3rd January Perito Moreno – Esqual 318 miles, thats 4335 so far

We popped out for a drink and to find internet last night as we needed to decide what our next plan is. We have looked at a lot of sights in the area and could easily spend 1 or even 2 years doing this trip, but we do not have that long so we checked out how we are doing on our base plan and decide the priorities. We do want to try to see a Dakar stage and to meet up with Simon Pavey, a competitor we know and try to get into the bivouac. This means we need to get moving North stat, OK that’s a plan.
Packed up this morning and Raul meticulously cleaned everywhere after we had showered etc, even the Ladies shower which was not used, what a character.
We are now heading north to get a few miles covered. We start on ripio which I found hugely difficult again, it was a mixture of everything including sand. After 15 miles it would seem we didn’t need to do that as a new road is now in place which probably accounts for the poor state of the ripio. So a mixture of new road and ripio and we make reasonable progress. On one of our short stops on the ripio to allow the vibrations in your arms, and everything else to subside, we stopped close to a family who were setting up a picnic, but in grand style and they invited us to join them. We thanked them but declined as it looked like being a long affair, but how kind of them to ask.
A top up of gas and a quick sandwich in a gas station and we are away now on pavement the whole way, hooray. However Martin found an old ripio road and boldly charged onward, I was sure we didn’t need to do this and we convened a meeting and took to the pavement, thank goodness that ripio was 110 miles long.
We are ahead of target for the day so top up with gas and move on to the next town as it is only 110 miles further on.
Found a nice campsite straight away, have cooked a meal and just decided the plan for the next 2 days. Off to Barilochi tomorrow and then across the border to Chile to visit their Lake District, could be a big mileage day if all goes to plan and then on to Santiago after that.