Leaving our Peaceful Haven
Reluctantly, we left our grassy camp under the willow trees, surrounded by vines. It had only been a short break, but was very welcome. We climbed back up the track to the main road. The drive out to Pisco Elqui had been a welcome relief after Highway 5. Very pretty with vineyards everywhere in the valley bottom and stretching up the sides. Some citrus trees as well.
Leaving the camp
Looking down on our camp from the road
We passed through a number of pretty, small villages. Pisco Elqui was renamed, from La Union, to mark the region’s importance as the centre of pisco production. The village has a distillery with tours, but we didn’t indulge.
We had to retrace our steps back to Vicuña, where we then turned south to head towards Ovalle.
At first the road was asphalt and we climbed steeply away from Vicuña. Once we started to descend, though, this all changed. Just a gravel road. Fortunately, it had been well graded so was reasonably smooth. Progress was slow though as we twisted and turned relentlessly. One hairpin after another.
It was quite remote. Little sign of habitation, but the occasional mountain top observatory. Finding a flat spot to stop for lunch was challenging. Finally we managed and stopped among cactus with goats all around us.
Once we continued there were many diversions due to road works. These were often steep and rough. Large water pipes were being installed to provide drainage under the road in the wet season.
Camping South of Ovalle
We actually bypassed Ovalle heading for a campsite I had found on iOverlander. Google maps took us to a point where there was some sort of monument you had to pay to enter. The guard at the entrance would not let us through. We had to go around in big loop of more than 10 kms to get to the camp.
It isn’t very impressive, unfortunately. Messy and run down. Very dry too, so putting in tent pegs wasn’t easy. It is supposed to be a fruit farm, but there isn’t any sign of fruit trees. There are some very noisy peacocks and a couple of horses in the field next to us. Hopefully, the peacocks won’t be early morning birds and wake us up at some ungodly hour.
It isn’t cheap. 20,000 pesos. About £18. This is reasonable for good facilities, but not when it is so old and neglected. There are only cold showers. When I said I thought it was expensive, the owner pointed out the swimming pool. That is well kept and clean, but at nearly 6pm it is of no use to us.
Chileans seem very patriotic. There are Chilean flags everywhere. Every house seems to have one. Not sure where we’re headed tomorrow, but in the direction of Vina del Mar/Valparaiso. We’re heading for much more built up areas of Chile.
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