DAY 18 - TREVELIN and RIO MAYO [PATAGONIAN WINDS:1; DUNCAN:0]

Lovely breakfast spot, and a short walk away is the lakeside

The views through the country are lovely today - big big skies and

flowers in the verges

Our first destination is a pretty Patagonian town, established by Welsh settlers of the province of Chubut in 1891; they named it Trevelin (from Trefelin, Welsh for 'mill town') after a flour mill, 'Los Andes'.  In the supermarket when I'm looking for a spare T-towel, there are no obvious souvenirs to be found

Town has a wacky octagonal 'square' like a spider's web and, fittingly given its history, a 'Banco Galles' 

and is the start of the La Trochita steam line (to give it its full name, Viejo Expreso Patagónico or the Old Patagonian Express, a  2ft 5.5" narrow gauge railway (hence 'little gauge')), nearly 300 miles long and now a heritage railway.  Sadly not operating today. 

Almost every Argentine town records the country's pledge to reclaim its Malvinas

The next 100 miles are wide open countryside with hills on each side, and extremely windy... 

... at a stop, when Duncan opens his door, a furious gust of wind snatches it from his hand and nearly rips it off – damaging the front wing and bending the edge slightly, so now his door opens with a spectacular metallic creak.  Poor Vadar.

After that, we aren’t particularly keen to stop in the wind, so we just push on. A cheerier moment when D spots an armadillo running along the edge of the greenery on the other side of the road

Next town is Rio Mayo where, tonight, there's no option but a free municipal camping ground again - bit basic and rather a bleak windswept area but at least there's working light and the police have made a pass around to see we're OK.