The Beastly Adventure Continues

Dan Diego de la Vega!

You dead?

Kind Regards,

Greg

That was the last personal note I got from my friend Greg McCann earlier this week. It was a fair question.

Last Greg had seen me I was stumbling out the door of a pub, yet again conceding defeat in a drinking contest with an Englishmen. Earlier in the night I'd recorded an interview with Greg about his trip around the world in a 1978 British Landrover Amublance (pictured above). It's called "The Beast." But the truly fascinating part of Greg's story is not his car, but the trip he and his girlfriend are taking.

You can hear the whole interview at http://www.portphillippublishing.com.au/
audio/greggmcann.wav (right click on the link and choose 'Save Target As'.  Save the file to your desktop then play through your audio player)

I've also pasted an excerpt from Greg and Alexis' travel journal below. You can find more of the same and much more on their trip at http://www.beastlyadventure.com/beastlyadventure.htm I've called Greg "The Real Jim Rogers," although that's not really fair to Jim Rogers who IS the real Jim Rogers, in addition to being a world-famous investor and first-class travel writer, not to mention being an impeccable gentleman.

My point is that Greg is travelling around the world without having enormously deep pockets, although as you'll hear in the interview, he began his career as a sugar trader, which has a nice symmetery with Rogers, who is famously and justly bullish on commodities.

The truth is Greg and his girlfriend Alexis are living life on their own terms. They "tread their own path" as my friend Scott Pape, the barefoot investor might say. See for yourself...
San Rafael – Tapungato – Mendoza – Puenta del Inca
25th September – 8th October 2006

"You can work 4 hours a day and stay here free with food and booze included," said Annette.

"Have another glass of rum," said John.

And so the slippery slope of liver murder commenced.

Sandra and Javier of Dakar Motos in Buenos Aires had recommended that we contact John and Annette when we reached San Rafael. They had met them at the Horizons Unlimited (a webpage for overlanding motorcyclists) meeting in Viedma a few years previously whilst they were on their three year round the world trip. After trying to settle in the UK they decided to take on a new challenge, setting up a vineyard in Argentina in the foothills of the Andes. Their challenge was to find a vineyard but after 3 months of searching the region for a suitable vineyard they had bought a vineyard, plum orchard and walnut field as part of their 34 hectare property. They are also intending to grow olives.

We had only popped in to stay a day or two but we ended up staying for 10 days. As Alexis's part exchange work she built an asado barbeque. Greg, after a few false hangover starts, learnt how to drive a 1970s push button start plough and ploughed the prospective olive field that John and Annette are planting. They showed us how they do their weekly watering of their crops by taking their water from the fast flowing canal that has been redirected from the rivers. On their watering day they have a total of 23 hours and 17 minutes in which to water all of their crops. The amount of time designated relates to the size of the property. A complicated system of mud waterways weave their way across the land to the different orchards and vineyards and require constant attention to ensure that all the plants get watered. They also explained about how the region gets affected by the summer storms which rip through the area depositing golf ball size ice cubes which devastate the soft fruit harvest.

Continue Reading at http://www.beastlyadventure.com/beastlyadventure.htm

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