Author: Steve and Corgi

Because we stayed in three different locations in San Pedro a new location for the MTC had been devised. Some of us were at the Tierra Atacama Hotel and the others at the Alto Atacama.
Bulletins for the alterations and amendments to the route book are always difficult to follow,especially when the instructions are wrong or ambiguous.
We got underway onto the main route which headed north west up into the mountain ranges between which lies a desert that is just so dry that, it is said, gets 1.5 mm of rain per annum!

Nothing grows here. It’s just miles and miles of nothingness.
It gets quite cool as we ascend to 3500 meters above sea level, yet Denise didn’t miss a beat. She runs so well and with the running repairs on the lay day almost all of the issues have been resolved.
There’s little to report on the 230 km leg as we headed towards the first Regularity, a 3.5 km distance off to the side of the main road on rough dry gravel. Quite good though and the average speed is 70 kms per hour.
Once more the car was put to its paces, but no matter how fast we began we just couldn’t keep up a steady head of steam to allow for any course difficulties. There are always some. We straddled the finish line 9 seconds late.
As we moved downwards suddenly around a bend, there was the Pacific Ocean. What a sight for sore eyes. However we missed the PC at the local Copec fuel Station in Tocopilla due to what the navigator called, the route book inaccuracies.
In an endeavour to find the PC we travelled another 5kms past it and had to retrace our steps using the GPS navigation coordinates but whilst heading back, a flat front right tyre.
Didn’t take long to change and got to the PC checked in only to find that one of the competitors had collapsed on the forecourt as we were refuelling. The two ERA doctors were there within minutes and an ambulance too.
Apparently this is due to the altitude issue and the speedy decent from the mountains.
Apparently she is ok but we don’t really know her condition.
We headed to the next Regularity 6.56 kms in the distance on another side road to the motorway, traversing a steep long hill track with a few tricky bends and double corners. A trap for young players, steep up overlooking the sea and main road. Great run. Steve threw everything at it and was ahead of time catching up with the car in front released from the starters gate 1 minute before.
If nothing else we should have slowed down before the line ensuring the 1 minute spacing between us and the car in front.
Not to be. We were 35 seconds too fast!
What to say?
Onto our time control in El Loa checking out as we should.
We drove quietly for the last 146 kms along the featureless coastline highway towards Iquique. The hills are just huge sand hill, mountains really. Nothing grows on them and beaches are quite nice if you like to live in the middle of nowhere. But also a lot of rocky beach outcrops.

Then onto our hotel for the evening.
Whilst writing this blog Steve just walked into the room to advise that numerous competitors were suffering from altitude illnesses, or the lack of.
Some just collapse.
Of concern, but the ERA doctors seem to have it in hand.
Well that’s the story for the day.
Chiao.

Along the Pacific Ocean coastline. Barren though some holiday homes have popped up.

It rained last night. So the roads were wet upon our start.
Again we started at 8.27 heading from the city straight out to the first and only Regularity out on the wop wops along lightly inhabited areas were the roads are hardly used. We got there quite early compared to others and got underway. The average speed was 50 kms.
Sounds ok but the road was really winding and steep with lots of uphill hairpin bends. Very tight and of course these slow the car down so much. Ok for the get up and go cars but we could hardly get up to the average speed at all. So 1.30+/- minutes and out of contention. Only a 9 km run so not long.
We talk about how the little race cars just love it and that it’s just a hill climb event. Denise is just not made for this type of work.
132 kms to a little place called El Jardin a village who’s Main Street was en-route to our time check. They welcomed us with much fanfare and it was just great.

From there we were asked to sign an advisory note for the next section of 118 kms. They advised that the road for the first 32 kms would be very slippery and that if your car had bad tyres, there is an alternative route.
Of course we took the rough road which began with rather a good surface but after approx 8 kms, the fun began.
It had rained heavily during the night and the roads became narrow like farm roads, very wet and made muddy by the previous cars that had passed through. It was great. We passed a number of cars who were being careful as Denise just hoed in and revelled in the muddy, slushy surface. She slipped and slid like it was ice. Exciting stuff especially as, if you had the time to look over the edge to see how far below the river was if we were to slip off.
It went on and on slipping and sliding through some fantastic scenery though we had to stop to take some photos. Up and down skidding uncontrollably sometimes.
It was really neat. This is what we signed on for.

