Erg what a day, running around dealing with bloody mechanics whose own cars breakdown, mending ball joints and replacing tyres. All part of the fun. Rice & Beans was an ok place, bit noisy, bit leaky, but I’m sitting in a yurt – a wigwam, basically – at Ignacio Springs just up the road, run by Gary and Terry from Canada. And it’s quite blissful. The weather is a bit moody, and it’s bloody freezing, literally hypothermia-inducing cold, in the desert at night, so my enthusiasm for getting mules down into the canyon to look at caves, going on hefty treks, and camping out, has been slightly, erm, dampened.

Looks like we took out a nearside lower bush on the car while driving on Baja’s worst road. Ah well, better it goes now than in the middle of nowhere. On top of that, found a nail AND a screw in the offside front tyre. No love for the front end today.

Luckily Nico Lopez appears to be a top, top man.

Ricardo, right, runs this place, a hotel, RV stop and bar, an official stop on the Baja 1000 rally. Top fella, top place. Sadly, we’re the only ones drinking tonight, at half-nine, as all the other residents are too old to be out late. i.e. They’re over 50.

Made it to Pachico’s for some whale watching. All good, nice people, minor annoyance of some oblivious teenage girl whistling five notes over and over.

The route to the lagoon is rough enough to make you question the sanity of anyone who drives it in an ordinary passenger car. For the most part, it’s bumpy as hell, but the fast sandy bits make up for it. Time to go watch some whales…

Edit: just been told it’s the worst road in Baja. Marvellous.

This is a correctly-constructed margarita. It should be too heavy to casually lift with the unassisted hand. Hence the straw. Margaritas should only be drunk between 6am and 10am, hence getting a nasty stare from the barstaff when I ordered one.

Heading south on Highway 1. We realize that we’ve left a phone behind in the hotel room. Time to head back and leave early tomorrow instead.

I clocked Sergio a few days ago, carrying this wicked-ass Polaroid, so I definitely wanted one of his pictures.

Time to get out into the sun.