A Land Rover trip to Argentina leaves Paddy Comynenthralled and energised, if not a little worse for wear
Altitude sickness isn't nice. Take the worst hangover you have ever had, then imagine two nails hammered into each eye and another into the back of your neck and a clamp squeezing tight on your gut making you throw up violently. You feel confused, nauseous, delirious and terminal. Hardly most people's idea of a holiday, but it is just one of the elements that will be braved by those who sign up for a driving holiday with a difference.
The Road to the Clouds will be offered in 2008 by Land Rover as a package that will give those taking part a proper experience of what it is like to put this type of vehicle through its paces on some of the most difficult, yet beautiful, terrain in the world.
The folks at Land Rover are experts when it comes to adventure. After all, they are responsible for the G4 challenge - a global adventure competition, which supports the Red Cross, and has driving at its core and is set to take place again in 2008/2009 in Asia.
Land Rover are also experts at getting us hacks to write about cars that aren't new.
The Discovery 3 has been out for a number of years now and has been a huge success, but is one of the larger SUVs that are often pinpointed by environmentalists as being one of the worst offenders when it comes to pollution.
There is, admittedly, nothing very clean about flying half way around the world to drive a Land Rover for thousands of miles, but at least Land Rover's policy of planting trees to offset CO2 emissions goes some way to easing my guilt.
So, back to the trip. With orders to pack light, we set off from Dublin, via Madrid, before landing in Buenos Aires some 24 hours later. There is barely time to draw breath before we set off again. This time the fold-flat airline seat-cum-bed has been replaced by a small and flimsy-looking plane.
Our destination is Cafayate, situated 1,660m above sea level, in the northern province of Salta.
The Patios de Cafayate, a beautiful hotel located on the grounds of the famous Michel Torino vineyard was be our base for the night, but before settling down to a glass of the local produce, we travelled 55km south to Quilmes, probably Argentina's most impressive pre-Columbian ruins.
Covering about 30 hectares, the city supported a population of more than 5,000 in terraced structures with thick walls, overlooking irrigated farmlands. Quilmes developed autonomously until the late 15th century, when the Incas arrived. The Quilmes Indians resisted the Spaniards, killing their own children rather than giving them up to be slaves but were eventually defeated in 1668.
We had an early start next morning, to begin the main business of the trip - the driving.
We were paired up and given a silver Land Rover Discovery 3, in which we would spend the majority of the next few days. A Land Rover event means that you will spend a certain amount of time doing something that doesn't seem natural. Tip-toeing a vast, 2,700kg SUV through roads that have sheer drops on one side and then over boulders that would slice you in two sends messages to your nervous system that your brain doesn't want to process.
These SUVs might seem offensive to some parked outside a school gate, but here, amidst the harsh dust roads and hazardous obstacles you feel (a little) more secure knowing that you have a lot more metal around you.
The Land Rover instructors are brilliant, which helps too. An eclectic mix of tour guides, adventure junkies and even a Paris-Dakar competitor keep cool heads while you are losing yours and, while at times things seem scary, you know the planning and preparation that has gone on in advance accounts for the calmness of our guides. The assurance of a fully equipped intensive care Discovery on hand also puts your mind at ease.
After some hair-raising off-roading, we drive through scenery that seems like a film set, surrounded by mountains in shades of red, green, pink, yellow, white and grey.
We set up camp on the grounds of the Colomé vineyard, as we slowly began the climb towards tracing the route of the Road to the Clouds. Already starting to feel the effects of our increase in altitude - following a fitful night's sleep that involved sleeping in a tent in sub-zero temperatures and going to the toilet in a bag - we set off again, as we prepare for our largest climb.
The next day, our elevation rises more rapidly, as we head for Cachi, which lies on the foot of the Nevado del Cachi. This small town lies in the shadow of the snow-covered peak of San Martín, locally known as 'the white rock of solitude'. From here we head to La Poma, a village that literally had to be resurrected from the ashes after it was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 1930. It is from here that the road continues over the Paso Abra del Acay.
As we climb the final stretch, we stop off to drop off some food to a woman living in the middle of nowhere, who farms llama and supports her child on her own - her husband we suspect must be either dead or thrown out. it's said that in these areas, men sometimes don't pull their weight and are soon banished by their wives.
The power had started to ebb away from the diesel Discovery as we passed 3,800m - the point where the engineers building the car reckoned the car would struggle to cope - but a few winding roads later, now feeling the biting cold and passing frozen streams, and we are up at 5,000m, which is the highest pass in South America negotiable by car, higher than the summit of Mont Blanc.
With aching heads, freezing fingers but elated hearts we stop to take in what we have achieved. Rather pleased with ourselves for surviving the altitude sickness that we had been warned so much about, we began our descent to rest up for the evening.
And this is when it started. The glass or two of wine sounded like a good idea. After all, we were in the home of some top-class wine and we had achieved quite a bit in our few days of driving.
But when I woke at 4am with my world beginning to end, I regretted it. The last time I got this sick I was probably underage and there was neat Vodka involved, but like so many other of my colleagues - it took medical intervention to put us right.
Even the seemingly endless amount of water consumed had not prevented the onslaught.
Feeling more grim than I could ever have imagined, we set off again towards the province capital, Salta, thankfully situated at an altitude that didn't want to make my head implode.
You would never think that some 620,000 people live here until night falls and the streets become alive with local music. There is so much to see. All of it unhurried and at a walking pace. The highlight must be the Museo de Arqueología, where you can see three frozen Inca mummies found in 1999 buried near the 6,700m summit of Llullaillaco volcano. We finished off with a night in Buenos Aires (I mean, you would have to) where the nightlife, shopping and, of course, the steak, are worth the visit alone.
The phrase "trip of a lifetime" is used a lot, but with this package, Land Rover can use it without fear of reprimand.
For anyone with a sense of adventure, a love of off-roading and who isn't afraid to break a nail, then this will be the perfect accessory to Land Rover ownership, but as this is open to anyone, perhaps those of you who don't want to own an SUV, but want to experience what these vehicle really are for, this comes highly recommended.
The road to the clouds: getting involved
TRAVEL INFORMATION
The trips will take place between July and September 2008 - dates will be confirmed in November 2007. The costs quoted are estimates at this time:
The euro cost is as follows:
From Germany (return): €4,795; for international travellers who wish to join the group in Buenos Aires: €4,100; or to join in Salta: €3,900.
THE VEHICLES:Our vehicles were standard Land Rover Discovery 3 SUVs fitted with 2.7-litre TDV8 diesel engines putting out 190bhp and 440Nm of torque.
It is mated to a six-speed 'intelligent-shift' electronically controlled ZF automatic transmission and features Land Rover's Terrain Response system, where the driver chooses one of five terrain settings via a dial on the centre console.
Functions that are controlled by the Terrain Response include ride height, engine torque response, hill descent control and the traction and differential settings.
Prices start in Ireland from €55,500 for the Discovery 3 S and from €38,600 for the Discovery 3 Commercial.
CONTACT:
Land Rover Experience Germany, APS GmbH, Am Sportplatz 26a, DE-42489 Wuelfrath, Germany
Tel: +49 (2058) 77 809-0
Fax: +49 (2058) 77 809-90
Email: expeditions@landrover-experience.de