Day 10 – Concepcion to Vina Del Mar

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.

Day 9 – Pucon to Concepcion

We’ve been to so many hotels that I forget where we’ve last stayed and what it’s like.
It was a good accommodation in that Steve and I both had our own rooms. This overcomes the snoring problem we both apparently have.

Today’s program includes 453kms of paved and rough gravel roads. Steve has seen that there is excess oil coming out through the oil breather filter and is concerned that there may be a problem, but he says that so long as he knows where it’s coming from and can be controlled, it’s ok. We’re not loosing oil from anywhere else.

The first Regularity is 38kms from the hotel and the last few kms are ROUGH.
The average speed that we are to achieve is 60kms per hour.
We are positive about making good with these tests so we really want to redeem ourselves.
On the drop of the flag, Steve gets Denise under way with the intention to get ahead of the time quickly so pushes her hard, but caring and she responds. This is a public road, not closed to other traffic so we are aware of other road users. The road is narrow and winding, making it really interesting with a few tail shakes and much gravel throwing up from the rear wheels.
We’re going great guns, then up front a ute is stuck across the road blocking our progress!
He’s stuck with his rear wheels in the drain at the side of the road.  We had to almost stop and the damage regarding good regulation time had evaporated.
We passed this ute by forcing our way through in the drain on the other side of the road and then just pushed on like a bat out of hell. Great fun but our chances were eliminated.
The rest of the road for 18kms was rough. Then another 39kms on seal into our time control at Malipueco.
What a welcome! The entire town had hundreds of people turn out to greet us blocking off the main road with Chilean traditional dancing and music blaring in the street. Fabulous!

The reception and us photographed with the Mayor of the town

We checked in and moved on to some more bone shaking gravel roads that took us to a national park in which we could drive around an active volcano.

The active volcano and the lava rocks along the way

These roads were almost only 4 wheel drive roads and although the area was fascinating it was rough and dusty. Hot too as the temperature had gotten up to about 40 degrees C.
Driving past small lakes and magnificent ancient forests.

More lava rock, the volcano and the formed lakes one with petrified tree stems

Then onto another time control , check in and 170kms to our next Regularity test. Long roads and dirty gravel roads. Better than not but rough.
This Regularity was again one to get under control and commenced with aggression.
Full foot down all the way from the start on a fantastically narrow, winding hilly road with loose deep stones surface, slipping and sliding across the track. Neat driving almost loosing it on many of the corners. Great ride as fast as was possible whilst staying upright.
With all the will, we were still 11 seconds too slow!!! We couldn’t go any faster. Disappointing.
We carry on then to our final day time control in Conception within the given time schedule. As we get closer to the city the traffic intensifies and things grind to a crawl. Tensions rise and with the clock ticking we make the time control with two minutes to spare. Whew. Great to be back and stopped for a while.
A 634km run tomorrow to Vina Del Mar. good spot apparently.
Chiao.

Day 8 – Bariloche to Pucon

Morning sunrise and hotel surrounds

Today we cross the border from Argentina into Chile for the first time. It’s a relatively short route of approx 400kms.
Our overall positions have changed. We are now placed 24 due to some bad Regularity results yesterday.
Our starting order has changed also to 27 minutes after official start time.
We’ve not got the hang of the regularity at all. We’ll try and do better today.
We leave Llao Llao and the beautiful hotel to Paso Del Corona on a sealed highway then onto very, very rough gravel roads to start today’s only Regularity.

There has been an amendment to the route today which cuts out a scenic section, due to the increase of tourist use of the road past a lookout post which could endanger both tourists and competitors.
We get to the Regularity at Passo Del Córdoba ready to roll.
We’ve passed a few cars already to start the Regularity before them but this does not give us any point benefits. The lake and mountain scenery is breathtaking but we need eyes on the road as the course is an open public road.
The average required speed for this run is 40kms per hour which should have given a clue for what was to come as we set off at starters orders. It’s suddenly become a steep winding rough corrugated road and before long realised our power disadvantages. Then a public motorcar appeared going in the same direction and we couldn’t pass due to the road configuration and dust limiting vision. When we did get past we had caught up to a previous starter who had stopped in the middle of the road for unknown reasons. It was then just too much for us to catch up any way of averaging 40kms so we just gave it our all and went as fast as we could. A bad run again finishing astride the line somewhere 1 minute 40 seconds slower than the course set time. Damn!
So, we continued for the next 40 or so kms to the final MTC for the day at San Martin De Las Andes, a placid lake township akin to Queenstown in NZ, for lunch. A really neat little place that looked like it had only been built about 20 years ago it was so neat and tidy. Lots of tourists, green and spring wild flowers everywhere.  It was abuzz.

