Today
was a driving day, some 650 km back to Taltal. Angie was still upset
about the breakdown of her favourite camera, so did not use her usual
strategy to relief the boredom of long stretches of straight long
roads in a rather featureless landscape by taking pictures out of the
window at 120 km.p.hr. Her past results have been remarkable and she
could easily give a presentation '10,000 km on the road in Northern
Chile' if the camera had lasted a bit longer. The Nikon 8800
alternative was just too
sensitive to the vibrations of the car.
Something she had eaten
the night before had disagreed with her stomach and as a result we
backed out of the planned activity of spending the night out camping
at Botija, particularly as reports from Rudolf Schulz suggested that
the road between Botija and Paposo had been impassable in September.
We met up briefly at the
Copec station outside Antofagasta for a last minute checking of
arrangements for meeting up the next day in Taltal. All three cars now
had 'Copiapoathon 2006' written in the dust on their back. We've been
talking about a logo for the 2007 event, based on the Chilean flag
with a large Copiapoa flower in the centre. We could produce transfers
that could be put on small flags or banners for the cars and printed
on T shirts. Juan pointed out that really dedicated Copiapoathoners
should follow Florencia's example and have a large tattoo of a
Copiapoa flower on their back!
From the driver's
perspective, the main distraction is provided by overtaking the long
lorries that are the main traffic, particularly between Calama and
Antofagasta. The Hilux is not a sports car and needs to be 'wound up'
to a respectable speed, so overtaking is a bit of an adventure,
particularly as it is not always possible to see all oncoming traffic
through the heat haze and small dips in the road.
Angie had offered to
share the driving, but every time that we got into the car, we sort of
automatically got into our usual positions, with me behind the wheel.
We changed sides as my eye lids were getting heavy and decided to
leave Ruta 5 for a spot of dirt track driving on the track that heads east to Paposo. With so few roads marked on the maps for this huge area of
northern Chile, I'm keen to have experienced as many as is practical
and this one had escaped me so far. Angie had not driven much off the
tarmac roads and followed my advice (learned from Leo) that a good
speed smoothes out the bumps. All went well until we met a sharp stone
that stood out at an angle. It sounded as though it had hit the
protective metal shield underneath the car, but Angie soon noticed
that the car was slowing down. We stopped and found that the bang had been
caused by the off-side rear tyre which had now had a
large whole in the side. Fortunately we carried two spares, one of
which quickly fixed the problem, also thanks to the bottle jack and
cross key spanner supplied by the rental company - so much better then the
alternatives that had been available on previous trips.
The only photostop
recorded for today (S562) covers the puncture and the remaining ride until Taltal. Rudolf had told me to look for a turn off just before Paposo
where there were some nice cacti to see, but due to some intensive
road works we missed the turning. We next planned a stop at one of our
regular places, 'the Paposo Shrine', a small road side chapel
dedicated to the
Virgen de la Puntila and in the past, a good place
to find Copiapoa humilis. It seems that caterpillars are not
only a pest to cacti in the UK - here they are of the large mechanical
type, as spotted parked in our usual spot in 2004.
It had been hungry and was still at
work, eating into the hillside to create a road wide enough for four
lorries to race up the hill. There was no sign of the blessed Virgin, until
we had zigzagged a bit further down the road and could see it above
us, completely cut off from the current road, but hopefully once again
accessible on future trips, once the road building madness has been
completed. I have pencilled in another visit tin 2007 to see how
things have progressed and to see if we can find Rudolf's recommended
spot.
There was still some time,
so I suggested that we'd take a look at
Quebrada
del Hueso Parada (S266
in S004) but once again our plans were thwarted by road
building, as a bridge was nearing completion to cross the small bay
where 'our new quebrada' had once entered the Ocean. Disappointed with
today's events we thought with envy of our friends sitting around a
campfire somewhere near Botija. We settled for a meal in Club Taltal,
after we had booked into the cabañas at Caleta Hueso. It seemed that
Angie's stomach was on the mend.
