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02.12.2019: Caraz via Cañón Del Pato to a bush camp near La Pampa on the PE-3NA
After our 6 nights stay in Caraz we left and drove through Cañón del Pato. It is a really narrow canyon and the road is mostly a single lane with passing places. It's a super drive and the road goes through over 50 tunnels.
We nearly lost our voices going along the 30km stretch which took 1.5 hours!!! Why? Because our horn doesn't work so every time we came to a tight bend on the single lane road we shouted "BEEP, BEEP!" through our windows!!! We had to do the same thing for the tunnels, some of which were really long and went around bends!! There are no lights inside! It certainly took it's toll on our voices!!
We followed a tip from the two campers from South Africa and headed uphill 700m higher along a narrow road with lots of severe switchbacks. There were several places where the road was crumbling and Kirsten got a bit worried about the 1000m drop off to our right!!
Winnietwo also has a knocking sound when we turn hard right or left. We think it's the drive shaft joint and we're aiming to get it fixed by a good mechanic we've heard of in Quito. In the meantime we have to put up with the loud knocking which is extremely pronounced when we go uphill and especially on all the hairpin bends we had to take!
We finally got up to a plateau near the small village of La Pampa where we parked up for the night but it was still light enough for us to walk to the canyon rim to see the great view. There were also some hairy cacti we've never seen before but they were next to a rubbish dump that we discovered. Terrible! Completely ruins the wonderful scenery!
Our bush camp spot near La Pampa - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
Thrilling Cañón Del Pato followed by a dangerous death road!
03.12.2019: From the bush camp near La Pampa along the Río Tablachaca to Pallasca
That night Kirsten didn't sleep much because she was worried about us going all the way back down again. We'd just taken a "little" detour to see the canyons. But we managed the descent without a problem and didn't have any knocking noises!
The next part of the road took us through more tunnels, so we had to shout "BEEP, BEEP!" again and then we took another route inland - another tip from the South Africans. The first part of the road along the Río Tablachaca was tarmac but then we turned off along a road that was hard packed dirt that followed the river. The tip was that it was another beautiful canyon and, although they have 4 wheel drive, they said we could drive it easily with 2 wheel drive.
Well, mostly they were right. It was a beautiful canyon and a lovely drive along the river. The road deteriorated somewhat and we had to negotiate pot holes. Sometimes we had to reverse where the road narrowed to allow oncoming traffic through.
We were going quite a way uphill as the road left the river and wound it's way into the hills. It seemed that everyone was driving in the other direction and we found out why later - roadworks! This is where things started to go wrong for us. The roadworks were on a narrow sandy stretch and a water truck was wetting the road. It was quite steep and we know that our motor home has problems going uphill on wet non-tarmac surfaces. Oh boy!
We had to wait for the water truck to pass us and then we drove. Fortunately we made it past the roadworks but things got worse. It started raining so the road surface was getting trickier for us. It was a mixture of sand or mud, pot holes and road damage from landslides. We continued up and up and there were several steep ascents that worried us. S**t! Now we can't go back because going downhill is even worse for us!!
Then the road divided. Our GPS only had the road to the right so we followed the tyre tracks. But the road was now muddy shale, very narrow and lots of holes. We scraped underneath and the front bumper several times as we struggled along.
Then I stopped ... because ahead was a deep rut with a river running through it followed by a very steep uphill stretch. Holy, moly!! Crunch time. If we decided to go back we would have real difficulty turning around on this surface, let alone getting back down all the steep slopes! But would we make it through the river and up the hill? And if we made it what was coming next??!! We tried MapsMe but no other road was shown. S**t and double s**t!!!
No choice ... we just had to keep going and hope we could make it up to a village called Pallasca. So I carefully drove through the river rut, scraping underneath, and then pushed us up the hill chanting "Come on, come on, you can do it!" to Winnietwo. It must have been at least a 40 percent grade uphill but somehow Winnietwo made it!!!
But our unwanted adventure wasn't over yet. There were more switchbacks uphill, we scraped several times, the rain got heavier and it was getting dark!! There was absolutely no one else on this road ... not surprising really but it meant if we got stuck we'd have a long walk in the dark. The road was getting worse and worse and we were counting down the kilometres towards Pallasca!!
It took ages but we finally got to Pallasca only to hit extremely muddy parts going through the village and then steeply up to the central plaza. We'd finally made it but Kirsten hyperventilated and I had to get her a plastic bag and some water. Fortunately she knew what to do because she hyperventilated 25 years ago!!! But the stress of the drive took it's toll.
