After the hurlyburly of Bolivia and Peru we were itching to get
back out into the wilderness. Patagonia was calling our names,
but there was still a vast distance to cover before our dreams of
camping in a grassy green meadow, beside a cold mountain stream
could be realised. In the blistering hot sands of Chile's
northern Pacific coast we studied the map looking for the best route
south. Highway 5, the backbone of Chile, would be the fastest
and simplest, but we needed to get off the beaten track and out of
the main tourist zone for a while. High up in the Argentine
Andes a network of tiny tracks across the Puna (high desert plateau)
caught our attention. We knew this area to be
beautiful and remote from a crossing that we had made
several months earlier. Excited to have the opportunity to
explore further we filled every available fuel can and water
carrier, stocked up on food and turned south.
From the first winding gorge, guanaco filled
water hole and dusty mud built village - the Puna was a
wonderful feast for the eyes and another great driving
challenge. We had seen a large amount of fabulous desert
scenery over recent months, but nothing quite prepared us for the
immensity, variety or wild brutal beauty of the
desert. It was like travelling through a lavishly
illustrated geography text book filled with black lava floes,
snow dusted volcanic cones, shimmering salt pans, wildlife filled
oases and rainbow coloured mountains.
After several days of isolation we reached the little oasis
town of Antofagasta de la Sierra where we turned onto a track that
was almost invisible on the stoney grey desert plain. We
headed for what looked like a small hill of pure white sand
ahead. It took the entire morning to reach that little hill,
a hill that up close grew into a barrier of monstrous sand
dunes, hundreds of meters high, with great sandy swallow holes that
had to be more than 50 metres deep. We were utterly
alone, many dry rocky miles from the nearest settlement and days
from any kind of medical care. We had found our way to
the White Dunes - an area that has been a major feature of the Dakar
race in recent years. Even for the go-anywhere vehicles and
drivers of the Dakar, this is considered to be one of the toughest
sections of the race, and it was clear why. Getting stuck out
here alone would be disastrous. As we approached the dunes we
made a mental note not to do anything silly but as we got closer ...
we couldn't help ourselves. We ventured on to the pure white
sand ....
The Call of the Wild