We spent four days on Peninsula Valdez, camping in a remote wild camp with a few other overlanders and lots of whales. We spent our days walking on the beach and watching for whales.
Sunset from our campsite on Peninsula Valdez
We saw lots of these little guys running down the roads in front of us. We started calling them roadrunners. meep-meep!
Elephant seals were sunning themselves on a beach on the north end of the peninsula.
Quinn loves the sleeping bag Grammy and Papa bought him before the trip. He’s almost completely grown into it now!
The coastline is desert scrub land with beautiful blue waters. It’s not as barren and lifeless as the parts of the Pacific coast that we’ve seen.
I found some whale bones on the beach during a walk one day.
We found a great pebble beach near our campsite that was sheltered from the cold wind. The rocks would get warm in the sun and it made a great place to play.
Another sunset from our campsite.
One morning we saw a great show including breaching whales.
After our wild camping, we booked a tour on a whale watching boat and got to see them up close.
We had to take this silly photo.
On the lookout
Campgrounds around here tend to have showers available in the mornings and evenings only, so when we rolled in stinky after four nights of wild camping, we decided to use our outdoor shower rather than wait till 7pm. This marks the third time we’ve used it on the trip!
The paleontology museum in Trelew was very impressive.
Trelew and Germain are home to many tea houses that offer high tea in the afternoons. Never having enjoyed that custom in England, we decided to take part in Argentina. Why not?
We took a side trip to another national park to see orcas and penguins. We didn’t see any orcas, but the penguins were in abundance.
Guanacos are related to alpacas and the other camelids that call South America home.
The area is also home to these giant, strange looking rabbit-like creatures. These two bounded down the road in front of us, veering neither left nor right, for several kilometers. We kind of felt bad for essentially chasing them with the van, but hey, if they’re that dumb…
We also saw some cool ostrich-like birds called ñandús. They were at least as fast as the rabbits, and smart enough to leave the road.
We took a side road down the coast where we saw big skies, lonely ranches, and, and lots of wildlife. During the three hour, 100km drive we saw one tractor, no cars or trucks, 4 cowboys on horseback, and more sheep than we could count.
Hey guys, great update. That park looks fantastic!
Silly photos are often the most interesting. HTS
Wow! What cool experiences. So glad the paleontology museum was open, Quinn! I can’t wait to catch up with you all and hear all about your adventures down the coast–those whales look pretty cool 🙂
Very interesting and beautifiul. I get excited when I see a dolphin jump up way out in the ocean. Here you were close up and personal to all that wild life and sea creatures! Wowee! Quinn looked snuggly and comfy in his sleeping bag!