The moral of the story ... never believe people with 4 wheel drive who say you can drive a particular stretch in a 2 wheel drive vehicle!!!
Thank God Kirsten recovered relatively quickly and I grabbed an umbrella to go and look for the best route out. Not good!!! We seemed to be surrounded by extremely steep roads. Straight ahead was a cobblestone road which was severely steep uphill! To the right, very steep downhill. Past the church, less steep but the wrong direction. Jeez, not good. We'll have to work something out tomorrow!!
From one death road to the next! Scary!
We stayed at the plaza for the night and we slept surprisingly well despite being woken up at 3am by a few loud buses. Maybe it was because we were exhausted!! It rained for most of the night but dried up in the morning. Locals told us that the road we originally wanted to take, through the mountains further north, might not be passable because of rain. They said there were water crossings and the water level might be too high. It was the start of the rainy season up here!
There was nothing for it. We would have to abandon our plan to drive north through the mountains and head back down to the coastal road. But how to get back down? Our only hope was the main 3N road from here. We were told that we just had to get over a hill and then it was tarmac. Yippee!!
04.12.2019: Pallasca via Tauca back to Río Tablachaca
We went for a walk around the little village to check out a route and make sure Winnietwo could make it. We drove off and managed to get up steep gravel to get on the main route out of the village, heading for the coast. First of all though, we needed to negotiate switchbacks that kept taking us up and up!!
We did 6km and we were still on gravel. The locals obviously gave us the wrong info! The gravel road kept going up and down between 3,000m and 3,500m, and we went through several mountain villages. Then it started raining again - not good when we're still on gravel! At the next village - Huandoval - there were 2 routes. A road worker told us to take the lower route which we did. But we encountered a lot of mud and a second pile of mud had a lot of water pooling in it ... we barely made it through!!
Then we got stuck because we couldn't find a way through the village. Kirsten got out to check out various streets on foot. After 20 minutes our only possible way through was to reverse, move 2 donkeys out of the way (I'm not joking!!!!!) then turn left up an extremely steep concrete street. I had to turn right at the top but the turn was too acute so I had to go forwards, and then reverse to make the corner!! I had to wait for Kirsten anyway - she was on foot in case she needed to push us up the hill!!
This whole thing was turning into far too much adventure. Okay, if we had a 4WD vehicle it would be great but we don't. Plus we have some kind of axle problem and really don't want to get stuck in these mountains. As ever, we just kept going, still on gravel, and finally, at 4-30pm, 50 km further on, we hit tarmac. Yippee!!
Then we hit fog!!! We were up at 3,500m and had to negotiate switchbacks through pea soup. We got out of the fog as we descended into a valley and even stopped for photos of a tarantula crossing the road! We finally got back down to the Río Tablachaca where we'd turned off onto the hard packed road yesterday and found a spot next to the river for the night.
Our camping spot at Río Tablachaca - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
We'd only just made it before dark. We both vowed we would never do gravel roads again, ever!
Another exhausting drive with lots of obstacles!
05. - 06.12.2019: Río Tablachaca via Trujillo to Huanchaco
The next day we drove back to the Pan-American Highway that follows the coast and headed north on the dual carriageway. Wow, what a relief - easy driving despite lots of traffic and loud trucks. We shot past the part of the Peruvian coast that is dangerous for travellers and managed to get quite a distance.
We stopped at a supermarket in Trujillo and caused ourselves some stress because we needed a top up for our SIM card. But it didn't work and took ages for Kirsten to finally work out that we needed to pay an extra 50 centavos fee to get the 5 soles package we wanted!!
In the meantime I went shopping and got stuck for 30 minutes in the queues for the till. So it was 6-30pm by the time we left and I had to drive 20km in the dark - something we really try to avoid.
We stayed for 2 nights at a beach spot in Huanchaco to take a break from all the adventure we hadn't really wanted and just ignored the loud music and barking dogs. We watched our football team play really badly and tried to get some work done on our website. Unfortunately our battery isn't very good anymore and we used up all the power!
07. - 08.12.2019: Huanchaco to Macará, Ecuador
We drove through desert again and stopped at a power plant that has 24 hour guards for the night. It was one of only a few spots on the approach to the border with Ecuador where it's safe to stop. It meant we could get up to the border the next day. Then we would finally get into Ecuador. Yeehaa!
