Road trip to Estancia Harberton, Ushuaia

With our fine friends from the Beaver state - Oregon, USA, we rented a car and set out on a 100km drive down the coast from Ushuaia to Estancia Harberton. This farm was established in 1886, when the British missionary pioneer Thomas Bridges (1842-1898) resigned from the Anglican mission at Ushuaia, and was given 20,000 hectares of farm land at the very tip of Tiarra Del Fuego. 

The estancia was named after Harberton, Devon, the home of Thomas wife, Mary Ann Varder (1842-1922). Bridges was the author of a dictionary of the Yamana or Yaghan language, and their son Lucas Bridges (1874-1949) wrote 'The Uttermost Part of the Earth'' about his boyhood, the Yamana, and the family's adventures in getting the dictionary published in Europe.

Tommy Goodall (born 1933), is Thomas Bridges’s great-grandson, who still manages the estancia with his wife, American biologist Rae Natalie Prosser, with help from their daughter and her children. We we're taken on a tour of the estate by his grandson, also called Thomas (there is one in every generation), and it was a wonderful trip down memory lane, this place could have been a seaside house in Cornwall.

In fact the house itself was shipped as a wedding gift from Mary Ann Varder's family and was declared a national monument in 1999. They have a cute English tea room and little brick outbuildings, and an amazing garden planted with fruit trees and lupins. The huge sperm whale jaw used to create an arch over the garden gate is a reminder to the location of this outpost and the delicate wildlife both on the land and in the sea.

One of the surprise highlights of the trip, was a visit to the Museo Acatushún de Aves y Mamíferos Marinos Australes (Dolphin and Seabirds museum) just 500m from the main house. It is a working Museum/laboratory for the study of the basic biology of the marine mammals (mainly dolphins) and birds of the southern tip of South America. The result of over 34 years of scientific research by its founder, Natalie Goodall, the wife of Tommy Goodhall, the collection contains the skeletons of over 2700 marine mammals and 2300 birds.
All the skeletons have have come from animals found washed up and dead on the shores of Tiarra Del Fuego and Antarctica.

They are painstakingly stripped on their flesh in the 'BoneHouse', a brutally deathly house of bubbling blubber and bones. They are then catalogued and prepared by researchers from all over the world, who come here to intern and work with Natalie. They are sponsored by some big local oil players - Mobile and Total, but receive most of their income from donations. We spent an enlightening hour being show these amazing mammals by a super knowledgeable intern from Mar Del Plata. Check out the pics of the seals, they have four limbs just like humans, you wouldn't think the floppy tail of a seal contained two limbs!

Sailing the Beagle Channel - Argentina

The Beagle Channel separates Tierra del Fuego with the extreme south of South America and Chile. It's so named after HMS Beagle, the ship we brits sent to do a study of navigation channels to try and gain a trade advantage over the pesky Portuguese and Spaniards way back in 1826.

The Beagle was captained by FitzRoy who took Charles Darwin along for the ride - both now have islands down in Antarctica named after them and Fitz Roy also has a whole mountain up north to his name! When they reached the Beagle channel on 29 January 1833, he wrote "many glaciers beryl blue most beautiful contrasted with snow.''
From Ushuaia, that's exactly what we thought when we set sail out into the icey waters of the Beagle and embarked on a long voyage to H Island, the southern most tip of Argentina. H Island is one of many settlements used by the Yamana people for shelter and food over 10,000 years ago, today its a wildlife sanctuary and is a haven for Cormorants and Wild geese. Indeed we saw hundreds of nesting pairs with their new babies, surviving the brutal wind , powerful sun and ice cold snow.
Before H Island we were treated to a close encounter with a very large colony of seals, they lounge around on the rocks all day before going into the sea to gorge on shrimp and king crabs. We found out later that these amazing mammals go out to fish in the deep ocean trenches at the very edge of the continental plates, and can swim at depths of up to 2000m. Amazing.
This was Maudies first experience on a proper sail boat and she loved it as the mighty winds kicked in and pushed the vessel to a 30 degree angle with the water, I on the other hand was a little scared about falling in the ice cold Antarctic waters.... but put on my bravest face and stiffed my upper lip in homage of Cpt. Fitz Roy.
 

