The stage wound through the mountains around Tucuman, encountering dry, barren moonscapes high in the ranges, two national parks, and vibrant, luck green forest.

Riders and drivers alike were left stranded throughout the course, which took them through narrow canyon passes with hundred-metre high walls, undulating, twisting bitumen and breathtaking forestry.

Warren Strange said that the scenery almost took his mind off the job. “It was fantastic!” he gushed. “You wouldn’t believe the stuff they made us race through! I kept looking at the scenery down in the big crevasses, I would fall down if I made a mistake. And the bitumen road section, this windy bitumen road, I was getting my knee down, having a ball!”

Strange’s positive demeanour was even more surprising given that he suffered a small tumble, and then something he saw as a bit of a personal affront. “I had a spill with the bike understeering and diving, so I just wound back a bit and kept it steady. I passed a couple of guys, but then a quad passed me. A quad! Would you believe it?”

Warren came home 34th in today’s stage, and with an incorrect time penalty expected to be reversed overnight, his position could improve.

Still racking up solid results, Bruce Garland made a small mistake today, though his first comments on arrival at the bivouac may explain why.

“How many bloody hot chicks are there here?! It’s insane, where do they come from? They’re all out in the middle of nowhere too!” Garland grinned before explaining his day.

“The first 50ks had a lot of fesh-fesh, and I got stuck,” he explained. “I lost concentration, wasn’t paying attention to what I was supposed to be doing and we lost about 5 or 10 minutes. That meant we got stuck behind slow guys for about 100ks.” Always pragmatic, Garland adopted some cryptic philosophy when asked, where to from here.

“Now I’m doing my washing, so my clothes are clean again for tomorrow,” he said.

Fellow four-wheeled racers Geoff Olholm and Steve Riley were left frustrated, but still smiling after today’s stage.

The X-Raid 3.0 BMW Diesel suffered diff problems on the stage, and a bit of Aussie nouse was employed to dig the Coconut machine out of the stage.

Olholm says his experience helped him cross the major stage obstacles cleanly: “The first part was all fesh-fesh, and it was so deep cars were stuck everywhere from getting stuck everywhere, and doing damage in the wash outs, but we’ve seen it in the Safari, so we just took it easy and didn’t even bottom out there.”

“We were going really good, and other cars were getting stuck everywhere so we were probably somewhere in the top 20,” Olholm explained.

“We were going good and big noises started coming out of the front diff. Then it got too noisy so we put some diff oil in which lasted for about 40 or 50ks then it locked up solid again. So we changed the transfer case into diff lock which gave us drive for another 50ks, then it locked up solid, so we had to pull everything out, take the drive shafts out, then put it back together and go on in two wheel drive mode for 250 odd ks,” Olholm explained with his now trademark grin.

“So we dropped 40 or 50 minutes which is a shame. We weren’t driving hard you know? It’s one of those things that shouldn’t break. Our Pajero in Australia is much stronger, so it’s disappointing,” Olhom said. “At least Steve didn’t chuck up today!”

Steve Riley says he was helped out by some local Argentine fans. “This argentine mountain bushie bloke just appeared out of nowhere and dove under the car!” he said. “He was brilliant too!

Mountain bushy, Mark Davidson is not. The GHR pilot suffered today from altitude sickness, a debilitating illness that afflicts most first-time mountain goers.

“We got up to 3800 metres, and you know when you get a nano-nap when you’re driving and you’re fatigued? I was racing, and I couldn’t stay awake, and I had a really big headache plus fatigue until lunch time, then we came back down the mountain and I was fine again.” Davidson explained.

“It took me 13 hours today!” he exclaimed. “And when those cars come past, not only do you hear them, you feel them. I hear the sentinel and I get off the track and stop, and they come past like rocket ships. One came past today at like 150. It was scary. Scary scary na-nas!"

Davidson’s teammate, Jacob Smith dropped one spot today, again missing a vital change to the road book and losing time to recover a way point.

“I Started out taking it easy because the navigation was pretty hard, and I was going alright but then I went off to pick up a way-point,” he explained. “I had missed it in the driver’s briefing, I didn’t actually have to pick it up so I lost a bit of time there riding down in the valley to get it.”

In 22nd position, Smith is the first of the Aussie riders, and arguably the most competitive. He is visibly frustrated about the two way-point issues he’s suffered this rally.

“I got caught out on the way-point changes on the first day, that’s why I was late to the first stage. You’ve got to be on it, and I’m learning quick but there is a lot to learn! Next year I should be right.”

From a rookie to a veteran, Simon Pavey said there were two sides to his third stage. “One, it was a really good fun special, and the places we went were absolutely beautiful.” He explained. “I can’t describe it because it kept changing so much it was incredible. But I didn’t have a good day. The rear sub-frame broke, if I knew why I’d be a happy man.”

“I stopped really early, so every single bloody quad got past me. Then I passed them, and it happened again, and they went through again. I passed every quad in the field twice today! “

Pavey, and the Coconut Resort race crew, now face a long night of work to get their vehicles back out for stage four's early morning start and convoy out to the Chilean border.

“We’re running out of hours here so I’ll have to mend and make do and then get ready for it tomorrow,” he said.