¨...Beep beep, beep beep, yeah!¨

Ok, so the road trip continues...

To the rest of the world, it must seem a little strange that Britain and its derivitaves such as Australia drive on the left-hand side of the road. But we all know we´re the normal ones! So my first experience driving on the wrong side of the road certainly took some getting used to. For starters, my left hand had to learn to hold the wheel straight on its own, something which it´s apparently unaccustomed to doing - but, once I´d worked out that the door handle didn´t help to change gears and that windscreen wipers weren´t particularly good indicators, I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly (with a few reminders from the backseat on unlined roads and intersections!!).

I think we´ve travelled the equivalent of Melbourne to Sydney and back in the last few days, about 1600km anyway. But unlike the lovely, smooth, well-signed Hume Highway with its possum bridges, we´ve instead had to slow down for llama crossings and attempt to negotiate the unpredictable and often frustratingly illogical Argentinian road system, which is in dire need of some signage and repair. We´ve driven on anything from straight and loooong two lane paved roads, to corrugated gravel tracks, salt pans, and windy mountainous passes better suited to bike-widths than cars (or trucks for that matter...).

Particularly difficult to understand is what makes a stretch of road worthy of being sealed. I´m not sure how these decisions are made, but it makes no sense to me that you can be for example, driving along a seemingly main road between places that switches any number of times between gravel and sealed (if you can call it that when there are HUGE potholes to be avoided! But it has been nice to be in a car again on the open road, driving through fields of cacti backed by rugged mountain ranges, and being able to stop at leasure to take in the silence and stillness and snap photos of everything from the ever-changing landscapes to donkeys, llamas, goats, horses, cowboys and shephards.

Particularly nice was the stretch through the National Park de los Cardones. Though it didn´t feel like we were climbing that high, by the time we reached the highest point on the drive we were about 4000m above sea level. At the top there was a small church, and the most spectacular view across the sunshine drenched valley below. Breathtaking (literally)!

The way down took us back towards Salta, where there is a traintrack built unashamedly for touristic purposes that winds its way ¨a las nubes (to the clouds)¨ of the Andean plateau through the Quebrada del Toro, a spectacular journey and popular attraction. If only it were actually running once in a while! It has been closed for a few years, and in recent times has been sporadic at best but thankfully there is a road following close to the same route allowing you to experience the same spectacular scenery en route to the seen-better-days desert town of San Antonio de Los Cobres, 3700m above sea level. If you´re lucky like we were, you might even pass a film crew on the road with a poor girl wrapped in a towel in the freezing wind waiting for her cowboy to come along!

The piece de resistance of the train track is a bridge that extends between two mountains which seems incredibly high and narrow. If I hadn´t been flattened by altitude sickness, I could have appreciated this engineering masterpiece a little better, but as it where I could only manage to step out of the car for about 3 minutes to take a photo and go ¨wow¨. Altitude sickness sucks, let me tell you, and is not helped by having a cold at the same time! The headache is splitting, the nausea debilitating, and loss of appetite unhelpful. Thank goodness it is easily fixed by descent!

Now lastly today, a little request to everyone reading to make yourself known to me by leading the pack and becoming a follower! It´s been great getting all your messages and I´m so glad to hear everyone´s enjoying the blog so much, so it´d be great to have you following so I can keep track of who´s reading! Signing up is really easy, under followers click ´follow´ and ´create a google account´, type in your current email and password, and that´s it! This will also allow you to leave comments on the blog, or otherwise please continue to email/facebook me directly because it´s great to hear from everyone!

Once again I´ve well and truly filled a post, so llamas will have to wait for next time, as will the final part(s) of the drive and my latest experience with the Argentinian healthcare system.

Chau amigos!