Shackleton and Bean's Patagonian Adventure

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Travelling down to the southern most tip of South America we have embarked upon an epic journey through Patagonia. We have travelled through the most spectacular scenery by aeroplane, bus and mostly foot. We have experienced extremes of hot and cold and moved from crystalline mountain lakes to thunderous collapsing glaciers. The trip has even managed to reconnect me with my secondary school education. Last but not least we have crossed into Argentina, the final country of our south American voyage, where we are getting to grips with a new variation of Spanish and an even greater aversion to vegetarian food than previously encountered.

Unable to take the Navimag ferry down to Patagonia we instead opted for yet another internal flight down to Punta Arenas. This cold, windy but attractive city sits on the Magellan straights, which before the Panama Canal was the quickest way to cross the American continent by sea. It coincidentally turned out to be the place from where Sir Ernest Shackleton arranged the rescue mission for his crew after epically escaping the Antarctic, where his ship the Endurance was broken up by ice in 1915. I say coincidentally because my secondary school was divided into four houses, each one named after a famous explorer and I was put into Shackleton. In hindsight, this has proved to be very prophetic in a Harry Potter Sorting Hat kind of way. I think over the course of this trip we have lived up to the standards the great man, having had our travels beset by various fairly major disasters caused, in no small part, by bad planning and overestimating what is in fact possible. Just like the great man however, we have struggled through and been pretty successful in recovering situations to end up having a frankly great experience. We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours in the bar of the hotel where Shackleton stayed whilst organising the rescue trip, and were able to find out a fair amount about him through the various items of memorabilia that adorned the walls. My old house master would have been so proud....

In light of this new found information we decided to take on the pseudonyms of Admiral Joseph Shackleton and Captain Llinos Bean (??) for our trip through Patagonia. There was a danger of course that having an admiral and a captain on a single voyage would cause conflict. As it turned out the demotion of Captain Bean to the rank of Cabin Girl for the first half of the trip and the subsequent role reversal as time passed by, led to a smooth chain of command at all times. The first port of call was Isla Magdellena in the Magellan straights. The island is home to over 130,000 very charismatic and smelly penguins. Travelling over to the island on a boat that rivalled those on Lake Titicaca for abject slowness, we arrived a grassy hill of an island with one lighthouse and a heavy covering of squawking penguins. The visual spectacle was made all the more amazing by the 4 week old chicks, still covered in the fluffy grey feathers of youth, cowering from the biting winds in the cave nests dug into the soil. Much like the Galapagos the penguins had no fear of the humans as they amusingly waddled backwards and forwards over the path, causing a great deal of congestion amongst the tourists. This lack of fear shows a great deal of either forgiveness or stupidity on the part of the penguins, as the exhibition in the lighthouse showed that in years gone by they were often clubbed to death before being eaten by passing sailors. Still what’s done is done and I’m sure the original Shackleton would have commended the 2 admirals on their over enthusiastic photography and forgiven them their lack of clubbing skills.

Our next mission was trekking the 'W' trek in the Torres Del Paine national park. This particular trip was initiated at the behest of Captain Bean who had been raving about it for a good couple of months. Admiral 'Victor' Shakleton was rather sceptical about the prospect of 5 days trekking, a pastime he largely considers only enjoyable for those whom can’t do anything else more fun. Not for the first time though Shackleton´s preconceptions proved to be quite incorrect and we ended up having an exhausting 5 days through some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen. In fact, I would have to rate it along with the Galapagos as possibly being a trip highlight, despite being more of a wildlife addict than a scenery junkie myself. The soring mountains, stripped with different types of rocks are unlike anything else I have ever seen. The mineral ladened lakes that surround them shimmer with an array of fantastic colours and only the prospect of the piercingly cold water temperature quells the overwhelming desire to dive into them. Giant condors float effortlessly overhead whilst booming cracks command you to whirl around and watch spectacular avalanches cascading down nearby mountains. Glaciers stretching as far as the eye can see exude a deep blue glow from within their mazy rugged exterior and let out huge claps of thunder as monstrous chunks of ice break off, crashing into and causing tidal waves over the lakes below. You really couldn’t fit much more natural beauty into a single national park.

You don’t get something for nothing in life and in order to witness all these sights we had to do an awful lot of walking. There are no roads and most lakes don’t run boat services. The only way to get around is along the foot breaking rocky paths that wind their way up and down across the landscape. The route is 75 kilometres in total but constantly goes up and down with some very, very steep bits where in effect you are scrambling upwards over large rocks. Although starting the trip full of beans the Captain began to ache and slow down by the second day. As the day wore on Captain Bean found herself continually demoted down to the rank of cabin girl for trekking more like a broad bean than a runner bean. The sharp stones that lined the path really ate into our feet, which ended the days covered in blisters. The stunning surroundings kept our spirits up and by the 4th day the jelly beans in Cabin Girl Bean's legs had all but gone and it became the Admiral who started to struggle and allegedly started to whinge. With our roles reversed the new Admiral bounced along the track like a Mexican jumping bean with me trailing along behind. I suspect it was the scorching temperatures that got to me but Admiral bean suggests it may be down to my ever expanding midriff.

