Patagonia has been shaped and defined by glaciers. The glacial valleys are bought to life from geography lessons and look like the worlds largest rockery. Gravel, rocks and boulders strewn haphazardly over the valley floor supporting coloured plants, grasses and flowers. It looks far more beautiful than any man made rockery I have seen.
We are based out of the town of El Calafate on the shore of a lake for our visit to a famous glacier; Perito Morino. It's famous for three reasons; it's huge, calves icebergs regularly and is still advancing (rare outside of the polar regions).
The national park set up around the glacier was impressive, very well done. We had a boat ride to get really close to the glacier, it's several stories high and the ice is really spectacular close up.
Jagged peaks, deep blues and very eerie noises as the wall of ice groans and cracks down the valley at an average place of 2.5 meters a day.
This rate of advancement means lots of icebergs floating in the water around the boat, titanic film quotes all round :)
The best part of the day was when we were back on land just sitting for an hour on the walkways opposite the snout of the glaciers north edge watching it calve icebergs, glass of Malbec in hand.
A fantastically addictive thing to watch as you try to guess which piece will fall off next and look to the right place fast enough when you hear the gun fire like noise of another crack appearing. It requires a lot of patience to catch one on camera but we managed.
It was when we were watching the glacier that we had chance to see the way Argentinians take their Mate, a type of tea. A small round wooden bowl is filled with all types of loose herbs hot water is added and then the liquid drunk from the bowl with a metal straw with a tea strainer type attachment at the bottom to stop you getting the leaves in what you drink. I may have to buy myself one!
One of the pieces of advice we've been given since we arrived in patagonia was to keep applying high factor sun cream. The only land any further South than here is Antarctica and the hole on the ozone layer is pretty massive, so you won't tan you will burn really badly and damage your skin. The hotels and tourist attractions had clear UV ratings each day and SPF recommendations, which never dropped below 50.
Staying in El Calafate meant Calafate berries were very much on the menu. Sauces, ice cream and drinks (Calafate Pisco sour anyone?) all contained the berry, and eating one you pick whilst out walking is supposed to mean that you will return to patagonia some day. They tasted a bit like a young and sour blueberry.
The town had a beautiful lake view with a wonderful variety of bird life
We then travelled down to Puerto Natales. It involved crossing the border from Argentina into Chile, a fairly simple if lengthy process. It's a town that felt like a cross between frontier town and ski resort. A cold, cold wind, far more than its fair share of outdoor clothing shops, tin roofed buildings, big 4x4s and restaurants with rustic wooden interiors and open fires or stoves. The reason for all this is that many of the people are only there to use the town as a base for trekking in the nearby Torres del Paine national park, which was our plan too.
We spend an evening stocking up on carbs, snacks, water and warm sleeping bags (the summer weight ones we had with us clearly weren't going to cut it here). I was also still nursing a bad cough, the aftermath of a nasty sinus cold, so I packed lots of cold remedies and hoped for the best.
The drive out of town into the national park as spectacular enough
We also saw the guanaco, the fourth and final cameloid in South America. We'd already bagged llama, alpaca and vicuña in other countries and landscapes.
Day one of the hike was uphill to the grey glacier view point. It was a very windy 10k walk through lovely countryside. Gusts of up to 120kph.
The glacier was beautiful
But I preferred the bright blue icebergs, blue as they were freshly calved on a very cold day.
The day ended at a big campsite with restaurant and bar, which was very welcome, even though the pre pitched north face tents we had booked were excellent the high wind and cold meant it was really good to escape into the warm to eat, have a glass of wine and discuss the days adventure. The sleeping bag was as good as the tent as I slept like a baby, very warm and cosy, through what sounded like a hurricane outside. Even Matt was happy in a tent, after he found he could buy beer
Day two saw us up early for eggs and hot coffee in the campsite canteen before a 22k hike to a view point over the French valley glacier. I don't think I have ever woken to a better view.
The walk was stunning, although much of the forest was burnt a few years ago thanks to a handful of idiots and an illegal campfire
There were lots of glacial rivers to refill your water bottles
And some wonderfully terrifying rope bridges to cross.
We climbed up and up through very rocky woodland
All to see the French glacier
And watch the avalanches
Sadly it started raining as we turned back to head home. And I got soaked as no matter how good your goretex 4 hours trekking in the rain will always get you wet. And on Patagonia soaked means cold very quickly, so I changed into warm dry clothes at camp before we hopped on a ferry to a new base campsite for the next days adventure.
The new camp was fabulous; hot showers, lovely shared eating area with a wood burning stove perfect for drying wet things. So after a good feed I was ready for another great nights sleep.
Day three again greeted us with a brilliant morning view and a brilliant breakfast.
Sadly some light wheezing and hearty coughing signalled all was not well with my lungs after yesterday's exertions and chill.
It was due to be the toughest trek of the three days up a glacier valley and then a rocky mulrain to get a good view of the mountains. I halved the trek and missed out the steep mulrain as breathing was painful going uphill. Dreadfully disappointing, but for the best in the long run I suspect.
Still the view was not at all bad
And the climb in question pretty daunting
The day ended well back in town with a gaucho roast lamb dinner. Roasted for 8 hours or more by an open fire; the best lamb I have ever tasted!
No comments:
Post a Comment