Hola Beast Crew

The Beasts are lurking in Buenos Aires, ready to pounce on Uruguay and Brasil.  The webpage has been updated with new designs, pictures, information and some new charity stuff.  With a new year, please make your new year’s resolution to donate some money to our charities IFAW and Adopt-a-Minefield.

Please can you help us… we are trying to help overlanders around the world work out how much it costs to travel.  We have set up a section that provides information on petrol prices around the world.  Can you please send us some prices for petrol, diesel/gasoil and LPG/gas in your country at the price it is today, in your currency?  You will be helping all overlanders across the world with the World Petrol/Diesel Prices!  Thank you for your help!

Balneiro El Condor – Buenos Aires – Mar del Plata – Buenos Aires

8th December 2006 – 9th January 2007

We were on a mission.  Nearly 40,000km has been covered by our trusty Romanian Danubiana 9.00 x 16 tyres as we have rolled around the planet, but the Chinese roads, Australian outback, Careterra Austral and Route 40 have taken their toll.  The tread was barely a pathway for an ant by the time we reached Buenos Aires for the second time, way below the 1.6mm of the British MoT requirement.  We needed new tyres desperately.  Greg had been searching for some tyres for the Beast for the past 3,000km, from Usuhuaia up to Buenos Aires but to no avail.  The only tyres that seemed to be available were the Michelin XZLs, almost £250/£500 per tyre.  Most of these were destined for the military Hummers located in Iraq so the availability outside of the Middle East is fairly limited.  We travelled back to Buenos Aires in a vain search for any others that might fit the Land Rover 101.  After a lot of ringing around by Javier at Dakar Motos, we had to admit defeat and resort to getting the tyres retreaded through a process know as vulcanisation.

To get your tyres vulcanised means that they will be shaved to almost smooth rubber before a new layer of treaded rubber is melted and stapled over the top.  There is a speed limit on the tyres and there is a tendancy for them to overheat and fall off if you exceed that speed (the rubber strips that you usually see at the side of the road).  Hopefully these new vulcanised tyres will last us until the United States where we may possibly be able to obtain some new ones (if the Iraq war has finished!)

We drove to Mar del Plata with our brand new tyres for the Christmas week at the holiday city that normally has a population of 500,000 that then explodes to 3 million during the summer months.  Christmas dinner consisted of a barbeque, roast potatoes and some Heinz baked beans that have been saved for 6 months for such an occasion followed by welsh Christmas cake from Gaiman.  Extremely satisfying!

We spent a hot a sweaty New Year (it was 38oC during the day, and it merely dropped to a mere 35oC at night time) at the phallic Obelisk in the centre of Bueos with two overland motorcyclists, Lew and Anita, who we met at the Horizons Unlimited meeting in Viedma.  The ensuing hangover was endured in sweaty beds at 44oC, not a very enjoyable way to start the New Year.

We are now heading north to the even sweatier countries of Uruguay and flooded Brasil to swap from tango to samba and forro, from asados to churrascos, to get entranced by some candomble and to meet some old friends.

Hasta Luego Argentina! Hola Uruguay! Ola Brasil!

A very happy new year to you all where ever you maybe on the planet and we apologise for making you life at work so unbearable with our updates!