Valle de Luna Roja

Today we reached a truly epic milestone.

In the normal way of all big achievements, it happened on a nondescript highway just north of the nondescript city of Tacuarembó. Regardless of the fact that there was nowhere to stop bar the hard shoulder, with trucks overtaking and blaring their horns, we pulled over at this random point on the highway through Uruguay’s little-visited interior to commemorate the moment.

We had officially driven Ruby 100,000 kilometres since we bought her back in 2015. Our trip sat exactly there at 33,165 kilometres. I remember naively thinking she was a low-mileage car when we got her. I don’t think I knew back then about the trip just going round again.

Now we had crossed two continents, visited 17 countries and she had safely brought us and our girls here today. No, it certainly hasn’t been plain sailing and sure, a lot of the parts that make her now are not those she started with, but still, this was a proud moment.

It’s not just about her as a vehicle, it’s about the time and work that went into reaching this point. I learnt an entirely new career to make it this far. We survived a pandemic abroad in a foreign country. We both learnt another language. We made it through stressful situations that would break some couples and we put up with each other’s daily crap, which is possibly worse. There is so much behind the scenes on a trip like this that you don’t see and while people constantly tell us we’re “living the dream”, it is a fine line between that and a nightmare on occasion. Don’t get me wrong, we stay on the right side most of the time, but we’re just one breakdown away from the other side. Still, I wouldn’t trade it. We feel like we can honestly say that we are living life, and what more can you ask for?

We just had to get out and celebrate for a quick second.

#

Once we’d taken our photos, we continued on before a trucker accidentally hit us. Not far now until we reached the valley we’d be camping in. The last section involved yet another irritating toll road. Uruguay has a ‘fancy’ toll system which is all automated. You must register online and put credit on your account, even with a foreign car. They’ve come a long way from the Bolivians with their Coke bottle on a string across the road. We had set this up no problem and loaded our account with money. The problem we did have though was that the cameras wouldn’t read our plates correctly. Therefore, at every single toll booth, one of us had to get out, explain the situation, help them manually locate our account and then wait for them to lift the barrier.

We knew we didn’t have enough credit this time and so we pulled over beforehand and I went to deal with the money. The lady eventually located our account. I explained that we would pass through this toll twice and then wanted to drive to the border. I asked her to load the correct amount of money for any remaining tolls so that when we hit the border our account would be at zero. I obviously didn’t want to leave money sitting in there. It seemed this was a weird request, but she gave me the total to pay and I went back to Ruby. We drove up to the barrier. Of course, it didn’t open. Despite the fact I had literally just been in the office, it still took them a while to figure that out. Eventually though, we were through and continued on the final stretch of our drive for the day.

We had decided we’d stop at the visitor centre as they apparently had showers and water for free, both things we were in need of. As we got closer though, we decided we would stop at a free spot nearby instead to get further away from the road. The visitor centre was a bit too exposed for our liking and the cats were desperate for a good run around. Instead, we parked on a small dirt road by the river.

Here the river was much clearer, unlike the muddy flood waters we had been travelling through. Give me some clean water and we don’t need any facilities, we could do everything we needed here. It was a lovely picturesque spot and we arrived in the last of the late afternoon sunshine and parked up by the side.

We had thought we might go out for a horse ride while we were here. The prices, especially for an expensive country, were reasonable. I do love getting out on a horse when I get the chance. It would also be a nice way to explore the valley as very little can be accessed without a guide due to it being mainly privately owned. I messaged a local lady who runs riding trips. It sounded great, but she was away until the weekend and so it would be nearly five days to wait. We debated whether we’d hang around that long. We wanted to be back in Argentina by the end of the month because there was a VW camp-out near Buenos Aires we wanted to attend.

The next day we relaxed by the river. It was a gorgeous sunny day. We waded through the ford, taking a blanket and a nice cold beer with us. Then, a little way down on the sandy riverbank, we spent a few hours sunbathing, swimming in the river and enjoying the sunshine. You would never have thought the temperature change could be so dramatic. At the coast we had been cold, wearing jackets and jumpers. If anyone had invited me to swim in a river there, I would not have been interested. Here though it was a good 15 degrees warmer and while the water was fresh, it was perfect.

We decided that actually, we’d quite happily spend a few days here and so we arranged to go out on a hack with Nathaly on Saturday. In the meantime, we cooked up some nice meals and Lee convinced me to try and cut his hair. Our spot was beautiful and quiet.

The week flew by and soon we were packing up and driving out to Nathaly’s ranch. She offers a variety of trips on the family’s horses as well as letting people camp there too. While the horse riding was pretty cheap at about £15, the camping was nearly the same price. The camping itself was basically just parking in their garden. Chickens wandered around and of course there were a lot of dogs. We decided we’d drive back to our quiet little riverside spot afterwards. No doubt the cats would be much happier too.

Nathaly brought us over to our two horses, whose names I forgot almost instantly. She explained that they didn’t give guests stirrups because it was safer if you fell off. That was going to be a bit brutal considering I had barely sat on a horse in 15 years.

We hopped on and made our way out of the gate and down the road in the afternoon sun. Nathaly chatted about the ranch as several of the dogs followed along behind us. We were heading to the river where hopefully we’d go in for a swim with the horses. After a good hour’s ride we reached the banks. This was actually the other free camping spot in the area. There was a small river crossing there, but the river was low right now and it wouldn’t have been a problem. Good to know, as we could drive back this way when we left and it was a bit shorter too.

We began to walk along the edge of the river. Unfortunately at this point, Lee, who had been trying to film some of it, got things slightly wrong. The horse did not care that there was a low tree branch above and simply walked straight underneath it. Lee’s hands were full of camera gear and as the branch tried to take his hat, he ended up falling entirely into the river.

He was mainly ok, although he’d already had a bad back before falling off and I can only imagine what it was like afterwards. He had also lost his sunglasses, hat and the GoPro. We took the horses over to the edge of the river while Nathaly explained that we couldn’t take them swimming anyway because the water was too murky. Apparently mud banks sometimes form underneath and it can be dangerous if you can’t see what’s below you.

So we waited on the bank for the silt to settle in the hope we’d be able to spot the camera. The hat was easiest to find, then we got the sunglasses and finally, after a while of searching, I managed to locate the GoPro, which had recorded the entire incident.

It was a good job it was such a hot day because at least being soaking wet wasn’t too bad. We started to make our way back to the ranch, Lee increasingly hunched over on his horse. Nathaly cheerfully pointed out that at least he hadn’t had stirrups, so his feet hadn’t become trapped. I’m not sure he shared the sentiment. This may well have been the last time he joined me on a ride.

Back at the ranch he slipped gingerly off the horse. We had to wait a little while as the rest of the family were in the middle of levelling out rocks to make a driveway. They were using a tractor with some sort of scraper attached to the back — I have no idea of the proper term — but it wasn’t heavy enough to move the rocks around properly and so the rest of the family had climbed on top to act as ballast while it shunted around the yard. Well, it’s not stupid if it works.

Once they had cleared a space, we paid, thanked Nathaly and shunted Ruby back out onto the road. Then it was back to the river for one final night in this perfect little place.