And I’m still rolling along –The Cherokees are chasing meArrows flyRight on byBut I’m singing a happy song! Big Bertha broke down on a ripio (corrugated) road in Argentina in July 2024 and having made a temporary repair, we toured northern Argentina waiting for replacement parts to come from Germany. Six weeks after our order, they were finally ready for […]
Around mid-August, MAN told us there had been a cock up in Germany and our order was delayed until early September. This was unfortunate and so we used our extra time to explore northern Argentina before heading back into Chile to collect our parts. From Salta we headed to San Salvador de Jujuy on the very narrow and twisty Route […]
Having said good bye to Ivan at Belén, we journeyed north on the famous Ruta Nacional 40 towards the wine producing area of Cafayate. On the way we spend the night at the Quilmes ruins, an ancient settlement set on a hillside with fortifications higher on the hill. We stopped next at a roadside distillery (Francine tried one or two […]
We first met Ivan, an intrepid Spanish Overlander, a year back in Buenos Aries, we were both waiting for our trucks to arrive, ours from South Africa, Ivan’s from Panama and we met for a meal in one of the city’s great cafes. We went our separate ways but met again recently, at San Antonio de Cobres, with our vehicles, […]
There we were, driving merrily along a ‘ripio’ dirt track from the Salinas Grandes salt pan to San Antonio de los Cobres, in the middle of nowhere, when there was an almighty noise from underneath Big Bertha. We stopped quickly, expecting a puncture. But no, it was something much worse, the front propshaft, along with the transfer case output shaft, […]
Returning from the UK at the end of May we spent the first few weeks at MAN in Santiago getting a few issues fixed for Big Bertha. Whist there, we were invited to an asado by Mauricio and Patricia whom we met at Puerto Tranquiol earlier in the year. We had a lovely meal with the family. Leaving our friends at […]
The Atacama Desert starts around 500km north of Santiago. Because of the low population, low light pollution, high mountain peaks and very low atmospheric moisture, it is an ideal location for optical telescopes. We were lucky enough to visit two – the Gemini telescope operated by Noirlab and El Silla operated by the European Southern Observatory. These were daytime technical […]
Our new Starlink has been a bit of a game changer for us – internet everywhere. Pricey, but worth it. However, setting it up and putting it away each time we want to use it is a bit of a pain. So Dave researched what other overlanders had done, ordered parts whilst in the UK and, whilst stranded at the […]
Where to start? Dave noticed that Big Bertha has been consuming coolant (antifreeze) in the last few months. Around a litre over 1000km. Not a lot, but concerning nonetheless. It could be for many reasons – being a modern engine, the coolant circulates everywhere: in the EGR cooler, block, cylinder head, compressor, and the high pressure and low pressure intercoolers. […]
We were very lucky to have been able to camp in the centre of Mendoza next to the train station. From here we explored the city using the comprehensive bus and tram network. After a couple of days we decided to start heading towards the Cristo Redentor pass over the central Andes and into Santiago. Dave being Dave decided to […]