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 Across the Americas - an
adventure with our Land Rover
Since April 1st 2009 we've been on the road with
'Bee' our trusty Land Rover on a sort of Grand
Tour of the Americas.
So far we've traveled more than 72,000 miles,
stopping for lots of adventures (and the odd
mis-adventure) along the way.
Our journey has
taken us from the USA's east coast, across Canada,
up to Alaska and the Arctic Ocean and south down
through the mountains, forests, deserts and the
occasional beach of western USA.
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 Continuing on into Central and South
America over the past 12 months we have
experienced volcanoes, earthquakes, tropical
diseases, freezing deserts, sweltering jungles and
everything in between.
Having finally made it to the Land of Fire at the
end of the world we recently returned north to put
Bee on a ship out of Buenos Aires and to take a
look at Rio and Brazil's Atlantic coast.
Next on the agenda is a return to Blighty, where
its time to reconnect with the 'real world'.
We've had an amazing trip, met some fabulous
people and enjoyed some incredible adventures.
To find out more take a look at The
Journey page or for an overview try the
Gallery and Map
pages.
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What's new ?
Where to begin ? It's been a while
since our last update so this time we have no less
than six new chapters for you. The new
chapters cover: 19th November
2010 - 25th April 2011. As usual
there are updates to the Overview pages
(including the photo Gallery and
Map points) and the Guest
Book. These links should take you
directly to the new entries.
The arduous conditions of our journey have taken
their inevitable toll on our equipment however and
these past few months we've had to write off our
main camera and two laptops. Unfortunately
when our laptops died they took
with them several months of journals and
photos. We're working to recover the
lost data from the damaged hard drive (if we can)
but in the meantime here's what we have - the
overviews. The six new chapters are:
 The Call of the Wild
After the hurly-burly of Bolivia
and Peru we were itching to get back
out into the wilderness.
Patagonia was still a long way off,
but the remote tracks and amazing
landscapes of southern Bolivia and
the Argentine high plateau were just
the ticket.
We headed off in to the desolate
and unforgiving white dunes of
Northern Argentina with some
trepidation. This is billed as
the toughest stage of the past
few Dakar races and it soon
became apparent why. Did we
get stuck ? Well, just a bit,
now and again ... and again ...
Read more
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 The Lake District
In the beautiful green and blue
landscape of the Lake
District we reveled in the good
life of (mostly) blue skies and a
temperate summer. After a few
mild mannered forays on to the
beautiful lakes and rivers of
this area it was time for our
fist little challenge; a seven
day 'tour' one third by foot,
another by canoe and the final third
by bike. All was well until,
after several time-consuming and
back breaking portages, we
discovered that the river was
not actually runnable. Time
for plan b.
We finished off with a dash up to
the summit of the smoking and
very much alive volcano that
is Mount Villarrica (9,317
ft) ... and bum-sliding back
down ! What fun !
Read more
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 To the End of the World
From northern Patagonia we made our
way south through rainforests and
across wind swept pampas.
Along the way we come across a cave
who's walls were adorned with
some 800 paintings - mostly
hands. The images looked brand
new but most dated back 2,000
years. Some were 10,000
years old.
We were heading for Ushuaia - which
is about as far south as you can get
on this continent. Along the
way we experienced the incredible
wind for which this area is famous
and for the first time in two years
we were forced to abandon our tent
in the middle of the night.
Oh and we went to see some
penguins.
Read more
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 Torres del Paine
No trip to Patagonia would be complete
without a visit to the majestic granite
towers that are Torres del Paine. We
opted for the long route, a 130km
circuit that is justifiably
considered to be one of the World's
classic treks.
After 10 days on the trail we knew all
about the Torres and the Paine.
Read more
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 Patagonia Ice Field
Well I thought we might get to see the
ice sheet (from a distance perhaps) but
the more we read the more interesting it
looked and before long we were making
plans for something of an epic. This
was not a venture to be taken lightly as
the weather on the ice sheet is
wildly unpredictable, and when it
turns bad it can be nothing short of
brutal. Winds can reach 150kph and
the temperature can plummet to minus
30 C. And then there's the
crevasses.
Barely able to walk under the ridiculous
weight of our packs (50kg) we set off with
provisions for 10 days. But after a
two day walk-in, the weather changed and
all we could do was make camp
and wait ... for four
days. After a string of bad
omens, we sat seriously contemplating our
plan. Had we bitten off too
much this time?
We decided to give it a go ...
Read
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 Northward Bound
With a fond farewell to Patagonia we
headed North and after a quick visit to
the Moreno Glacier made our way to
Santiago de Chile for a reunion with some
old friends. Then back to Argentina
(for the 10th time) and on
to Buenos Aires where we eat far too
much steak and drink far too much wine
before putting Bee on a ship bound for
England.
Adjusting to our new life as backpackers
we continued on to Rio de Janiero and the
sun soaked beaches of Brazil before
heading to Sao Paulo and our
flight back to England.
Read more
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If you'd like to be the first to know
whenever we do an update, join our 'updates list' and
we'll send you an email whenever we
add stuff. We update as and when -
about every three weeks at the
moment. Or if you prefer you can
join our Facebook group.
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Website Last
Updated: 8th May 2011
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