursion and, within 10mins of being on the water, one of the guides pointed excitedly alongside the boat - looked out over the side to see that we were being escorted by a dusky dolphin! Was my first time ever seeing a dolphin in the wild and i hadnt expected too, so i was absolutely delighted! Dolphin was joined by a few more, so at one point we had about 4 or 5 of them leaping and diving all around the boat! Absolute buggers to take pictures of, though - only managed to take one vaguely non-blurry shot! Boat was also bouncing up and down on the waves, big time, so it was a real challenge to get everything in sync, whilst not crushing your camera against the side of the boat and trying to keep it dry!!
After about another 10mins, we spotted the whale - a Southern Right whale mother and calf with an impressive load of barnacles on her snout! Got fairly close and again, it was a fantastic experience, although i already felt a seasoned whale watcher after our experience in Cape Cod earlier this year. Got one reasonable tail shot and then it was time to chug back into shore (clambered up into the crows nest lookout for some of the ride back - very wobbly indeed!), where we got towed out of the water by this rather nifty tractor. By this time the weather had really deteriorated and all the whale watching companies were packing up shop, so we were extremely lucky!
Flying Gloves and Tripods at Caleta Valdes
Before heading out for the afternoon's explorations, we checked in at Posado Piramides for the night (our room had about 15 beds, a kitchen and bathroom in it!), got Milanese sandwiches to go from Quimey (who had been inundated with a million schoolkids!), filled up the car with petrol, stocked up on anti-Sleepiness Coke and crisps and headed out of town. Sam initially directed me up this road which seemed to be almost entirely made out of sand, which made using the steering wheel a rather academic exercise before we rejoined the glorious ripio road system. We were heading first for Caleta Valdes, 45km south of Punta Norte in the middle of the eastern shore and which was reported to have huge colonies of elephant seals, which could be seen at close quarters. We were certainly hoping to be able to get a bit closer than the birds-eye view from the clifftops at Punta Delgada yesterday! When we got there, it was still very windy and high up on the cliffs, but we were able to see much better all the seals plus a number of Magellenic penguins, some very close indeed!
Glad we had our tripods as the wind would have made it completely impossible to take good pics without, although I almost lost mine over the side of the cliff at one stage, as a particularly savage gust of wind sent it careening towards the edge!! Really did almost lose my hat and one glove, though, as we were packing to leave and the wind just whipped them out of the boot and sailing across the reserve. Fortunately they got snagged in a bush, giving Sam enough time to sprint across the penguin sanctuary, dive through the fence and retrieve them before they were lost for good! We were a lot more careful when opening the car doors and boot after that!! Also, saw this ENORMOUS Dutch mega-truck in the carpark - i thought it looked like a huge windowless fridge on wheels. Probably wouldnt have any issues with the ripio roads in that as the wheels were at least 6ft high! Wonder if i can get one from Budget?Punta Norte and finally a sunset!
So, back in the car for our final drive to Punta Norte, which is at the northern end of the peninsula, about 97km from the park entrance. Not visited quite as often by the big tour companies, it also was said to have colonies of sea lions and Magellenic penguins plus also sightings of orcas, who come here to feed on the sea lion pups at high tide. We timed our day to arrive at around 5pm, high tide (we thought) and - although we did see what looked like a whale a couple hundred metres out from shore, we weren't lucky enough to see any orcas. It would have been an incredible sight, but i dont think it happens very frequently, so we couldnt be too disappointed really. We thawed out at the little P.Norte cafe with a nice cup of tea first before heading back home to P.Piramides. After 3 weeks of absolutely bugger all, we were FINALLY rewarded with a half decent sunset, so we stopped and took lots of pics on the way home. By this stage the wind was really blowing, so we were driving through a dust storm for most of the time - God knows how long its going to take to get the dust and sand out of everything!!! After some great sunset and guanaco pics, finally got back to town around 8.30pm - to find we had no electricity!! Started the day with no water, ended it with no power!! But in true hiker fashion, we simply stuck our headlamps on (set to "flashing mode" for maximum visibility and personal amusement) and headed out to La Estacion for supper instead. Was a great little place that was absolute stuffed full of people, so this nice Brit couple let us share their table. Food was fantastic - i had lemon sole in a lemon sauce whilst Sam had cod, with fries and salad, and washed down with a very nice Chablis! Went back to the hostel via the ATM - lights (and heating!) were still out so just dove quickly into bed to warm up - Sam didnt appreciate my attempts to use him as a hand-warmer!
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