November 8th - San Quintin - Loreto

This was the longest day of the tour, over 800 kms. We needed to have an early start so we were up at 5.15am and away by 6.30am. Whilst I was in the car park, Jingers our ace mechanic, was chatting with me about the day's run when, without him noticing a stray dog stole his breakfast roll from the back seat of his car! I saw it running away with the food in its mouth. A very lucky dog.

Jingers Riley, our ace mechanic, outside the hotel at San Quintin laughing having had his breakfast roll stolen from his car by a stray dog!

We had decided to take the 'classic' route and avoid the 200kms of off-road trails the adventure drive took. Our route took us more or less due south through wonderful desert scenery full of giant cardones cacti. They are the typical large cactus so common in old Hollywood cowboy films. The photo below is of my car standing in front of one which is about 10 metres tall.

Some 400kms after we left San Quentin we crossed into Baja Sur where we had to put our clocks forward an hour. At lunch we stopped at the beautiful oasis town of San Ignacio. With the desert scrub all around it it is amazing to find a place where large groves of palms are growing. Sadly, the town has suffered badly from the recent hurricanes and roads have been wasked away and debris was all over the place. The centre of the town has a beautiful shaded square with a marvellous old mission church.

The beautiful mission in the centre of San Ignacio

We had lunch with Paul and Jane Wignal and then as we were leaving, John Brown and Mike Johnson turned up. Prawn cocktails and lobster were the order of the day, washed down with a bottle of Mexican beer.

The next major town, 200 kms further south, was Santa Rosalia on the coats of the Sea of Cortes, an old mining town that was built by the French in the 19th century. In the centre of the town is a magnificent church designed by Eiffel and shipped out from the 1884 Paris Exhibition! The photo below shows the interior of the church.

Church designed by Eiffel and shipped to Santa Rosalia from Paris Exhibition in 1884

We then had our first experience of the problems foreigners have filling up their cars in Baja. The attendants try every devious method of overcharging. I'm still not sure how much fuel was put in my car as there was no volume of fuel shown on the pump! Next time I'll make sure the pump is working properly, in order to avoid being 'conned'.

By now it was nearly 3pm and in southern Baja it gets dark quite early, so the remainder of the drive was done as the sun set rapidly in the west. We drove into Loretto in darkness, which is not the best thing to do in Mexico as potholes, unmarked roadworks and animals that wander on to the road, are all hazards to avoid. Our hotel in Loreto was the Inn at Loretto a five star complex on the Sea of Cortes. A really beautiful place to end the day.