There were many unannounced water spillways too so there was something of everything.
On one incline a car (road car) got stuck in thick mud. It held up many others and we got stuck in the same spot. But a couple of runs at it got us up and over and on to more of the same.
The entire 118 kms of this section was “rough road”. We laughed at the thought that many others would not get through. But in the end all who took it on came through ok.
With all this laughter and enjoyment in our cabin, we became aware that we were low on fuel. We had not anticipated that this road would be so bad for so long and the wheel spinning and slipping and sliding was guzzling the fuel.
Suddenly the thought of running out of gas without any spare on board, it was going to end soon.
We were following a couple of other cars who may have had spare fuel but couldn’t contact them to ask whilst they were on the move.
One car, a rover, stopped and the team got out to relieve themselves. we quickly pulled up alongside to ask for fuel assistance. They had a can of spare and they agreed to allow us to have some. We took around 4 litres and left one in the can.
We were elated and carried on as if all was to end well. However 8 kms from the petrol station we ran out of fuel again.
Stopped by the side of the road we flagged down the car behind us  who offered to tow us to the station, rather than syphon fuel out of his tank.
A kind gesture and gratefully received.
We eagerly filled the tank at the petrol station and Steve gave Denise a clean with a hose behind the building. She deserved it. Performed like a Trojan.
What a neat experience. From the dreary Tarmac road drives to this fabulous country trek.
On to our hotel, but still to do a couple of rounds around the Autodromo Martin M Deguemes. Again a neat little track in the middle of nowhere.
A lot of fun!
So after some dreary days at last we have an exciting and thrilling experience.
Loved it and hope for much more.
Tomorrow 510 kms and climbing to over 4000 meters. Altitude will affect some or all of us somehow, be it the cars or ourselves. Will report in due course.

A bit of a non event day today though we were to travel 516 kms. The journey is to get miles up to see some of South America but on these roads, which are good, the distances become tedious. It’s really hot. The wind is hot and the scenery is much the same although it got somewhat greener as we got further north.
There were meant to be two regularities today but the first was cancelled due to the track being too rough for the “road cars”. These are the only places, rough roads, that Denise can get points on if they are rough!
Nevertheless we pushed on northward on these long Tarmac roads to the next Regularity some 260 kms which was held on a sealed road and the average speed was to be 80 kms.
We thought the road would be good but it was steep with lots of bends. Great for the Porches and race cars but we didn’t even get to 80 kms on the entire journey.
Then onto our hotel.
Not an enjoyable day today. Just road travel.
Not an eventful day.

Some scenes today. Looks what I imagine Mexico would look like

Denise worked well all day. Didn’t miss a beat. Great car.
Not for this type of journey.
Our placing currently is 18th over all, better than the last reported placement.

Our first track event was at the Autodrome El Zonda, just 14 kms out of San Juan.
It was a long racetrack and had a good road surface.
Of course Denise is not built for this but she gave it a damn good shot. Compared to the others we didn’t make the grade, but a great ride.
Boy was it hot today!
Clear blue skies over country that is just so vast in size and in geographic character that it’s hard to imagine just how it can be governed from a capital city.
Desert, mountains volcanic upheavals and recent earthquake rubble, in uninhabited areas of course.

The people when you do see some on this route are so poor, living in mud huts and growing what will grow for subsistence.
Yet the roads, some dual carriage ways are empty of vehicles. Why they were built? Military? Maybe.
It’s because of this that a Regularity was held on a piece of mountain highway overpass in the Lunar Valley that was obviously very seldom used and was a neat place for this event. The average speed was 70 kms and it was a perfect challenge speed. Denise did so well.
The temperature would have been an arid 38-40 degrees c.
She (Denise) started a little hot but soon cooled and purred up and around this spectacular price of highway.
The navigator shouted out the numbers and Steve did his best to respond. It worked well for once. At the finish line we were just 5 seconds slow. But it’s the best we’ve done for a while.
Great stuff!

