Necochea - El Medano Blanco

On Monday we went on a trip to see El Medano Blanco, which is an area of sand dunes a little way south of Necochea. The weather wasn´t great and a thick fog decended on the town as we left making the journey there rather less interesting than it would have been could we see more than a few meters. However we did pass some shipwrecks on the beach, one an English vesstle that sunk in1926 and the other a Spanish one that went down some three years later. They had been reduced to mear metal bones by the endless crashing waves of salty sea water.

From Necochea

Thankfully as we neared the dunes the fog began to lift and as it did so the rolling sandscape was revealed. I´ve got photos but this machine would melt down were I to attempt to upload them...It was fun as we drove up and over the tallest dunes, the driver evidently fairly well versed in the art of keeping the 4x4 moving over the ever changing terrain. The wind was fierce when we got down to take in the view, whipping the sand around and making it not such a nice place to be as in the calm interior of the car. After a short while we stopped for a (sandy) bite to eat and had a chat with the driver and the other person on the trip, a woman called Mabel. She turned out to be really friendly by the time we got back to Necochea she had taken us under her wing and was determined to show us the best of traditional Argentina, which in this instance turned out to be a kind of mini-pasty called an "empanada". She bought a load and we went back to her flat to eat them, where we met her family and had a really nice time getting to know them! They have left a lovely memory of Necochea for us.

From Necochea

Yesterday we hired a tandem bike and had a laugh riding around and exploring Necochea. It was pretty windy and dusty again which made for hard going in certain directions, especially as I´m sure Leah was happily letting me do a lot of the leg work....

From Necochea

We had a nice picnic by the river(photos to follow) and managed to sort out our travel plans for the next little while - including a flight from Calafate to Esquel, which is going to save us about two days of terrible road-tripping up Route 40! Lee the Carbon Bandit strikes again, I´m going to have to be seriously emission free after this trip.