It’s a long way down to the end of the world, how the very south of Patagonia is called. Yesterday we travelled approx. 700km overland and today it was even more than this. Therefore, we needed to get up before dawn. I really don’t like to get up in the dark but sometimes you have no other choice. I always wake up before my alarm goes off because people around me putting down their tents which is kind of noisy. So I got up at 5:30am, needed 15 min for the whole procedure to dress, put down my tent and pack away my sleeping bag and mattress.

The wheels of our truck were rolling at 6am and in order to save time and not get up even earlier we had a “truck breakfast”. This means we didn’t had breakfast before starting to drive, what is what we usually do, but had breakfast while driving. It consisted of yoghurt, a cereal bar and an apple each.

Around 10am we reached the border of the Chubut province where there was a checkpoint for fresh food products. An inspector searched our truck, in particular the boxes with the bulk food and our fridge. Since some people including me didn’t had their breakfast yet he found the apples in the fridge. We kindly asked if instead of throwing them away we can simply eat them and he agreed to it. So he watched us eating apples and made sure we throw the parts we didn’t eat away. In addition we needed to empty our dustbins and get our truck sprayed before we were free to go.

During today’s journey I was sitting next to Canning, a fellow traveler from Canada. I suppose when he booked this trip he wasn’t fully aware what to expect from an overland trip meaning less luxury and active involvement. While most of us just travel with a backpack Canning carries four!!! bags why we gave him the middle name “the wardrobe”. Canning is kind of funny and geeky in his own way. When sleeping next to me in the truck he even had a band which was attaching his head to the chair-back so his head is always kept straight and he’s not getting any neck problems.

Around lunch time we stopped in a small town where the cook group on duty shopped for today’s dinner and tomorrows breakfast and lunch. It was a rather small shop so there was not much choice and we had to buy whatever was available. In order to save time each of us was also buying snacks for lunch which were some grapes in my case. While the cook group finished their shopping we sat in the grass in front of the truck enjoying our lunch and the warmth of the sun.

I spent the afternoon playing cards with Juri, a woman from Japan, and an Australian couple. First we played Wizard and later on 500. I’m not particularly good in 500 but since Marco and Bob, who are both incredible good at this game, left the truck in Rio, I and my partner Juri actually managed to win.

We arrived in Puerto Madryn around 6:30pm which was a bit earlier than expected. Puerto Madryn is a beautiful port town on the Atlantic coast of Argentina. While driving into town I spotted some dive shops and also people kitesurfing. Unfortunately I won’t be able to do so since tomorrow we have already planned a visit of the Valdez Peninsula nearby.

At the campsite we were running into “Mamacita” the truck we travelled with from Manaus to Rio before we changed to “Yana” our current truck. Mamacita is travelling the same route as we do but will usually be a day ahead or behind of us. We were also running into Toni who left us in Rio and now traveling on Tucan. It’s kind of funny how long term travelers meet again and again on the main routes.