Views on Ushuaia - Argentina

Ushuaia, famed for being the gateway to Antarctica and southern most city in the world, was our base for exploring Tierra del Fuego. When the 120 kmph winds died down after the first day (the newspaper reassured us this was freak weather!) and the snow cleared, it was a pretty beautiful place to be. Ships and boats bobbing in the harbour and snowcapped mountains as far as the eye could see, Ushuaia is one of those places that grows on you. We stayed at a little hostel just outside of the city center, La Posta, meaning a place where Gauchos stopped to change their horses!

Between road and boat trips on the island, we spent rainy afternoons in Ushuaia's museums, soaked up the history in the town, strolled around the harbour and took a hike into the mountains for a pretty spectacular views over Cape Horn. Maybe one day we'll return for a trip the big voyage to Antarctica. Still, at just 1000km from the South Pole we got pretty close this time round, it certainly felt like it!

The last Yamana, Tierra del Fuego - Argentina

There is only one Yamana left to represent an incredible culture that lived in what must be one of the harshest places on earth. At 80 years old 'Abuela' Christina Calderon lives in Puerto Williams and is the last direct descendent and speaker of the Yamana language. Tierra del Fuego is a land seeped in history, the most fascinating (I think!) has to be the Yamana peoples and their relationship with Antarctic explorers, Europeans and missionaries. A relationship which led to their 'extinction' and to a museum we visited telling their story for them.

Nomads who didn't stray far from the coast, knew everything there was to know about their land (they had 8 different words for different kinds of snowfall) and travelled by canoe from island to island to collect food. Men hunted penguins, cormorants, and sea lions, whilst woman rowed and dove for shellfish. Washed up whales provided a feast. Huts built in sheltered coves or dips provided shelter.

The first and probably the last nudists of Cape Horn, the Yamana wore nothing. Relying on body fat, animal greese, knowing natural wind shelters, developing a naturally higher body temperature and keeping fires going to for warmth. Hence the European given name, Tierra del Fuego. We've been dressed up in duck-down coats and vilbram soles and still complaining about the bitter cold. I still don't know how they did it.

It was not until the 1800's, when Fitz Roy navigated the Beagle Channel aboard 'The Beagle' that things really changed for the Yamana. It's an amazing history. Everywhere we visited, we seem to have talked with someone about the Yamana. Our trip to Estancia Haberton where Bridges worked with 'the natives' and recorded the only Yamana dictionary and our sail to H-island where we saw Yamana middens (shelters) and fishing grounds has given us even more respect for these incredible people! Give them a google...

Journey to the end of the earth... Tierra del Fuego - Argentina

Final stop on the Patagonia trail had to be Tierra del Fuego. The 'land of fire' as named in 1520 by Portugese 'explorer' Magallen due to the Yamana Indians fires that kept their naked bodies warm. You can't get any further before journeying into icey Antarctica. Yesterday we took the 12-hour trip south from Chile, crossing the Strait of Magellan on a wild and windy ferry ride. Arriving in Tierra's main city Ushuaia last night - we were greated by 120 kmph winds, snow storms, bobbing boats and stormy seas - so I guess we'll wait to see what this island at the furthest reaches of the earth has to offer us!

Puerto Natales - Chile

I wasn't sure if Natales deserved a post, then thought we spent almost a week there! We don't have any NG worthy shots, mainly due to being holed up inside recovering from the trek and to the gail force winds and rains that blessed this little town daily.

On the shores of 'Last Sound Hope', it's a very rustic village (complete with authentic packs of dogs) once made its living from fishing, now the bigger money is in tourism... especially in December! It has charm though, and Hostel Kaweska was an ace hostel. Excentric owner Omar was a brilliant host - from cooking us awesome brekkies, practicising spanglish with me, to fixing my sunnies - his casa was our casa.

We also hung out with the hilarious Cory and Justin who lived at the trekking shop Erratic Rock round the corner, bumped into our US trekking buddies again, drank vino (of course!), wrote our crimbo cards (the town was full of Navidad tiendas) and treated ourselves to Cordero al Pato, delicious Patagonian lamb cooked over hot coals. Vive Chile!

Chile - Patagonia - Torres Del Paine National Park

Lady Florence Caroline Dixie (24 May 1855 – 7 November 1905), was the first tourist to the park alongside the British party whom accompanied her and in her book of 1880 she described the three towers as 'Cleopatra's Needles' - know known as the Torres del Paine.

