Safari in Valdes peninsula national park

What an amazing day ! Up at 6 am quick breakfast and away on a coach heading for the Valdes peninsula national park. The country is vast and you think you can nip out for a quick trip not realising its going to take you several hours. En route we saw amongst other things Southern elephant seals, sea lions, Magellanic penguins, Rheas (flightless bird) an owl and to cap it all three Southern Right Whales with their calves and a pod of dusky dolphins crossed the bows. The whales approached us and performed unbelievably, forty ton of whale heading towards you made you very wary whilst realising their awesome power. They approached the boat coming up right along side shooting a fine spray out of their blow holes, the calves following suit.They are only in about thirty foot of water! The reason being it stops the Orcas from attacking from below, bad for the Orca but unbelievable for us.

 Took some incredible pictures which now need editing in an on going task which if I don't keep up will result in about ten thousand or so.

Happy little chappy !

These penguins just moved rapidly from the shoreline as a seal came a bit too close.

Huge tarantula which was right next to us, needless to say but I didn't hang around for long!

Having a yawn, it's a hectic life !

Unbelievable the classic shot, stayed like this for several minutes 

Back totally exhausted after twelve hours, cooked tea and reasonably early night ready for another eighteen hour slog on Monday via coach heading further South, three hours hanging around a coach station then further four hours to destination. Truck still not docked, Pete the owner in Uraguay still
negotiating terms for landing the vehicle. Another company, Dragoman, who starts two weeks after us  is in a similar position. We have to keep moving as are set to a schedule and due to arrive in Chile to climb " The Big W" on the 12 th, 13 th, and 14 th December.

The weather will be turning as we head South and the warm gear will make an appearance. One fact pointed out is that throughout this trip we will be driving 35,000 km which I find astonishing.

The group is bonding, all very pleasant people, apart from Aussie Geoff who is my tent buddy. I can only apologise Lu if I sound anything like him........Christ he can snore, all I can do is laugh, it's horrendous. I can see our tent being placed well away from anyone else's.

Well until tomorrow when I shall be completing a couple of dives locally. Adios





as