The Seven Lakes Drive

Talk about rally-driver-Steph! I commented on more than one occasion during this drive how I felt like Colin Mcrae on these winding dirt roads.

One of the things tourists come to Bariloche for, besides the chocolate and the feeling of being in the Swiss Alps, is to go on the 'Seven Lakes Drive'. There are many companies set up for this, offering all kinds of tours for all kinds of prices, all of which seemed ludicrously expensive to us. Instead, we opted to hire a car with our dorm-mate Abdel from Lyon, France. Abdel is doing an internship in the South of Patagonia and was making the most of the long holiday in Argentina this weekend in celebration of 200 years independence from the Spaniards.

I was designated driver; it was such a wonderful experience to be driving through this beautiful scenery. You begin to realise in Patagonia just how much of the world remains untouched by the hand of man. Much of the road was unpaved making for hour upon bumpy hour of exciting, rally driving style turns around sharp, hair-pin bends. What fun! The boys held on tight as we bumped our way along, dodging potholes for the five-six hours of driving each day.

This was one of the most stunning drives I've ever been on - not least because of the firey autumn colours we were lucky enough to see. The leaves were so incredibly bright - I don't know how photos will ever do them justice.

We were able to keep the car over night while still paying for only one day of car hire (2pm - 2pm) and this meant we could stay the night in St Martin de los Andes where we dined on a boxed fondue set that Chris had been craving all week. We sorted the world out over a few bottles of wine in our triple room/studio before setting off again the next morning back to Bariloche. It was great sharing this experience with Abdel and hearing about his experience of living in the south of Argentina.