Meet Cameron and her friends

Cameron

So having joined the Dragoman group on Thursday, today we met Cameron. Cameron is the truck we will be travelling on for the next 79 days, and is named after Cameron Diaz.  She is 21 years old, about 4m high, 10m long and she weighs in at around 15 tonnes.  Not sure how Ms Diaz would feel about having a 15 tonne truck named after her, but never mind.

We met Cameron at about 5:45am, setting off early for the 12 hour drive from BsAs to Cordoba.  There are 24 seats and there are 19 of us, so we’re not full, but we don’t rattle around. The same can’t be said for Cameron!  Happily the seats are actually pretty comfortable, which is just as well, as we are on it for a long time.  The ride is a little bumpy, but not too bad.  And the windows do all close properly, so though not the warmest of vehicles, it’s not that cold either.

Breakfast stop

Cameron has a back locker for all the rucksacks, and a couple of people get the job of hauling themselves up on a rope to stack the packs in.  There is a wood locker on the back for when we get to BBQ time, and various side lockers that contain the tents, folding chairs, a couple of tables that act as the kitchen, and all the various pots, pans, plates and cutlery that we need.  There are also a couple of hefty shovels for when we have to dig Cameron out of whatever hole she gets herself into!

We have a few cool boxes on board and – in what will quite possibly become the most popular area, we have a little space called the bar, which is self explanatory.  Overall, I think we will be OK with Cameron for the next few months.

And what about her friends.  First up we have the Dragoman crew, Dave and Ivan.  Dave is our tour leader.  He  is Australian and already it is fairly clear that he has ‘no worries’.  Ivan is our driver and mechanic French, and has been dubbed with the highly original nickname of Frenchie. Ivan is our Spanish speaker.

We haven’t got to know all of our travelling companions yet, but just so that you know who we have on board, I’ll go through the list.  We have four other couples, Elliot and Gemma who are engineering students from near Newcastle, Bert a fireman, and Vanessa from Belgium, Tim and Claire are lawyers from Bristol, and retired couple from Australia, Colin and Ann.  There are two people travelling together as friends, Sharif, a student from Munich, Germany and Sophie, from Auckland, New Zealand.  Then in the single travellers we have a mix of ages.  Alex a student from London, Leon from Netherlands who has just finished university, Jade and Leoni, a police officer, are Australian, Shay and Aine (pronounced like Anya) are both from Ireland, and Carolyn is a police officer from Glasgow.

Colin and Ann, Elliot and Jemma, Alex and Shay have been on board since Rio.  Some of the group are only on for the first leg to La Paz (Bolivia), but there are a few on to Lima (Peru), and at least one is on to Quito (Ecuador).  We are the only ones going right through to Cartagena, Colombia.