We woke up today in a different world to where we fell asleep, with the rain replaced by a sunny day. From our window we could see a huge lake comprised of the most incredible colours, and snowcapped mountains fringing the shore and depositing meltwater into the lake via a large number of rivers and waterfalls. This is really a beautiful and untouched part of remote Argentina, and none of us had expected the final country on our journey to be so beautiful.

As we had a shortish leg of 310km, we were content to leave a little later than normal and spend the morning exploring the town of Bariloche. The town isn’t particularly beautiful; certainly nowhere near in the same league of its surroundings, but it had a certain feel to it which everyone in the team really liked. It felt like home, not like London or any other European city which we are acquainted with, but home nonetheless. The morning concluded with lunch with a local reporter in a very quaint little ski chalet-styled restaurant serving absolutely delicious food.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to pick up the SRZero, and amid a crowd of people wishing us luck, we headed off to our next destination; a small town called Esquel located deep in the Pampas. The weather was cold and crisp, with some cloud in the sky but generally pretty sunny, so we were desperately hoping for the weather to hold up as driving in the rain when it’s cold is very unpleasant!

For a long while though, the weather conditions were struck from our mind as we were once again dazzled by the most extraordinary scenery. I had never imagined Argentina to be so beautiful; just as wild and remote as the furthers reaches of Alaska or Canada that we have passed through, we felt a real privilege to be able to have a glimpse of this breathtaking wilderness. However, soon the clouds started descending, but rather than being massive slabs of grey as seen in previous days, they became as much a part of the landscape as anything else. The effect this had on the light and shadows dancing across the mountain faces added a whole new texture to this fascinating landscape.

There was a little bit of rain, but really nothing to whine about and we carried on driving all the way through until we reached Esquel, nestled in a beautiful green valley. Again, we found this small town atmosphere really homely, and after putting the car on charge we went to enjoy a fantastic local meal of grilled meats. Check out the pictures to see what I mean about the scenery; it’s definitely among the best we’ve had!

Ushuaia seems so close!

6 Responses to “Driving Day 65: San Carlos de Bariloche to Esquel”