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Published: August 8th 2006
It was a very long journey down to Puerto Madryn on the northern edge of the Patagonian region. We arrived in the afternoon, leaving us the morning to stare out of the window of the coach and marvel at the sheer nothingness of the barren landscape before us. Puerto Madryn is definitely an upmarket beach resort which would be lovely in the Summer but it does manage to lure visitors in the winter, principally because the Golfo Nuevo bay is the home of the Southern Right Whale during its breeding season! The whales escape from the cold Antartic waters at the beginning of June to bathe in this secluded bay which receives warm tidal fronts from the North, just off the coast of Brazil. Whales continue to arrive up until July as the ecoystem is sufficiently filled with crill to support a large community and from here the breeding season begins until the end of September.
In addition to whales, Puerto Madryn is also home to a large number of people with Welsh ancestors! In 1865, 153 Welsh settlers arrived aboard the ship Mimosa, with the aim of setting up a Welsh-speaking colony away from the influence of England. The
The Patgonian Wilds
Nothing, as far as the eye can see.Argentine government, under the direction of Interior Minister Guillermo Rawson, had agreed to give them 100 square miles (260 km²) of land along the Chubut River in exchange for settling the land of the still-unconquered Patagonia for Argentina. Although Peurto Madryn is very much an Argentinian beach resort today, a short bus ride takes you to the rural village of Gaiman which retains its Welsh roots. This is evidenced in the 'Y Ddraig Goch' ('the red dragon') flag in shop windows, business with proprietors named Thomas or Williams and conveniently for the homesick UK tourist, numerous tea houses. We made a fleeting visit for afternoon tea and were made to feel very at home by the elderly owner who plied us with a bottomless pot of tea, too many slices of cake and tried to start a conversation in Welsh with us! Needless to say, we now know more Spanish!
We arranged a tour of the Peninsula Valdes which included a boat launch into the Golfo Neuvo to take a peak at any whales that had arrived. When we set off on our tour we were hit with the foreboding news that there was only a small chance that
we would actually be able to go whale watching as the winds were too strong to take the boat out - the only hope was that things would calm down by high tide at 4pm. Typical! As we'd already booked our bus tickets for the day after, there was no chance that we'd be able to defer the trip, so today had to be the day. As neither of us have seen a whale before, we were so disheartened that when any land-based wildlife were pointed out to us, including a pack of elephant seals, we weren't too enthusiastic. We wanted whales!! At 4pm, we established that no boats were being launched and we would have to try and whale spot from the coastline. As we drove along our spirits were elevated as soon as we suddenly caught site of a huge tail fin crashing into the water. As we scanned across the bay we saw one, two, three, four, more whales, too numerous to focus on just one at a time! As the tide was high, it was even possible to walk onto the beach and take a look at a huge pod of whales that were playfully swimming
5 metres from the shore - I think they were more curious of us. It was just fantastic to see their fins gliding across the waves, their tails fins perpendicular to the water as they nose dived and of course to see their heads pop up as they emerge for their next breath of air and their trademark v-shaped spray. We were so enchanted we stood and watched for nearly an hour - Laura even admits to shedding a few gleeful tears!
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