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+ Log & Blog December / Dec 7

 Progress log and blog report

7 DECEMBER 2005 - Disaster strikes twice, and harder

The morning was spent is some confusion at the hotel. Would Delmar be successful? Where was he? Should we check out of the hotel? Delmar came in, a brand new bolt in his hand, but the wrong size, and he disappeared again. We decided a sensible back-up plan would be to ring Miguel and see if he had a spare – just in case. We managed to leave a message at his home – but then Delmar returned, an engineer had lathe turned the bolt to fit. And it did! So another message left for Miguel to say we are ok and we all piled in and were off.

The-highway

Today caught us out again. The winds were once more very strong, but the sun was out and in just a vest, shirt, sleeveless fleece, fleece windproof jacket, hat and long gloves – today was comfortable…. Somehow we all got sunburnt.

Bahia Blanca approached and we ended up on bumpy, dusty winswept roads navigating round the city. Just overtaking large lorries to pull away suddenly the bonnet of the Westland leapt up, tore off its hinges, smashed into the windscreen, flipped over the top clouting me on the head and flew off into the verge. Luckily I wasn’t knocked out and could pull in slowly and carefully. My neck felt two inches shorter. Chris and I walked back to the bonnet, a cyclist had stopped next to it, looked at me with wide eyes and made a motion of hitting his head. It hurt to nod.

Disaster-strikes

The second breakdown prize goes at 557 miles. Yes – I will have to put up a 3rd prize – these two have gone too quickly!

carmen-de-patagones

Panel-beating

The others stopped, stored the bonnet in the modern Hylux and onto Bahia Blanca we went. Within 5 hours the resourceful Brazilians and our crew had got her fixed up. The wind had been just too strong for the large aluminum bonnet to cope and both her safety catches had let go due to the shaking and driving wind. The new strap would fix that for good, and would be a permanent addition to the Westland.  Learning there is to copy the rally modifications on these cars – all the rally cars did indeed have bonnet straps and we are clearly encountering rally type conditions in places.

As-good-as-new

Off again. A straight road, sun and high speed motoring in what must be a piece of World Class Motoring over the amazing plains into Patagonia and onto another beautiful hotel, Hotel Austral at Vidma. Just before we stopped briefly to locate a hotel with enough rooms for us all in the town of Carmen de Patagones - it was as if film stars had come to town. Smiles and waves all round.

celebrities!

Another late night, as we didn’t check in until late – and an early start tomorrow. It seems as though I am the only one who likes 8 hours kip! Maybe I can sleep while Chris is driving!

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fine tuning by zincweb internet www.zincweb.co.uk