| start date | activity | country | place | from - to | days | km | km/ day | comment |
12.02.2013 |
walking |
Argentina |
Pampa |
Cerro Castillo (Chile border) - Estancia La Federica |
9 |
383 |
42 |
Grass all around. I'm walking on the grass, sleeping and resting on it, cooking and washing, I breathe by grass. It was close that I would eat it too. My second name was Grass.
The grass is usually green, sometimes yellow or brown, other times black or red. Rocking Undulates an ocean, it is delicate, but can also be harsh and unfriendly. Grażynka, my inflatable duck travel companion, has been killed by it. It's strange that there is so much grass but no water - no rivers, streams, even the rain forgot about the pampa.
Description of the steppe, however, would be incomplete if I did not mention the wind. This is an permanent inhabitant, and together with the grass, they are the hosts of the area. If I were the wind, I would like to be like the one in the Patagonian pampa - a strong, precise, doing what it should - and the wind should blow. I do not fight with the weather, I accept it as it is. This helps to better endure the discomfort, which it often brings.
I was afraid of this stage that it would be too boring. Grass and wind, no water, nothing else, for about two weeks. However, the reality was different.
Empty space filled up my heart, and the wind did not allow to hear my thoughts. After separating with Ewelina I also exchanged my stuff - my last year hobby was to collect ultralight equipment. I read, I asked, experimented. I was swapping gear for lighter and lighter one and deleted some of them from the list of things to take. In the end I managed to reach the weight of the equipment under 8 kg (plus food and water). I got a lot of valued advises from experienced long distance hiker David Booth from near Canberra.
But the beginning wasn't great in Argentina. First, the border guards didn't let me watch the football match, and a day later in El Cerrito, my food package got lost. The guy who lived there did not care about it. It was bad enough that he even didn't sell me his food stock, and I had to eat my reserves outside of his house. Well, I had to move quickly to the next food drop off point before my backup will finish. The next day I lost my camera (I have no idea what is happening to me), but a quick 2.5km search back trip to my last break brought a positive effect - the camera was lying on the road. In the evening I slept next to a house, and in a friendly social issues I offered to the host a piece of meat, which I got in the previous house. Yes, he took asado and disappeared - I was in a tent with no food and no company.
While positive aspect was the decision to hike cross country. At first I was scared a little how the locals will react that I walk through their private land. Will they shoot me without warning or I'll become the dogs meal? Jumping through the first fence was a bit nervous, the second one too. In the tenth jump I was already relaxed, and then I even didn't think about it. I walked the shortest way which compass pointed. Too bad I did not have a good map, but it was still much nicer then walking along the road. The biggest shortcut I made through the hills near Tres Lagos - I saved almost half on the day, but I missed the food pick up location. The plan was passing the message to the petrol station through the drivers moving in the opposite direction, and asking them to send my food with a vehicle riding in my direction. Plan as plan, but the realities were that only four cars passed me that day - when I was wondering which grass would be the most nutritious, I received my food.
The variety of the animals were making some attraction along the way. Most of them fled at the sight and gather in flocks. Sheep got message the latest that danger is close - I could approach them for a few meters, and they ran away even when I've passed their pasture. I laughed. Hares don't belong to careful group either - three times I'd had nearly kill them by walking pole.
However, horses, and sometimes cows, were following me curiously at a safe distance.
Guanaco were heard before I saw them. Typically, the herd leader stood proudly on the ridge and warned others of my presence by sound like a cross between laughter and whistling. I was able a few times approache them closer than a few hundred meters (only in the area of Torres del Paine guanaco are not afraid of people, you can almost touch them there). Even more difficult to see was the nandu, the local variation of emu. They fled in panic out of the reach of the camera.
I was lucky with the falcon sitting on a fence, or with a woodpecker tapping furiously on the tree. I also saw a couple of gray foxes, one watching me more than I him.
But the real stunner was to find among the brown grass the standing still brown armadillo! He was scarred, so after a quick photo session I left him alone.
Body was bending under the pressure of the wind, but finally I reached La Federica. Such an "estancia" is small for Argentina's standards - 28,000 ha and 7,000 sheep - with three gaucho (shepherds) working on it. There, I had my next food drop off point, so I waited until gaucho return from the field. Jose and Daniel hosted me warmly - interesting conversations, watching the football match (the power motor generator), a hot shower and a delicious dinner (lamb of course). Life conditions are extremely simple here, and just like in my grandfather house when I was little - old radio and wood burning stove. I rested, slept in the bed, ate, and of course I got experience with local way of life. It surprised me how much power they have in a handshake if they do not eat breakfast and lunch - strong "mate" keeps them active all day until dinner.
| Country | Days | Food | (how many) paid accom. | Permits Entry fees |
Guide hire | Equipment purchase, hire |
Equipment or other freight fees | *Transport | Other | Total |
| Argentina | 9 | $305 | (0) $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $101 | $406 |
lost food package $63
lost cash $22