The hard walking was rewarded each day by finishing up at one of the stunning refugios, where we spent the nights. These were more like hotels than the basic accommodation I was expecting. They had hot showers, good food and most importantly cheap wine. The main difference between these places and a hotel was that everyone sleeps in dormitories. The dorms generally held 6- 8 people but had bunks that went up 3 levels with the top level being particularly hair-raising to get up to, particularly with one arm. We were able to rent sleeping bags there as well which meant the bags we carried round with us were tiny. This was in marked contrast to the massive tent ladened rucksacks that many crazy fools were lugging around the park. We found the trekking tiring enough as it was and how you could enjoy it carrying half a house round on your back was beyond us. Flash-packing in the refugios was quite an expensive option but in terms of location and views you probably couldn’t find a hotel to match them in the rest of the world. The Cuernos lodge on the second night was my particular favourite, sitting on the banks of a huge pale blue lake with two massive granite peaks towering over it. There was a small pebble beach you could walk down to, from which you could skim rocks into the waves of the lake, whilst being blown backwards by the wind... It was amazing. The final refugio was at Glacier Grey and served as a warning about global warming. When the refugio was built it over looked the glacier but now the glacier is over an hours walk away to where it has retreated. It's still vast, stretching as far as you can see as its snakes its way between the mountains, but at that rate of retreat it could be significantly smaller in the space of a century.

Even the most hardy of travellers need a little pampering from time to time so arriving back at the town of Puerto Natales the two admirals decided not to return to their original hostel and instead book into the most expensive place in town. It must be said that this decision laid more at the aching feet of Admiral Bean but I too was glad not to return to the same hostel which stank of gas and was run by a very peculiar family who I feared wanted us for the white slave trade. After nearly a month in Chile a gaping hole had been blown into my previously content wallet, so the further outpouring of cash to an over priced hotel didn’t seem to register as painful. The 3 promised Jacuzzis on the roof turned out to be cold but at least the shower was nice. My wallet was more than pleased that this was our last day in Chile. It has had a miserable time here and has spent (pun intended) the whole time grumbling away in my pocket. On reflection, I think for the money you spend only the southern tip of Chile is worth visiting. Santiago was great because we knew people but there’s not that much there and in comparison to the south even the Lake District seemed a little tame. If anyone were thinking of going I would take a flight straight down south and save yourself a fortune.

The following day, the two admirals set off across the border and into Argentina, the final country of this epic trip. We arrived at the town of El Calafate, which seems very serene if a little crowded. It’s the first time on this trip that we have crossed into a different country and not really been able to notice a discernable difference from the country we just left. The big attraction here is the Perito Moreno glacier, which is the most active glacier in Patagonia. We were sold on the image of a glacier with huge walls, which were constantly collapsing into the lake below. When our guide told us that our bus was approaching what he called 'The Breath-Taking Bend' we began to suspect the worst and the day did prove to be a slight disappointment. The glacier was big but wasn’t doing much collapsing apart from the odd tiny bit of ice and the crashing thunder of splitting ice we had anticipated never occured. I would equate the day to going to those 2 pence machines in British seaside arcades. You just keep watching these perilously balanced coins hanging on the edge, looking as if it was impossible for them not to spill over and crash down into the slot below but they very rarely do. Just before we left a huge tower did collapse and was very spectacular but by that point we were frozen through and ready for home.

All in all it’s been a ruddy good few days. It’s been a pleasant experience to go a few days without nearly losing my new bride to some natural disaster or other. More and more people seem to be struggling with our names down south. I have had a trip booked under the name of Joseph Wally while poor Nos has been Limon Owen and Nina Owen. We now set off for our next big mission, which will be in search of the lesser-spotted Welshman in the wilds of North Patagonia. Nos is somewhat more excited about this than me but I’m sure the two admirals will have a fine old time there..

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Photos

Torres del Paine
The granite peaks after which the park is named.

In the Shackleton bar
Nearly as far south as you can get...and you thought the good name of Charlton Athletic could not get any lower.

Refugios
This group of Brazilians doing the same route, made the trip very entertaining.

Glacier Collapse
After a long days wait!

Comments

[Lucy and Jon]

On the front again!!!
Hiya guys. Got your comment, cheers. Not surprised to see you are on the front AGAIN!!! Really good pics of the avalanche and glaciar collapses. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Buenos Aires is great!

[Andrew T]

Amazing photo!
Saw your blog on the front page and was poking around... thank you for getting that picture of the avalanche - siply amamzing! Keep chasing those amazing experiences and sharing them with the world! /intotheworld