28-02-2006 Our luck is changing





After a short period in which we actually found lakes, we are back to normal (meaning: it is difficult to find lakes). Furthermore we have a cash flow problem. The last 2 weeks we have not been near a bank and it is almost impossible to find a place were they take credit cards. We are living on the Erik's Euro's now.

Besides money we've been lacking diesel. We run out of fuel the day before yesterday at 17:30 on a land road 10 km from town and about 30 km away from the Estancia were we had an appointment with a lake owner. We were supposed to meet him at 18:00. We threw in out jerrican with spare diesel, dropped the trailer and Erik in the middle of the fields to get rid of some weight to save energy and set of to the Estancia. It was for sure not hearty conversation but never the less we got permission to sample 2 lakes! Happy we drove back, picked up Erik who had just finished writing a paper on his laptop (this guy writes papers under every circumstance!) and went home where we bought new gasoline with our last pesos.

The next day was a bit of a disappointment. The lakes turned out to be connected and the entire lake with attached wetland system was huge. Furthermore it was linked to the enormous Viedma lake. Conclusion: Not a good SALGA candidate at all. From the road we had seen 2 other lakes - a small and a large one – so we went back to the owner of the Estancia. He and some of his employees were just doing something with a horse and it was obvious we disturbed them. A dead horse was hanging just some meters away and I felt my stomach turning but… the show must go on. I am 100% sure he found our activities as strange as we found his but never the less he gave us permission enter the field with the small lake. Fifteen minutes later we found out that the lake had almost dried up: flamingos were walking (or swimming?) in the middle. We turned around and got stuck in the mud. (To maintain the A-team-spirit I will not mention that John was driving.) After some digging, finding stones and getting really dirty we got the car back on the dry land. Now we had to go back again to the owner :-/. This time to see if he could give us permission to enter the field with the large lake. He told us already he stocked this lake with trout so we were afraid he would not allow us to get in, but he was very cooperative. The only thing was that the gate to this lake was locked. We had to wait until 2 o'clock for him to open it. We decided to optimize our time… and took a siesta in the fields.

At three we were on the water, only to find out that the lake was quite deep. The day after we found out that it was actually really too deep for our standards :-( We just took the fish out of the nets, did some quick measurements and went home. We took a siesta and started planning the next part of the trip. There are no more suitable lakes around here so we have to go north. Nestor will be arriving in two days and we will wait for him. Then over 1000 km are waiting for us again. Some parts with asphalt, large parts without. No doubt we'll be crossing amazing landscapes again.

As we speak John and Erik are preparing the catch of the day: trout and perch. It looks delicious!



back to the bone age


Erik


John with a trout and a perch


Let me introduce our driver: Erik Jeppesen




Previous | Overview | Next