gravel travel

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.

The day began with the official start at 7.30 am for a trek of some 634kms to get us to the Pacific Ocean.
A 45 km trip to the rough road regions of the Regularity. Only one today as there is a lot of road to cover.
As mentioned yesterday there was an issue with oil emanating from the oil breather tube and spreading across the engine bay. More on this later.
Well, we started this Regularity with the same optimism of yesterday to surmount this tricky event and meet the set time, as best as possible.
A hiss and a roar, getting underway and building speed as quickly as possible to average 70kms per hour. All went well for the first 3kms then once more our hopes were dashed due to a truck on the road in front, then another. As we passed them where we could our speed dropped off and time clicked away. Then a competitor who was having difficulty needed to be passed, remembering this is a public road with cars to be expected at anytime, anywhere. Dust abounds and we cannot see very far in front if at all sometimes. We tried to catch up at top speeds, sliding through very sharp corners anticipating oncoming traffic. There was some which we luckily avoided.
Great driving, though not much for the navigator to do once we fell so far behind, but thoroughly enjoyable. Rough on the car for little result.
We were just on a minute late,  so loss of maximum points.
From the end of this event the road became Tarmac and we followed the route book only to find that the road had changed since its printing and got waylaid for a few kms. Got it right though and then onto the freeway moving along quite fine until the route instructions came very close together distance wise and the navigator (me) instructed the driver to take a turn that was incorrect.   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The freeways here do not have over bridges like we have at home, and they go for 50 to 60kms before any evasive action to get back.
We did some 8 kms then found a very small break in the armour railing in the centre of the road on a six lane freeway. We stopped, backed up, and were able to just squeeze through between cars coming both ways to turn and go back.
Luckily the return road was the one that we would have had to find as part of the planned route. And we missed having to pay a toll.  Big deal! Problem was that we had a time control to meet and we were behind time.
Pushing on, with much stress and disappointment for the mistake made, (saying it mildly) we reached the time check 2 minutes late. No penalty though.
During this saga, Denise showed her displeasure by smoking the oil that was being spewed from the oil vent and the oil pressure gauge was showing a drop in pressure. Low oil level.

The oil splattered engine compartment

So at the time control station Steve analysed the problem rationally, as he always does, pin-pointing it to an o-ring on one of the valves having ruptured or whatever they do.
On discussions with some other kiwi drivers rigged up a rubber pipe from the oil vent and up into a used water bottle held in place in behind the battery. This resulted in any oil that was thrown up to be captured and it had a longer way to go so there was less oil spilling over.
After filling the sump to the required level we set off once more to complete the journey
All went well. Oil pressure stayed at the right level and there was no further oil spillage.
We got all the way to Vina Del Mar without further issues.
The trip though was tedious but we got there in one piece safe and sound. And tired.
The address here is right on the beach looking west over to home.

From the deck of our accommodation for two nights

Rest day tomorrow which will allow us to repair and give Denise a steam clean in her engine compartment. Steve also has some ideas to fix the problem but is loathe to pull things to bits if the current resolve is sufficient to get us all the way.
If any one out there has any ideas?  Let us know your opinions.
Regards to all of you following our adventure.

I’m a little out of sequence with the report days. Day 4 was a rest day so we had time to get cars serviced and do the tourist thing in Esquel. A “largo” or bay where there are lots of whales apparently but any desire to see them was negated by rough seas.
At the end of the day after a meal at a local restaurant, we could smell fuel in the cabin of the car. On inspection found that the seal on the sender unit was leaking. Being a novice myself I wondered why this would suddenly happen but it’s apparently quite normal in Morris cars.
Of course Steve had a spare gasket and he proceeded to drain the tank of fuel, that we had recently filled to the brim for the next day. Mouth fulls  of fuel to syphon fuel into spare tanks after a nice fish meal? Not in the order of the day!
Still. Had to be done. Late into the evening being hampered by a sprinkler being set off right behind the car didn’t help.
All done and sealed in, the repair was a success. Good that it was noticed when the leak began or the entire boot would have been filled with fuel in the morning!

Day 6.
A short distance day of 364kms. This section of the rally takes us into the foothills of the Andes and the alpine lakes that make up a beautiful region of snow capped mountain peaks and tranquil lakes. It’s spring and the area is in full bloom with wild lupine and broom flowers. Clear blue sky and quite warm.

Scenery en route

The road immediately becomes gravel and we run for 123 kms to the first Regularity run through this fantastic countryside. The road is rough with the bedrock jutting through the gravel making for rough riding. Denise loves it and many scalps taken. Unfortunately this doesn’t earn any points. It just gets us up commencing the Regularity before them.
The Regularity section, the Butch Cassidy, is short and straight on gravel. Very dusty but far more interesting than Tarmac.
Not a good time we were 8 seconds slow.
The next stop for lunch is at a relatively famous El Maiten Station. There’s an ol steam engine here with carriages that is now just a tourist spot. The train with the old carriages operates a short run just for tourists. Interesting.

At the famous railway

Always keeping an eye on the fuel availability as we carry on to the next Regularity but the result is an 8 second late outcome. Loosing points.
Then straight onto a Kartodrome racetrack. One round of a fairly long track and back onto the road.
Steve comments that the brake is a little spongy but we carry on through the Tarmac freeway onto our final destination for the day. When suddenly coming through a bend in the road and the need to apply the brake, nothing! Couldn’t stop. Panic and plan B changing gear and using handbrake he controlled Denise to a pull off on the road.
On inspection he found that a rock had bent the brake line to the rear left wheel and punctured it. It had slowly let out the fluid to the point that brakes were ineffective. Not one to muck around, Steve quickly got under the car and flattened the tube temporarily to block fluid from escaping, filled up the brake cylinder , tested, and we made our way to the Liao Liao resort. Of course he had a spare.
No time for checking into the hotel Steve attended to the replacing the pipe in short order. However the spare pipe was the one we flattened in Mongolia on the Peking to Paris rally. No good.
One of the competitors proffered some pipe and Steve made up a replacement.
Alls good now.
Good thing that the brakes didn’t fail on the kart track. We would have ended up quite badly.
The hotel is very grand on the shores of a lake with mountain parks all around. Fabulous situation but small rooms.
Still nice and tomorrow is a rest day!

Getting to the destination at Liao Liao hotel