We headed off to a gravel road some 14 kms from the track and this was a nasty 16 kms of gravel road that was punctuated with many really rough dips created by water courses during the rains.
This was Denise territory and she loved it. Scalped a lot of cars and left them far behind.
No points in this but it was just natural for her to romp all the way to the Tarmac.
Then on through some eerily spectacular countryside that shows how Mother Nature rules.

On to what turns out to be hundreds of kms that takes hours to traverse through desert flat-lands, hot with just nothing but a great road and desert plants, roads as far as one can see and you get there, more of the same; then to our second track event 5 kms from our hotel for the night.
This is good fun. Our times will never meet the set track time but twice around a sealed surface track as fast as you can go is neat.
Then onto our diggs. A little town called La Rioja set in the middle of nowhere. It’s good. Rooms good with aircon. Need aircon. So hot outside.
Denise performed so well. Other than park up, we just locked her up and walked to our rooms, she’s set to go in the morning.

We had a lay day yesterday at a beautiful resort hotel and the first thing was to resolve the problem of the excess oil, and the oil pressure.
We got some advice from  our audience which concurred with Steve’s thinking and he proceeded to drill a hole in the rocker cover and tapped in a brass fitting. He then fitted a rubber hose onto the fitting and put this into a plastic drinking bottle next to the one that took the rubber tube from the breather tube.
Checked the cylinder pressure and found that 2 and 3 had lower pressures.
Put all parts back together and started her up. All well. Oil pressure better than before and consistent.
Test in the next day’s route.
We had an earlier official start to a dirt/gravel road Regularity.
We fill fuel at the first available station and check the oil overflow innovation. Except for some smoke/smell emanating from the engine bay for a while there was no oil collected in either bottle. Oil pressure strong and consistent and the engine temp good. All’s well.
Before Regularity start we were advised that the average speed had been lowered from 60kms to 50kms average.
We commenced this stage with plenty of gusto but the average speed was unattainable. We again ran into slow traffic, to pass and then just decided it was not worth putting pressure on the car unnecessarily. So again the Regularity ogre strikes.
It was a relatively good track very corrugated but enjoyable ride.
Onward then to the Chile/Argentina border.

Stunning scenes up to the Andes Range

The journey through the pass in the Andes is just awesome. Steep mountains and snow capped mountains were stunning. We went up and up. To over 10,000 ft from sea level in the morning.

The route would have been snowed-in in winter and would have looked ever more spectacular.
This border was to be closed today as staff went on strike for  some reason. The ERA organisation pleaded/begged or borrowed to have it open for us. Otherwise we were to spend another night at the Sheraton. It was opened for us but the bureaucracy is just too much. We spent some two hours shuffling paper. We have to do this again when we cross into Peru. Sacre Bleu!

Waiting at the border

After passing through we proceeded to the next passage control and we took the original planned route through the mountains to San Juan.
A rough road we were told. It was. But again spectacular. Just unbelievable views and the road windy and interesting.

Down the other side into Argentina

Then another 140kms of tar to the hotel. There was no way that we could keep up to our allotted arrival times but we’re advised by the ERA that there would not be any penalties for being late.
On one stop at a fruit and veg inspection post, Steve had a quick look around the car and found that the left rear wheel bearing seal had seeped some oil.
To be safe, at our return to the hotel, he put in a spare just in case.
We’ve got two tracks and one Regularity event tomorrow. So, we need to be prepared.
We are buggered. Steve especially. Driving Denise is no ordinary task. It’s not easy and concentration is paramount.
The navigator made a few errors today which although were not serous, were none the less unnecessary. But Sh…t happens.
The one way that we can gain points is by natural attrition.
A number of cars have pulled out for various mechanical reasons, and although it seems mean to gain points this way, it is a rally and reliability of equipment wins the day.
Buenos noches.