Chatting with Angie, it seems that we had very similar weather today. She reported temperatures of 6 C in Amesbury while here in Argentina, in summer, it was 9 C when we left the Hosteria and 5 C when we reached the lava flows a few miles from the Chilean border. Unfortunately is poured down with a steady rain all day long, rather like a UK Spring day. The gravel track had become quite treacherous – John reported that at times it was like gliding through butter as the top layer of fine gravel had turned to mud. The car went where it wanted which fortunately most of the time was the same way where John was pointing it.
Our goal was the lava flow at the western end of Laguna Verde. On a sunny day this would have been a spectacular ride, through meadows, then forest (beech followed by araucaria trees) along lakes and often with glimpses of a tall snow capped volcano to the north. Unfortunately the rain was coming down so hard that we could hardly see the other side of the lake.
The lava flow turned out to be ‘recent’, resulting from an eruption 400 years ago, still too fresh to accommodate the plants that we had hoped to see.
On the way back our previous passing in the other direction and the continued rain had made the track only worse – not better. Congratulations to John for getting us back safely.
All 44 images taken are filed as S2121 – No Cacti.
Tomorrow we move on, hopefully driving out of the rain and towards the sun.
The Cactus Trip Diaries 