It must have been amazing for her coming from Victorian England to see the Southern Patagonian Ice field and the huge glaciers: Grey, Dickson and Tyndall. Also the huge lakes with their vivid colours due to the rock flour from the glaciers suspended in their waters.

Why? Because even today we we're absolutely flabbergasted and the internet and magazines show it in glorious color. It's a very long way from the English hills and countryside, the flowers, lakes, animals and weather are out of control. They say you get four seasons in every day in Patagonia and it's true - sun, snow, rain, wind - all pushed to the limits. Blazing hot, super cold, huge 90mph gusts of wind, horizontal rain. There really is something not right about this place, yet it holds itself together and 000's of people come to see it every year.

Being extremists when it comes to pushing the limits, we set out to do both the Circuit route and the 'W' - both should take around 10 days. We did 135km in all conditions in just 5 nights, a brutal exhibition of endurance and solidarity - we hiked and climbed with all our food and gear on our backs.

Day one took us to the mighty Cleopatra's Needles, and camping in the woods. Sunrise didn't bring National Geographic style photos of the towers lit up in red early morning sunshine, but the snow capped trek to the summit and views of sunshine washed rock were moving!

Day two took us around the right side of the park, in the lowlands and grassy valleys following bright blue and turquoise rivers to a wonderful grassy camping spot called Seron.

Day three pushed us through the valley to largo Dickson and the mighty glacier, then through the steeply sided forest valley past crashing waterfalls and wind ripped trees to campsite Los Perros, in the shadow of a huge ancient glacier perched 1000m up on the mountain side.

Day four was not for kids. We had to push ourselves up through the notorious John Garner pass, a snow and rock swathed landscape with winds of up to 100mph pushing us over razor sharp jagged rocks and rivers of fresh glacial water. At the summit we were rewarded with the most amazing view of our lives - the Grey Glacier, a solid landscape of ice frozen for an eternity and stretching some 10km across the valley, and up it as far as the eye could see. As the ice reached largo Grey, huge icebergs would break off and float about the blue lake like marshmallows atop hot chocolate.

Day five took us all the way along lago Grey to the second valley on the W and camp Italiano, on route we bumped into some of our friends from treks in Bariloche! we're going to try and hook up in Ushuaia (next stop down near the Antartic). The views of the lakes really are special and everytime you look up, seeing the snow capped peaks feels mysterious and special. After walking 22k and setting up camp at Italiano, we decided to do the 12k round trip up the valley to see Glacier Francia and the windswept views of the towers from the other side. The views down the valley of the lakes and the towers at sunset were beautiful.

Day six was the home straight, tired, cold, exhausted and looking forward to home we set off on the 18km walk around lake Nordenskjold at 8am to get the 2pm bus back to Puerto Natales, once on, it was only a matter of seconds before we passed out....

Torres del Paine National Park - what an adventure

El Chalten and Los Glaciares National Park

Our first proper camping and trekking expedition down here in Patagonia took us to the wonderful town of El Chalten and the nearby Los Glaciares National Park.
We decided on a three day two night trek covering some 50km of tracks and trails up to the majestic Cerro Fitz Roy standing some 3405m high. This sheer lump of rock is a beast and commands respect, the weather was constantly changing but we managed to get a good day to hike - one without rain! and the sun was just perfect watching it set over the peaks.

Camp number one was surrounded by forest, which we thought would offer us protection. But the morning we were packing up the wind was so vicious that it ripped a 10m branch with a 35 inch diameter clear off a tree - right in front of us!! Then we realised why all the trees were ripped to shreds in the area, the wind is CRAZY!

Day two took us to Lago Torre and the big glacier that dumps huge chunks of ice into the lake, we trekked up the valley and set up a nice camp where we cooked more nice pasta and soup in our little tent as we were subjected to non stop rain from 2pm to 6am - at least the tent held up!
The following day we went the long way back to El Chalten and dived into our welcoming hostel to have hot showers and fresh warm cups of Yorkshire tea, it was a welcoming taste of home after a long, windy few days.

The views are outstanding, the glaciers are like slow moving sculptures capturing moments in history as they creak and grow and the fresh wild landscape puts everything into perspective.

We loved it.