Lakeside at San Martin De Las Andes and general scenery in Argentina en route to Chile

We were a free of competition now and are to make our way towards the Argentina/Chile border about 110 kms away the last part of it gravel. You’d never think that you were to come to an international border post here.
Parking where directed we headed inside to do the paperwork on the Argentina side very quickly then over no-man’s-land onto the Chilean side to immigration, customs and bag checking  for fruit etc. No issues, just time standing in lines.
84 more kms on Tarmac roads to our accommodation Vallarica Lake Park Hotel. A serene spot on lakeside similar to what you would find at lake Taupo, NZ.
A tiring day for what was achieved but Denise didn’t falter so we just locked her up and checked into the hotel, had a few drinks, had dinner and, bed.
Tomorrow 453kms.
Buenos noches..

Day 6 – Esquel to Bariloche

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

Day 4 – Puerto Madryn to Esquel

It’s getting better…
The run today was 692kms with 140kms of it on gravel. What a difference! Denise was in her element Doing what she was designed for. Hit the road running and just kept going taking a few scalps on the way. We got back into contention as we got past cars that were highway designed and left us for dead on the freeway.
The country is vast and scenery fantastic but on the regularity gravel section we had little time to sight see. The dust coming from cars in front made vision almost obscured with the exception of a large stone thrown up into the windscreen and leaving a crazed break. Thank goodness for the laminated glass screen. It didn’t break up like a tempered glass would have.
At mid morning we stopped for tea at a small Welsh village called Ty Gwyn Casa De Te.

A nice break and with Welsh food being served. Wonderful fresh food. They also put on a children’s folk song and some local “Welsh” dancing. Nice.

We had a track race at a place called Mar y Valle, a long circuit and we did two rounds then off. A great run for Denise but there was no way we could beat the “bogey” time.
Still, good fun and we enjoyed.
We had to plan our fuel carefully today as the availability of fuel was inconsistent. There was one fuel station closed on route that we had planned on using. Luckily we had sufficient fuel until the next available stop.

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Waiting in line for fuel

Otherwise a good day including the things that we like to do so let’s hope the off-road sections increase and we can earn some points.

Some pics of the scenery

 

Short day tomorrow of 374kms.
Must add that we appreciate all the good work from those that helped to get Denise up to such a high standard before she was shipped. It has paid off and the car just hums along at speeds in excess of 110 when required but she cruises easily at 105kms mile after mile.
Will keep you all informed..

Day3 – Bahia Blanca to Puerto Madryn

We were anxious about today with the high mileage to be covered. Nothing we could do about it so we clocked in and got underway. Denise started up fine. No problems here.
The route for the day included about 4 “fruit checks” by authorities to prevent the spread of some sort of fruit fly. So we’re advised not to take any fruit or ham.
A waste of time as the agents just looked at the cars and waved us through.
The first activity was based 261kms away at the Autodromo Viedma.
Quite a large sealed track which was set up for two separate circuits, and we could do them both at as fast as we could.
Really great. Denise continued to perform so well.
Then a 127km trek to the regularity of the day, 35kms of which were on “gravel”.
The Regularity is named Moby Dick? Don’t know why but it was on gravel and was 53kms in duration.

Scenes from the regularity section on gravel, what we had been looking forward to.

There was only one time check and we had to average speed to 80 kms per hour. We were checked 20kms on and covered the distance in 15 min and 11 seconds, 11 seconds slower than the required time. Not bad.  The rest of the gravel road could be traversed at any speed so we did. The area was close to the beach and the surroundings were really nice.

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Then back to the reality of driving the last 270kms of distance to the final destination of the day.
Straight long Tarmac roads that disappeared into the distance, shimmying with the heat mirage.
On and on, the wind becoming cold and increasing in intensity to the degree that driving became hazardous. We were all over the road and passing vehicles was dangerous.
We arrived at our accommodation well within the required time schedule so we were not unhappy.
Weary, we showered and headed off for some refreshments and dinner. I don’t think that many will have a late night.
The next two days are rest days to attend to what may be needing attention on our cars.
The area is in a bay right on the sea and apparently whales are the tourist entertainment. So I guess that will be in the order too for the next days. Otherwise I don’t think there will be much to do.
Will report again when back on the road.
Adios for now.