6 Feb 2020
No riding today, the weather in the national park was crap, it would have been foggy. Instead I got some laundry done and caught up on some maintenance. I had had a slight oil leak for a couple of days, and decided it needed investigating. The Himalayan is known to have problems with the two visible cylinder head bolts. The guy I’d bought the bike from had told me he had changed these bolts for longer ones, a known fix for the problem. As soon as I removed the bolts, I could see this was not the case. One of the bolts tightened up ok, the other came out with part of the thread, which had evidently separated from the cylinder. It would not tighten at all. I called Bolton Motorcycles, and they suggested trying a longer bolt (thanks again guys!). A quick internet search brought up a car and boat mechanic, Vitus Braig, here in Trevelin. I rode round to his yard, which was full of trucks, old cars, and a couple of boats. Vitus was a fit looking guy in his sixties. He didn’t speak any Engliash, but with Google Translate and a bit of sign language, worked, he soon worked out what I was after. He had a bolt that fitted. Vitus fitted it, and also made a replacement for the missing part from my fuel can, all at no charge! Unfortunately, he only had the one bolt the right length, but the other one was holding ok. Back at the camp site, I cleaned and lubed the chain, and gave the bike a good looking over, checking bolts etc. Then I just spent the rest of the day lazing around. In the evening, I cooked some pasta on the gas stove. I was running out of gas. After dinner, I had a shot of whisky, then called it a night.
7 Feb 2020
I woke up early, but didn’t get going until nearly midday. I cooked scrambled eggs with salami, had a coffee, then repacked the panniers yet again. And yet again, the load seemed to reduce. I topped off the fuel, bought a new gas canister, then headed for the Parque Nacional de los Alarces. It’s only 15km from Trevelin.
In the park, lots of lakes, pine trees and expensive looking hotels. The park has lots of camp sites, some free, and apparently it is not allowed to wild camp. Roads are a mix of tar and dirt at the start of the park, so I took all the dirt ones I could find. I was in no rush today, the park is only 70km long. I stopped at Lago Futalaufquen for a coffee and a tart made with Dulce con Leche, the caramelised condensed milk they like so much here. Weather was glorious, and it’s nice just puttering around for a change. Scenery looks a little like Loch Lomond.
Soon the road turned to ripio, varying from loose gravel, to hard packed sand, to rocks. Running along the eastern shore of Lago Futalaufquen, it’s a very pretty road. I passed a couple of campsites, including two that said free camping. I stopped at the second one. A Danish couple told me it was the best camping spot they had found in the park, and that the paid campsites are quite busy. 
They were travelling in an old battered camper van, which they had bought in Argentina. I had only ridden 60km, but I was not in any hurry. With the bike, I could get right down to the shoreline, so set up camp right next to the lake. 
The sun was shining, the scenery amazing, and I set up tent and then wandered down to the lake shore. I chatted for a while to the Danish guy, who was fishing, but he didn’t catch anything. Later on, his girlfriend caught a fish with her first cast. I took a walk along the rocky shoreline, and collected a bit of wood for the stove. The wind died down enough to fly the drone, so I got a bit of aerial footage. The gimbal on the drone had been playing up since I first flew it on RN40, so some of the footage looks a bit jerky. On the shoreline, and eagle took off in front of me.
Dinner was lentil, pepper and salami casserole, cooked on the Lixada wood stove. I really like this stove. It packs up very small, and burns twigs or cones, which are always easy to find. If using tins, you can burn them on the stove afterwards, which stops them attracting critters in the night, and also ensures the tins don’t end up stinking your luggage out before you can dispose of them.
Two very young couples turned up just before it got dark.. They couldn’t get a fire going. I didn’t know whether to offer to help. Eventually, I wandered over and got their fire going for them. They’d been putting green wood on it, so I gathered some dryer wood. One of them gave me a beer, and I chatted with them for a while before heading back to my tent. One of them knows 3 chords on the guitar, but they are quiet, which is nice.
Back at the tent, I sat drinking a whiskey and looking out across Laga Fuatlafquen. What an amazingly beautiful place. The park is named after a tree, the alerce, which is the world’s second longest living tree. They can live for over 3600 years. There was also a glacier in the park, but it takes a full days trekking to get to it apparently. I was wondering about spending another night in the park, but thought I’d probably continue towards Bariloche. I’d been thinking about trying to find a camper van, to explore the area with Jackie when she arrived. It had been a very short day, only covering 55km. But it was really nice to have a day with no compunction to cover miles. It had been a great day, and very relaxing. It was also one of the best camping spots I had found so far. Tomorrow, on the recommendation of a local who offered me some mate tea, I would probably head to Lago Puelo. 