Mission over, Southern Patagonia

March 17 1998


I’m back again after a month of trekking. There is much to say, so let’s start at the beginning. Almost exactly a month ago, I strolled out of Punta arenas beneath a laden trekking pack. It took a rather lengthy 4 days to hitch the 700 odd kilometres to Ushuaia. However, this is not really a fair reflection on the hitching in this part of the world, as I was hitching with an Israeli girl, and the two of us got put up for 2 days on the way in the house of a local nature lover in the tiny settlement of Lago Escondido (hidden lake). We got to drive to remote sections of Tierra del Fuego that there was no other way I would have visited. However, despite the opportunity, I am relishing my independence at present, and it was with some relief that we finally got to Tierra del Fuego national Park, close to Ushuaia. Here I did a wonderful 5 days of relaxed trekking. Initially I walked from one campsite in the park to another. The stroll along the Beagle channel was particularly good, with Albatrosses circling 5 metres away. Once I left the national park, I headed backcountry, completing a 3-day trek in the mountains behind Ushuaia. It was really good to be totally alone, for even in Torres del Paine, one never gets far from the ski poles and Gore-Tex clad crowds of trekkers. I got into Ushuaia dirty and happy, and took a couple of outrageously expensive days cleaning up and visiting the sites of this beautifully located town. However, I had a schedule to keep to, and thus started out to Calafate. The hitching in Argentina is definitely slower than Chile, and it took all day to get a lift to Tolhuin, only 100km away. However, I got an excellent chap, owner of the local radio station. He was very good-humoured, and despite our lack of a common language, I spent the night with his family. There is a deforestation problem in the town development around Tolhuin, and we cruised around looking at it before going to the local council, where I pretended to be a Green Peace representative, and scared the lot silly. Lotsa fun!! Two Days later I was in Calafate. Here I only stayed a single night, picking up with an excellent Australian. The two of us ended up trekking together for 14 days in the Fitz Roy area of The Los Glaciers National park. We met up here with Moses (of Isla Navarino fame) as planned. Initially we had real grotty weather. Floods had just struck the entire region, and someone was drowned on the morning we walked in. However, we had time, and spent more than a couple of days just sitting in tents waiting for the weather to clear. Our Patience was well rewarded. After a couple of attempts to get up the mountain and closer to the 2km high canine of Fitzroy resulted only in us getting to see a lot of snow falling (or whistling past horizontally as it is prone to do in these Southern latitudes) we eventually got amazing views of both Fitzroy and the Cerro Torre. These needles of igneous rock were enamelled white from the recent storms, and we spent whole mornings just looking up at them. We then restocked in the tiny hamlet of EL Chalten ,and headed South to the viewpoint of Glacier Viedma, the largest in South America. Spectacular though this was, one cannot get closer than 5km away, and that after a 22-km walk. But the weather was warm and stable and thus we thoroughly enjoyed the stop. From here we headed cross-country, far from recognised paths to get into the valley of lago Toro, and a day later up to the viewpoint at Paso los viento to look onto the continental ice sheet. All three of us were perhaps a little disappointed with the sheet, having hoped for a flat plain of ice. Instead a high and very steep ridge, plastered with ice lay only 5 or 10 km away. It was still an awesome spectacle, and one I will no doubt remember fondly. All that remained was a hard days walk out and a wordlessly beautiful drive back towards Calafate. Back in Calafate I did the obligatory cruise to the Glacier Peito Moreno. Awe-inspiring as this was, it was a little difficult to me to be a tourist again. After nearly a month of unrestricted freedom to see and do what I want, to be forced to experience the Glacier within the caged confines of sanitised viewpoints was a little disappointing. Yesterday saw the 13-hour trip to here, Punta arenas. I am gathering my motley collection of clothes, and washing and organising. In a couple days I am off to Sarmineto, and then on to Chile and the Carreterra Austral. How long it will take, and how much trekking I will do remains to be seen, But I would like to be in Santiago by my birthday, 24th of April. Then on to Mendoza to detox after 6 months, and then north to Bolivia