Thank you so much for your support!  Being sponsored really kept me going on the expedition.

It was tough, very tough but we made it.  We reached theAtlantic on 5th April after 19 continuous days in the saddle.  We really only stopped to eat and sleep.  Even with the GPS it was difficult to estimate how far we travelled but we covered 759kms, two on foot when we walked across the border.  After crossing theAndes it was desert for most of the way, with back-up and leadership provided by the Wood family from Estancia Huechahue, their cheerful gauchos and friends.  There were 11 riders in all with a string of 23 horses on the Argentine side.

The hardest thing was riding on into the night, having been going for 11 hours, trusting that we would find our camp in the wilderness. The most dangerous - being attacked by ground bees in Chile. The most terrifying - when the lead horses sank deep into the mud when crossing a soda lake.  The funniest - watching Tristian Wood trying to catch an armadillo.

We saw wonderful sights -  parrots flying through the trees, great flocks of flamingos, herds of guanaco ~ gracile Patagonian lamas, a colony of hairy sea-lions on the coast, bright lightening cracking against open blue skies and all around us the ever-changing wide open desert.

The money donated will be very carefully spent and is greatly appreciated. 

Very many thanks again,

with love

Sophie

www.waterbergwelfaresociety.org.za

www.huechahue.com

www.rideworldwide.com

www.sophieneville.co.uk